Recently, many have tried to place the blame for the current gridlock in Washington on growing partisanship, primaries, activists or even the electorate; but ultimately, the real root of this current dysfunction is our election laws.

In the United States and most democracies, voters don’t primarily use elections to choose between competing ideologies or plans. First and foremost, voters use the ballot to depose those they think failed to govern efficiently. Elections are often a referendum on the party in power.

We don’t have to have a system of government that actually encourages these destructive zero-sum strategies. We could adopt another election system, such as proportional representation, or even instant runoff voting (IRV), that allows for more than just two parties in the running without worrying about the “spoiler” effect.

If you really want more bipartisanship, the only real solution is to promote more viable political parties.

Overall, 52 percent of Americans would like to add a third major political party, while only 40 percent feel Democrats and Republicans do an adequate job representing the American people, according to the latest Gallup poll. The interesting finding of this poll is that it found across the political spectrum, liberals, moderates and conservatives, all equally felt the need for more than the two parties.

Today is election day in Canada, so to all our Canadian readers: go vote! To our non-Canadian readers, today’s election could be a truly historic event worth keeping an eye on.

With less than a week until the the federal elections in Canada, the left wing New Democratic Party is experiencing an almost unprecedented 11-point surge in the polls.

The Hill has just become the most recent news outlet to find in their polling that a majority of voters want a viable third party as an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats. Their poll found that 54 percent of likely voters in 10 swing districts think there should be a third party. Their results mirror national polling from CNN (PDF) and Gallup, both of which also show majority support for a third party.

A large majority of Americans, 58 percent, believe that the country needs a third major party to adequately represent the American people, according to a new Gallup poll. Only 35 percent think the Democratic and Republican Parties do an adequate job representing the electorate.

Republican candidate Charles Djou won the HI-01 special election with 39.5% of the vote because two Democrats, Colleen Hanabusa with 30.8% and Ed Case with 27.6%, split the Democratic vote almost down the middle. This is a great example of how the design of our election laws can greatly affect our government; a poorly-designed electoral system like Hawaii’s can result in winners that don’t best represent the will of the electorate.