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Spazito

(55,154 posts)
Fri Mar 28, 2025, 10:22 AM Friday

From taboo to tactic: How strategic voting could shake up this election

Alvin Finkel still remembers the day he was kicked out of the NDP.

The lifelong New Democrat from Edmonton had been running a website during Alberta's 2012 provincial election to consolidate progressive votes behind certain Liberal, NDP and Alberta Party candidates.

snip

The argument was simple: if left-of-centre urban voters concentrated their ballots behind one person, rather than splitting between three parties, they stood a better chance of winning.

It's a much-maligned practice known as strategic voting — and among smaller political parties, it's borderline heresy.

"All parties have this notion that you're supposed to park your brains at the front door and assume that your party could win," he said.

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/from-taboo-to-tactic-how-strategic-voting-could-shake-up-this-election-1.7495076

I've always voted strategically, with few exceptions, in order to try and keep out the Cons no matter where I have lived. It is rare for me to be able to vote for a candidate instead of voting against one. If the NDP candidate has a better chance of winning than the Liberal one then I vote NDP and vice versa.

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From taboo to tactic: How strategic voting could shake up this election (Original Post) Spazito Friday OP
Reason why US states should allow non party aligned primaries. I hate in PA that I have to be party registered & can... dutch777 Friday #1
You make a really good point... Spazito Friday #2
I lived in WA state and you could be non aligned and vote any way. Parties hated it but many liked it. dutch777 Friday #3
And Musk gets our info. GreenWave Friday #4

dutch777

(4,172 posts)
1. Reason why US states should allow non party aligned primaries. I hate in PA that I have to be party registered & can...
Fri Mar 28, 2025, 10:30 AM
Friday

...only vote for candidates from that party in the primary. While most times I would vote Dem anyway, there are times where I would rather be registered Independent and vote strategically to get a weak Repug candidate selected in the primary. Of course that can cut both ways, so that is a danger. But as backwards as we are in PA, probably won't change in my lifetime.

Spazito

(55,154 posts)
2. You make a really good point...
Fri Mar 28, 2025, 10:35 AM
Friday

we don't have to be identified with a specific party at all in order to vote which is a form of freedom I hadn't thought about until your post.

dutch777

(4,172 posts)
3. I lived in WA state and you could be non aligned and vote any way. Parties hated it but many liked it.
Fri Mar 28, 2025, 10:40 AM
Friday

And I did sometimes vote in primaries for least winnable Repug hoping to have better odds for the Dem in the general election. The pollsters also hate it as thy can't get an accurate sense of the voter trend lines as easily from the primary. I have no sympathy for pollsters. I just like Dems winning.

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