Game Theory and its Application on Vote Trading in the United States of America

Objective: To showcase that vote trading for both dominant party voters such as the Republicans and individual candidate voters is a tool that can alter the outcomes of the Presidential elections in the USA.

Methods: The concept of Game Theory has been implemented to show voter behaviour between dominant party voters and individual candidate voters. Game Theory in this case outlines the various combinations of actions and outcomes that will take place on Election Day between these two sets of voters and eliminates the unfavourable combinations and brings out the most viable and lucrative option for both groups of voters.

Findings: This paper successfully concludes that vote trading is an essential tool and process that will aid in the winning of Presidential elections for the dominant political parties such as the Republicans or the Democrats. More exclusively, the paper finds that vote trading is also one of the finer methods for political parties to capture swing states on Election Day, allowing them a better chance - according to statistical analysis of US Presidential election winners - to win the entirety of the election. The conclusiveness of this finding via elimination of alternative actions further strengthens the need to bring vote trading as a practice behind which strong legislation should be put forth to facilitate the flowing of votes in the interests of supply and demand.

Applications: The findings of this paper can be applied in furthering the need of making vote trading a legally recognized political process.