By: Ben Bergerson
Designer

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not the only options for president this year.

Though you may not know it from how the media represents the race, parties other than the Democrats and Republicans (known as third parties) exist in this country and in the past have had an impact on elections. This year, people with no political party affiliation will represent the biggest voting block at 42 percent of all voters. Democrats represent 29 percent and Republicans represent 26 percent.

These are near historical lows for party affiliation, and the mainstream media has said relatively little about how that affects our party system. With both of the leading candidates for president having extremely low favorability ratings, many people are turning to see what other options are out there.

There are three third parties in the US that have large enough voter registration to get on state ballots. You can check them out below, and see if any fit your political beliefs:

1. Constitution Party
   If your problem with Donald Trump is that he isn’t conservative enough, look no further than Darrell Castle, the candidate from the Constitution Party. Castle is a lawyer and ex-Marine who advocates for the US to withdraw from the UN and NATO. He wants to end the Federal Reserve and is against abortions.

2. Libertarian Party

Though they haven’t selected their nominee, the Libertarians look likely to choose former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson again, having nominated him in 2012 as well. Johnson is pushing for a balanced national budget, the decriminalization of marijuana, and lowering taxes. As a Libertarian he is conservative on fiscal matters, and more liberal on social matters.

3. Green Party

The Greens have also yet to choose their nominee, but their 2012 nominee, Jill Stein, looks like their probable choice. She made history in the last presidential elections for receiving more votes than any other woman in U.S. history. The Greens’ campaigns focus on environmentalism, participatory democracy, nuclear disarmament, and social justice.

One last note on third parties: Many people have pointed to the 2000 election as an example of the “spoiler effect.” They argue that the Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader, stole votes away from the Democrats, thus “spoiling” the election for Al Gore and handing the presidency to George W. Bush. While this spoiler effect can be a concern for battleground states where a few votes make a big difference, here in Oregon voters have reliably voted Democrat for a few generations. Because of that, Oregonians have the ability to vote for the candidate they align with the most, rather than voting tactically against someone they don’t want. It’s something to remember as we go into what seems will be an extremely bitter political season.