When you have a third party, the effect of their presence is that they usually address more specific issues. When they do so, majority parties shy away from such issues to try to gain third-party support. The third party can also influence the outcome of an election. An example of this is the 2000 Bush vs Al Gore presidential election, Nader, the third party candidate, took votes away from Al Gore in Florida and Bush ended up winning. The reason this happens is because the winner takes all system of our government. Whoever wins the most votes wins. Because third parties are small and usually receive fewer votes, larger parties are then able to use third parties to focus on more specific issues to gain more votes from third party supporters. The reason we have a two-party system is because it is difficult for smaller parties to receive votes and win elections. As a result, there are usually only two political parties that dominate elections and hold the majority of seats in Congress and the Senate. One suggestion is to have a multi-party system that allows different parties to have representation based on the amount of votes they receive. So if the third party received 25% of the vote, it would 25%