3rd Party Candidates: Spoilers or Saviors?
October 5th, 2020 by Mike VasilindaIf you are not happy with choosing between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, voters have at least five other other choices this November.
Nearly 300,000 Florida voters chose someone other than the two mainstream candidates four years ago.
In 2016, Donald Trump bested Hillary Clinton in Florida by just under 113,000 votes.
Yet 3.1 percent voted for other candidates or write ins.
Howie Hawkins is running as the Green Party’s nominee.
“Over 80 percent of the people want a green new deal to deal with the climate crisis, including 64 percent of Republicans. That’s been the Green Party’s signature issue for the last decade,” said Hawkins.
This year, 13 candidates have officially signed up to run for President in Florida.
In addition to the Greens, you can choose the Socialists.
“Who are fighting a system that makes the rich ultra rich, while the people are suffering,” said Socialist Party candidate Gloria LaRiva in a campaign video.
The Libertarians.
“If we all vote for what we wanted, then we would get what we wanted,” said Libertarian candidate Joe Jorgensen in a video posted on her campaign website.
The Constitution Party or the Reform Party.
“He became troubled by the broken state of politics in our country,” said Reform Party Candidate Rocky De La Fuente in his campaign ad.
And if none of those are your cup of tea, you can write in someone like Dennis Ball.
“It’s just a real amount of change I believe needs to happen,” said Ball.
Some run to be spoilers.
Others say we need more voices.
“In about 40 of the 50 states the Presidential vote we get determines if we have a ballot line going forward. And it makes it a lot easier for our candidates to run down ballot races. Local offices. State offices. Congress,” said Hawkins.
Third Party candidates can change the outcome.
In the contested 2000 election, Ralph Nader siphoned off 97,000 votes in a race that was decided by 537 votes.
A total of seven candidates names appear on this year’s ballot.
Donald Trump, Joe Biden and five other third party candidates.
Six more have qualified as “write In” candidates.
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