If we change our voting rules, more parties can play a productive—not destructive—role in American politics.

In our first past the post (FPTP) electoral system, it’s inevitable that political choice gets narrowed down to two major parties with barely a measurable fraction of votes going toward various third parties. The answer isn’t to try to buck the system and vote for a third party candidate anyway. The answer is to vote in primaries of the major parties for candidates willing to change our election laws so third parties can thrive. Until that happens, expect to hear that a vote for a third party is a vote for the candidate you least like.