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Why Your Vote Doesn't Count

CGP Grey · 7.9M views · 2011-03-09 · 6:31

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Overview

CGP Grey explains first-past-the-post voting and why it pushes elections toward two dominant parties. It is the first in his series on electoral systems.

On Hacker News

HN's go-to explainer for why FPTP leads to a two-party system, linked in countless voting-reform and US politics threads.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 10 months · HN mentions 2015–2025

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What people said

polymatter · 2015-04 · Strong recommendation

I highly recommend the following CGP Grey video for further detail about the problems of First Past the Post voting ( [VIDEO] ). > But instead we have FPTP, and why? Its the simplest and most naive electoral system so Joe Bloggs understands it. Its just "the person who gets the most votes wins". The problems this system causes are ephemeral statistical problems that require more than a 10 second soundbite to explain or even to detect happening. So from Joe Bloggs point of view, you want to change his fundamental right to vote based on the fact that your intellectual busywork has concluded that the wrong person can win the election. That's how the UK failed to get Alternative Vote passed in 2011.

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Sammi · 2025-09 · Recommendation

It's because of the First Past The Post voting system that is used in the US, which means winner takes all. If you want to understand why the US seems so uniquely politically divided, then you will understand once you understand how FPTP voting works and how it inevitably leads to binary politics. Most countries have a voting system that leads to broader representation. US politics will always be black and white and divided so long as FPTP voting is used. There's a great video by cpg grey explaining FPTP: [VIDEO]

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Cxckers · 2022-07 · Recommendation

And it will fail due to the current voting system. CPG Grey has a great explainer on why there will only ever be 2 political parties under the current system [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by CGP Grey, played through YouTube.

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