David Nir, at Daily Kos, has collected the congressional and gubernatorial races last week in which the winner polled less than 50% of the vote. He tries to analyze which major party was helped by the presence of the minor party and independent candidates in the race. See here.
Gee – which extremist factions will produce the most extremist incumbents ???
It is impossible to know how any voter might have voted (or not voted at all) if she or he did not vote for the person they did without asking her or him. (This is one reason why IRV is so powerful. You don’t need to speculate. The weighted results incorporate all preferences of everyone.) Among other people, the Libertarian Party officials need to quit characterizing future or actual results as “margins of difference.” They are attempting to use this to show significance, but it is unprovable and simply is used by the major parties to try to convince voters not to “waste their vote.”
It’s remarkable that whenever journalists or bloggers bring up the issue of spoilage, they almost never bring up the obvious question of whether plurality elections are a bad idea.
#3 See the lunatic robot party hacks in the Canada and UK parliaments due to plurality elections — aka first past the post (due to a MORON connection with horse racing in Brit regimes).
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Arthur (DiBianca), that’s an excellent point.