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A split vote, or vote splitting, occurs in an election when the existence of two or more candidates that represent relatively similar viewpoints among voters reduces the votes received by each of them, reducing the chances of any one of them winning against another candidate, who represents a significantly different viewpoint. These can lead to a candidate that represents the viewpoints of a minority of voters winning.

Vote splitting as an issue is usually confined to first-past-the-post voting systems such as those used by the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada - it is not generally an issue in countries which use proportional represenation such as Germany. Preferential voting systems like the one in Australia also tend to eliminate vote splitting as an issue.

In the United States, a famous example of a split vote occurred in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election when Green Party candidate Ralph Nader attracted voters who might otherwise have voted for Democratic Partylogo depicts a stylized donkey in red, white, and blue. The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. The Party is currently the minority in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, as w candidate Al GoreAlbert Arnold Gore Jr. born March 31, 1948) is an American Democratic politician who served as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He ran for President in 2000 following Bill Clinton's two four-year terms, but was defeat because of the similar liberalIn terms of politics, the word liberal (or Liberal can refer to: an adherent of the ideology of liberalism or something in accordance to this ideology. Note: the words "liberal" or "liberalism" can be different in various countries and can be related to t platforms of both candidates. Because of the very narrow margin of victory of Republican Party candidate George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. His first four-year term as President began on January 20, 2001 following the controversial U. presidential election, 2000, where for the first time in American over Gore, many blamed Nader's candidacy for causing his loss and thus being a spoiler (although the votes that went to the eighth-place candidate in the contested state of FloridaFlorida is a southern state in the United States. It is known as the Sunshine State. Florida" is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery". It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. Postal could have potentially covered the split).

Vote-splitting is a special case of strategic nominationStrategic nomination is the manipulation of an election through its candidate set (compare this to tactical voting, where the manipulation comes from the voters). Obviously, if the winner of an election wasn't running in the first place then somebody else.