Third party candidate wins electoral college vote

America's two-party political system makes it difficult for candidates from outside the Republican and Democratic parties to win. How is the president elected if the electoral vote ends in a tie or no candidate reaches electoral votes? In the 59 presidential elections since , third party or independent candidates have won at least % of the vote or garnered.

18 rows · The last third-party candidate to win a state was George Wallace of the American Estimated Reading Time: 10 mins. Johnson received nearly million votes (% of the total vote), which is the most for a third-party presidential candidate since and the highest national vote share for a Libertarian candidate in history. Election to the presidency requires an absolute majority of the electoral votes. The absolute majority requirement makes it extremely difficult for a third-party candidate to win the presidency because the individual states’ electoral votes are allocated under a winner-take-all arrangement (with two exceptions).

The last third-party candidate to win one or more states was George Wallace of the American Independent Party in , while the most recent third-party candidate to win more than % of the vote was Ross Perot, who ran as an independent and as the standard-bearer of the Reform Party in and , respectively. Jill Stein, the Green party candidate who was on the ballot in 45 states and DC, only received 1% of the popular vote. Americans did not vote for third-party candidates because of the truism that a third-party candidate cannot win a national election. The reason for this is the Electoral College and it is time, and they are right. The last third-party candidate to win a state was George Wallace of the American Independent.

Imagine this scenario. However, disaffected Republicans run a third-party candidate. In the presidential election Clinton wins a plurality but not a majority of the popular vote. A third-party candidate would likely hurt Trump more than Clinton. Clinton likewise wins a plurality but not a majority of votes in the Electoral College.