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2024 American elections fileJill Stein, Cornel West or even Chase Oliver: independent candidates in the American presidential election have no chance of winning, but could tip the scales towards Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
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These are called “third party” candidates. Independents often presented as the fifth wheel of the American presidential carriage which has always been, with rare exceptions, nothing more than a duel between two behemoths: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It is the very nature of the American electoral system that requires this: its indirect universal vote and the specificity of “winner-takes-all” – the winner wins all the major voters in 48 of the 50 states – favors two-partyism. However, in a close election like the one that is expected on November 5 between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, these small candidates, who have no chance of winning, could well seize up the machine and tip the Oval Office. one side or the other.
We keep repeating it: everything will play out a priori in seven «swing states» – Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, M