<Li> Several races in the 2014 election cycle were allegedly influenced by spoiler candidates, most notably Hawaii's gubenatorial elections and the Kansas senatorial race . In the Mississippi senatorial Republican primary, a paper candidate, Thomas Carey, who received less than two percent of the vote prevented both top contenders, incumbent Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel, from avoiding a runoff . Had the spoiler (Carey) not run, the race between McDaniel and Cochran would have avoided a runoff . </Li> <Li> In both the 2013 Virginia Gubernatorial Election and the 2014 Virginia US Senate Election, Libertarian Robert Sarvis received a number of votes greater than the difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates . Given the similarity in Republican and Libertarian views, it is likely that the Republican would have won each election if not for the inclusion of Sarvis on the ballot . </Li> <Li> In the 2016 New Hampshire Senate election, conservative independent candidate Aaron Day won about 18,000 votes . Given his political leanings, it is likely that the vast majority of his voters otherwise would have voted for incumbent Senator Kelly Ayotte, who lost to Governor Maggie Hassan by about 1,000 votes, thus costing Ayotte reelection . </Li> <P> In New Zealand, there have been two notable cases of the spoiler effect . In the 1984 general election, the free - market New Zealand Party deliberately ran for office in order to weaken support for the incumbent Prime Minister Robert Muldoon . Later on, the 1993 general election saw the New Zealand Labour Party's vote split by The Alliance, which has been attributed to the vagaries of the first past the post electoral system . In response to these problems, New Zealand has since adopted the mixed - member proportional voting system . </P>

Third party candidates are more likely to win office under what system of election