In your opinion, does America need more than two major political parties?

👍 Yes (63%) – "There are so many problems with our current two party system, primarily because it seems that both parties are more interested in keeping politicians in office who are aligned with the party's goals, rather than a politician who actually represents their populace."

• "The current two major parties seem to lack the ability to meet the needs of the people. They have forgotten to work for the American people and seem to only care about bringing the other party down. Let's find some common ground."

"One of the biggest reasons why the political and cultural climate has been so tense is because our politics are divided between two parties. It looks less like a functioning political system and more like two war camps constantly at each other's throat. Also, two parties do not cover the nuance and diversity of the views of actual Americans. Americans are too often forced to vote for "the lesser evil" because they know the candidate that actually would represent them wouldn't even make it onto the ballot, much less elected office."

• "The current two-party system has resulted in a lack of cooperation in improving conditions for the American people. One party has become, in essence, a cult of personality that refuses to engage with the other. Both parties vote as blocs so the outcomes are predetermined. Having additional parties will allow more nuance in negotiating new laws since there won’t be one party with the majority. Parties will have to work together to align those who disagree with them on certain policies to find alignment. None of this is possible, though, without getting corporate money out of politics. Large corporations love the two-party system because it makes Congress easier to control."

"The two-party structure offers a binary choice- inconsistent with the diversity of thought across the US. Party loyalty often appears more critical than citizen or community needs or requests. The role of money in keeping the two-party system cannot be ignored, with billions of dollars in advertising, polling, lobbying, and messaging at stake. Using ranked choice is an important step to a move of providing more real choices for elected officials."

• "The problem with a two-party system, especially in the days of the personalized echo chamber, is that it encourages and rewards polarization. If you have multiple parties, you allow for multiple opinions and schools of thought in a way our current system discourages. For example: if you're very pro-environmental conservation and you're fiscally conservative, you have to pick one or the other. One party supports one of each of these two topics. In addition, when you interact with people of different but similar parties - which you would, even online, in a multi-party system - you get exposed to ideas that you don't automatically dismiss because of their origin. I think it would encourage nuance, competition, and decent governance, were we to carefully dispose of the two-party system."

👎 No (20%) – "I'm not necessarily opposed to the concept of multiple political parties, but unless a party has built itself up legislatively from the local level there's little hope of efficacy from the executive branch. Thus, a third-party presidential candidate can do nothing positive for the nation (not even in the sense of broadening the conversation)."

• "The parties aren't the problem - the candidates have historically been the problem. We have an overwhelming lack of individuals in politics that Americans want to see in office. If we did, we wouldn't be seeing so much divide in our votes. People vote for a party because they don't want their vote to be wasted and they don't want the 'extremist' on the other side to implement their policies but if we had upstanding candidates, that wouldn't be as much of an issue."

🤷 Unsure/other (17%) – "What America needs is Ranked Choice Voting and Proportional Representation. We need a change in Federal Law which creates larger multi-member districts along with ranked choice voting so that the loudest, most extreme candidates along with the current tribalism are not rewarded during the primary system. With these reforms, the two party system will organically fade away into a collation style government."

• "Rank choice is what we need. That way we can feel free to vote third party but know that if they can’t secure election then the next best option would receive that vote."