Our presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates have the lowest ratings of any candidates in history. On social media, hashtags like "#NeverTrump" and "#NeverHillary" are popular. Americans seem to want to vote for someone else, or even anyone else, and they can. But surprisingly, in this season where it seems like other candidates could be considered, third-party candidates are only polling in the single digits.
It is interesting to see that the two candidates that ended up being the Democratic and Republican presumptive nominees are also those who were most mentioned in the media. It's possible that younger voters who are reliant on mainstream media for their information about the presidential election might not even know that there are third-party candidates that they can choose to vote for. Could the media give these candidates a boost?
No candidate received as much air time as Donald Trump this year, not even Hillary Clinton (many people believe he received too much time). Even though Bernie Sanders was not featured in the media as consistently as Trump and Clinton (CNN even failed to air one of Sanders' speeches in favor of Trump, who wasn't even speaking at the time), think about the impact that any coverage at all from the media had on his campaign this year. If Bernie would have ran as an independent, he would have been completely ignored by the media.
There are multiple other parties that are never mentioned in the media because they do not poll high enough to be considered "viable" and because politics our country are dominated by the two-party system. These two other main parties are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.
The Libertarian party candidate has already been decided and is Gary Johnson. He started off as the owner of a construction company and was the governor of New Mexico from 1994-2003. Other Libertarian candidates this year were John McAfee (famous for inventing the anti-virus software named after himself) and Austin Petersen. Johnson was also the Libertarian candidate in the 2012 election. He entered the 2012 race as a Libertarian after he unsuccessfully ran as a Republican. Johnson is polling at 7.7 percent against Trump and Clinton (as of July 15).
The Green Party currently has two candidates: Jill Stein and Bill Kreml. Stein was the Green Party candidate in 2012 and her opponent admits that she is likely to win this year's nomination. She does not have a political background, however. Stein was a physician and environmental science advocate before getting involved in politics. Jill Stein is polling at 3.4 percent against Trump, Clinton and Johnson (as of July 15). The nominee will be chosen at the 2016 Green Party Presidential Nomination Convention that takes place from August 4-7.
Many voters find themselves identifying with views of an independent or third-party candidate, but vote for one of the main two candidates because it's what everyone else is doing. When they talk about wanting to vote for a third-party candidate, they're told that they're "voting for the enemy" or "throwing their vote away." It's this idea that keeps these candidates at such low percentages on the poll.
Some Trump supporters are considering voting Libertarian, especially after Trump's decision to make conservative Mike Pence his running mate. Pence's views are often seen as "extreme," even by the Clinton campaign. The Libertarian Party has some similar ideologies to the Republican Party, but they are not as extreme or restrictive to women's or LGBT rights. Johnson also supports the legalization of marijuana, which many Republicans oppose and Democrats support. Sanders supporters have considered voting for Stein after his Clinton endorsement because of her similar views in regards to environmental protection, the economy and the health care systems, which she calls "rigged."
This article refers to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson as "this guy you've never heard of." You would never hear about any major party candidates in this way. This "guy" is a presidential candidate just like any of the others in the main two parties and has ran before as this party's candidate in the 2012 election (where he received over one million votes).
One of the major media events that we will be looking forward to is the debate, which is usually between only the Democratic and Republican candidates. But, if Stein or Johnson's poll numbers rise to 15 percent, they could be allowed to participate. This is a situation that has only occurred once since the requirement was set. Stein and Johnson were not allowed to participate in the 2012 debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney and are both fighting to change the 15 percent rule. In 2012, Johnson filed a lawsuit, demanding to be included in the debates.
Just know that there are more than two choices this November. If you find yourself leaning more toward the Republican side, you're probably more likely to choose Johnson over Stein. If you lean more toward the Democratic side, you're more likely to side with Stein. If you want to see which candidates align most with your political views, you can take a quiz.
