Briefing | Spoilers

Third-party candidates could be decisive in America’s election

But they have to get on the ballot first

Illustration of the Democrat donkey and the Republican elephant on top of holes being cut out from the floor.
Illustration: Ben Hickey
|WASHINGTON, DC

WHEN the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, narrowly lost the presidential election of 2000, Joe Biden, a senator at the time, directed his fury at one of the also-rans, Ralph Nader. The left-leaning Mr Nader won 97,488 votes in Florida, far more than Mr Gore’s losing margin of 537. “Nader cost us the election,” Mr Biden concluded.

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This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Spoilers”

From the March 9th 2024 edition

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