Vote splitting: Difference between revisions

Vote splitting as an issue is usually confined to [[first-past-the-post]] voting systems such as those used by the [[United Kingdom]], the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] - it is not generally an issue in countries which use [[party-list proportional representation|proportional represenation]] such as [[Germany]]. [[Preferential voting]] systems like the one in [[Australia]] also tend to eliminate vote splitting as an issue.

In the [[United States]], a famous example of a split vote occurred in the [[U.S. presidential election, 2000|2000 U.S. Presidential Election]] when [[Green Party]] candidate [[Ralph Nader]] attracted voters who might otherwise have voted for [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] candidate [[Al Gore]] because of the similar [[liberal]] platforms of both candidates. Because of the very narrow margin of victory of [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]] candidate [[George W. Bush]] over Gore, many blamed Nader's candidacy for causing his loss and thus being a [[spoiler effect|spoiler]] (although the votes that went to the eighth-place candidate in the contested state of [[Florida]] could have potentially covered the split).