This is so totally wrong. To defeat a Democrat, you must vote for his opponent. Moreover, his opponent must receive more votes. This is not rocket science.
Exactly. Thanks to a few third-party Republicans sending the Senate a message, we're about to have Majority Leader Reid. Thanks for nothing.
Apparently it is lost on you though. If a person isn't going to vote for the republican anyway, it makes no difference in the race if he stays home or votes 3rd party. The only way the person would help the democrat is to actually vote for him.
For the 3rd party voters, since they voted for neither democrat or republican, they didn't affect the race.
Many here on FR are confused to the point that they think the rest of the world mirrors FR. Your main goal may be to defeat democrats but to third party voters, there isn't any difference between the GOP and the Dems.