By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
If you’re like me, one of our two 2016 candidates has offered policies that resonate and you’ve got a horse in the race that is the presidential election. Chances are you’re not like me.
According to Fivethirtyeight, Clinton and Trump are our least popular candidates
ever. Yet many argue that if you don’t vote for their candidate you’re wasting your vote outright. This is, after all, an astonishingly important election. We’re told Trump with nuclear codes will lead to the end of the world, while Clinton’s aggressive stances from Honduras to Russia will lead to World War III, and possibly also the end of the world.
Trevor Noah warns that Trump will go full-dictator and says, “This could be the very last vote you ever get.” Meanwhile, Ann Coulter predicts a Clinton presidency so disastrous that this election will, “determine the survival of western civilization.”
Gosh.
Despisers of Duverger’s law have a way out. All they have to do is waste their vote.
When Gary Johnson ran in 2012, it was the first year that a Libertarian candidate cracked a million votes. He’s definitely getting at least five percent of the popular vote this year.
And that’s what it all comes down to. The third party vote is not actually about electing Gary Johnson or Jill Stein in 2016.
Five percent in one election opens Federal Election Commission moneybags the following cycle, entitling a third party to around 10 million dollars of general election financing. For perspective, OpenSecrets.org calculates that the Green Party has raised $3 million this cycle while the Libertarians have pulled $11 million.
The two third parties nearly made it to the debates this year. A strong showing in the election and increased presence going into 2020 could actually get them there.
If a Libertarian or Green Party platform appeals to you, I encourage you to vote for their candidate. To lift a Trump quote, “What have you got to lose?”
The country isn’t going to fall apart just because you cast a ballot for Stein or Johnson in Oregon, a state that will go blue anyway. After all, this is not simply the election where a North Carolina Republican office was firebombed. It’s also the election where, according to Time Magazine, the Democrat Party raised $13,000 to help the Republicans with repairs. It’s an election for a country founded on a government of checks and balances.
If you don’t like your two options in 2016, a third party vote may ensure better options in 2020. At which point we will, again, reassess our country’s policies and direction and again determine our country’s next course.
Contact the author at bdeboer11@mail.wou.edu
