Fusion voting: Good or bad?

Unless I'm mistaken, New York is the only state where fusion voting exists. I am intrigued by this kind of voting. It seems to have great potential for allowing third parties to have significant clout without spoiling anything. Or so I would figure, but I know nothing about the reality on the ground in New York.

My question is, what do New Yorkers think about fusion voting? Is my belief that it fosters third-party strength accurate? Can you identify any unique benefits, or pitfalls? Would it be a good idea for more states, or even the whole nation, to use this voting system?

* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Idaho
* Mississippi
* New York
* South Carolina
* Vermont
And NH when a write-in candidate wins a primary.

I think it should be allowed everywhere, along with instant runoff voting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fusion

*Edited to add wikipedia link.

I think I've looked at that Wikipedia page before, so I don't know how I forgot the six other states.

I heard this from a guy out of South Carolina, and a little googling shows this:

S.C.'s Minor Parties Dealt Major Blow With Potential Fusion Voting ...S.C.'s Minor Parties Dealt Major Blow With Potential Fusion Voting Ban. Posted by Greg Hambrick on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 1:01 PM. The S.C. House is expected ...
www.charlestoncitypaper.com/PressTime/archives/2009/.../scs-minor-parties-dealt-major-blow-with-potential-fusion-voting-ban

I'm from North Carolina. Our state had fusion voting in the late 1800s. It really did help the third parties. It helped because a politician really did have to stand for something,
At that time, the dominant parties were the Republican and Populist, and there were an estimated 1,000 elected African Americans in the state. The democrats aligned themselves with the white supremacists and big business. Dems made deal with business that they would keep corp taxes down, so business donated. Dems finally enacted an actual physical coup to force republicans and populists out of office. They then enacted Jim Crow laws, took away the right to vote from African Americans, and took over govt. They changed the laws so that fusion voting could no longer be used, since it previously had kept them out of office.

I would support Fusion voting, but never support Instant Runoff Voting, since IRV doesn't actually help third parties and it damages election transparency. IRV is very complex to count and has to be counted at a central location.

and, while it keeps small parties on the ballot, some of those parties rarely have their own candidates and use "fusion" as an excuse to extort cash or jobs from legitimate candidates.

The NY Liberal and Conservative parties are cases in point-- they almost never field their own candidates, but make their demands on the Democrats and Republicans for their "support." The Liberal party went into deep decline after it did field the almost-retired and unhealthy Jacob Javits against Al D'Amato and Liz Holtzman splitting the Democratic vote enough to let D'Amato win. Later on, it supported Giuliani for Mayor-- and that really killed it off.

Really slick candidates, or ones for minor offices like judges and assessors, often get endorsed by all parties, and have no opposition.