The way spoiling an election is supposed to work looks like this:
Hillary Clinton is the obvious choice for liberals and progressives to vote for. If there are enough Democratic votes to ensure a Clinton win, but a big enough percentage choose to vote for a third party candidate or a write-in, then she won't get that win.
This view depends on seeing Hillary Clinton as the automatic, "of course" choice. It depends on her already having had enough votes and then losing them to a third party. But she never really had those votes to begin with.