Third-Party Politics

Less than a month after the lowest voter turnout in history, John Balzar sees an energized electorate committing itself to one of the two major parties (Commentary, Dec. 4). Is he blind? In California, over 751,000 voted for third parties in the recent election, even though they knew their candidate wouldn’t win. As long as differences between the two parties remain imperceptible, as long as electoral reforms such as proportional representation and instant runoff voting remain distant, voter turnout will remain low.

Ralph Goldstein

Altadena