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====Two-party system==== {{See also|Two-party system#Causes of a two-party system|l1=Causes of a two-party system}} "Third" political parties have appeared from time to time in American history but seldom lasted more than a decade. They have sometimes been the vehicle of an individual ([[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|"Bull Moose" party]], [[Ross Perot]]'s [[Reform Party of the United States of America|Reform Party]]); had considerable strength in particular regions ([[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]], the [[Farmer-Labor Party]], [[Wisconsin Progressive Party]], [[Conservative Party of New York State]],{{NoteTag|In 1970 a candidate of the [[Conservative Party of New York State]] ([[James L. Buckley]]) [[James L. Buckley#Elections|defeated]] the Democratic and Republican party candidates for U.S. Senate.}} and the [[Populist Party (United States)|Populist Party]]); or continued to run candidates for office to publicize some issue despite seldom winning even local elections ([[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]], [[Natural Law Party (United States)|Natural Law Party]], [[Peace and Freedom Party]]). Factors reinforcing the two-party system include: * The traditional American electoral format of single-member districts where the candidate with the most votes wins (known as the "[[First Past the Post electoral system|first-past-the-post]]" system), which according to [[Duverger's law]] favors the [[two-party system]]. This is in contrast to [[Multiwinner voting|multi-seat electoral districts]]{{NoteTag|not to be confused with the American systems of having two senators representing each state, since the senator's elections in each state are staggered and do not run at the same time.}} and [[proportional representation]] found in some other democracies. * The 19th-century innovation of printing "party tickets" to pass out to prospective voters to cast in ballot boxes (originally, voters went to the polls and publicly stated which candidate they supported) "consolidated the power of the major parties".<ref name="Lepore-NYer-2008"/> * Printed party "tickets" (ballots) were eventually replaced by uniform ballots provided by the state when states began to adopt the [[secret ballot|Australian Secret Ballot Method]]. This gave state legislatures—dominated by Democrats and Republicans—the opportunity to hinder new rising parties with [[ballot access]] laws requiring a large number of petition signatures from citizens and giving the petitioners a short amount of time to gather the signatures.
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