Few Mainers have heard of the Working Families Party (WFP) -- it is not an official party in Maine. But it is trying to establish itself here and elsewhere and to change the role of third or minor parties.

The WFP, with its alluringly simple platform -- decent wages in good jobs, affordable healthcare, retirement with dignity, strong public education and healthy and safe communities -- is a major player in New York state politics and nowhere else. Election laws regarding minor parties in New York are different from those throughout the rest of the country and they benefit minor parties.

I have long opposed third parties as divisive and argued that those who support third parties waste their votes, often with the effect of electing the person they least favor in a multi-candidate race. Think of Green Party voters in Florida in 2000 who elected President Bush, despite the fact that most of them would have favored Al Gore if only the two major party candidates had been running.

But that argument does not hold in New York, because in New York minor parties are allowed to nominate one of the major party candidates as their candidate as well -- and the votes cast for that candidate on any party lines on which his or her name appears are added to that candidate's total vote.

The procedure is called fusion or open ballot voting -- and the WFP is attempting to have it made law in Maine and many other states. Those who favor third parties as an alternative to the major parties should favor such a change -- and even someone like me, someone with grave reservations about third parties, sees positive aspects of this way of counting votes.

In the 2006 congressional elections in New York, in addition to the Republicans and the Democrats, three minor or "third" parties ran candidates in most of the state's 29 districts -- the Working Families Party, the Independence Party, and the Conservative Party. State law permits these parties either to run candidates of their own or to nominate on their ticket a candidate who is already running as another party's candidate.

In three districts the Conservatives nominated their own candidate; in eight others they nominated the Republican candidate; in 10 they nominated the Republican candidate who was also nominated by the Independence Party. In addition to the eight Republican-Conservative candidates they nominated, the Independence Party also nominated 10 candidates who had the Democratic and WFP nominations (and one who had both of those, plus the Conservatives). The WFP nominated an additional 15 candidates who had the Democratic Party nomination, but not the Independence Party's.

Three Democratic nominees and six Republican nominees were not chosen by any of the minor parties. Sounds confusing, right? And more importantly, what does it all mean?

The key here is electoral strategy. The minor parties can choose to nominate one of the major party candidates if that major party candidate follows their platform. They can refuse to do so if they feel that the major party candidate is too far from their views. Or, in the extreme, they can run their own candidate specifically to take votes from the major party candidate. The Independence Party -- favoring "good government" reforms and fiscal constraint -- is fascinating here, favoring some Democrats and some Republicans.

The major party candidates can adapt their views to court minor party support -- or they can choose not to do so. When a Right-to-Life Party was active in New York, some candidates chose to follow their platform -- and the party either endorsed them (mostly Republicans but some Democrats) or ran their own candidate if both major party nominees were pro-choice.

Voters can support certain issues by voting for a candidate on a minor party ticket, without the fear of wasting their votes. They can send messages that can well move major parties. In New York in 2006, two candidates who led the voting on the major party lines lost the election when the minor party votes were added in. For those who think this system favors only liberals, both of those were Republican-Conservative-Independence nominees.

Three other candidates went from being plurality winners to majority winners, because of minor party votes. In those districts in which minor parties nominated candidates, nearly one-in-eight voters chose a minor party line.

Is fusion voting right for Maine and other states? I am not sure -- but without doubt voters favoring minor party candidates would be able to express their views more effectively than under our current system.

L. Sandy Maisel is director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College.