I’ve never been optimistic about the viability of a third party, no matter its makeup. They tend to act as spoilers (Nader, Perot), and its candidate will never be elected president because that candidate will never get the 270 or so EC’s needed. We’ve seen what a third party did in Maine, it brought them LePage, elected by a minority, and even they have gone to ranked choice which is what’s used here.
Rather than checking a box for just one candidate, voters rank all candidates in order of preference. If a candidate earns a majority of the votes, he or she wins. If not, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and his or her ballots get redistributed to whomever those voters ranked second. If another round is needed, the process continues, eliminating the candidate with the next fewest votes, until one candidate has a majority.