The New York Working Families Party always cross-nominates Democratic nominees for statewide office. In 2016 it had the lowest percentages for its statewide nominees since 2004. The only two statewide races up in 2016 were President and U.S. Senate.
Working Families percentages for president in New York have been: 2000 1.30%; 2004 1.81%; 2008 2.09%; 2012 2.09%; 2016 1.83%.
For U.S. Senate: 2000 1.51%; 2004 2.52%; 2006 3.31%; 2010 (two races up) 4.00% and 4.05%; 2012 3.76%; 2016 3.28%.
The Working Families Party is still one of the largest vote-getting third parties in the nation.
The WF Party gets an amazing amount of money for 3rd parties. They frequently get ten times as much as the Libertarians in Connecticut, and the Libertarians have been taking in more than the Greens, lately. Much of the WF money comes from unions. You have to wonder how many union members have unknowingly donated to the WF Party and then to Democratic candidates through the WF cross endorsements.
Were *modern* election machines and ballot forms used in NY in 2016 ???
i.e. former decades of the JUNK 1890s mechanical voting machines and the rotted ballot forms for third parties and independents.
The fusion / Recap math in NY is of some interest — SOME detectable effect of third parties on the results.
I’m still skeptical as to whether WFP should be considered a true third party, or just an organization of the Democratic Party masquerading as a third party. Being a third party implies independence from the two ruling parties, not almost totally marching in lockstep with one of them. The only thing preventing me from declaring the latter is the fact that they occasionally do run their own candidates.
The Democrats didn’t need the WFP this year. No doubt they will be a ballot line for the Democrat’s gubenatorial candidate and get the 50,000 votes needed to retain their status. The WFP is not in any sense a “third party” in the sense that they are not an independent organization. If you look at their history they have always been an adjunct to the Democratic Party. Their function is to keep the US Left from taking a course independent of the Democratic Party. Imo. Sure they run a token candidate outside the Democrats now and then. But they never do anything that could threaten the Democrats status as the alledged progressive political party.