Why your peers are voting for third-party candidates

It’s almost impossible to spend a day on Penn’s campus without hearing a debate on the impact of voting for a third-party candidate.

While some students dismiss voting for a third party as a wasted or even a spoiler vote, others cling to candidates like Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein as alternatives to the two-party system.

There’s not one reason why some Penn students are planning to vote for a third party candidate on Nov. 8. Some, like College sophomore Emily Hancin who is planning on voting for Mike Maturen of the American Solidarity Party, find both candidates too morally reprehensible to support.

“I align more with Republican values and I can’t vote for Hillary because I don’t agree with her on a lot of social issues, but as a human I can’t get behind Trump,” said Hancin. “If you find inherent problems with both of the candidates, you should find someone you can really stand behind.”

Hancin is not alone in her contempt for the policies of the two major candidates. According to FiveThirtyEight, a popular online poll analysis website, Clinton and Trump are the two most disliked major party candidates on record.

While several students planning to vote third party commonly cited their inability to vote for either candidate, others are hoping their votes will help challenge the two-party system in the long term. College sophomore Francesca Reznik, who is a registered Republican and supported Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in the primaries, is planning to vote for Johnson on Nov. 8 in the hopes that her support will add validity to third-party candidates in future elections.

“Only 9 percent of Americans voted for either Clinton or Trump during the primaries, so especially in this election, I think it is fair to say that people are desperately looking for another answer,” said Reznik. “I’m hoping that if Gary Johnson can pull 5 percent of the electorate maybe the Libertarian party will start getting money and then maybe we can have a legitimate third party in the future.”

In response to criticism of Johnson’s qualifications for president, Reznik acknowledged that his economic policies make little sense and that his stance on foreign policy is dangerous, but argued that it is more important to show that the American people need another option.

“It’s very obvious that Hillary is going to win, so I’m not that worried about all of [Johnson’s] policies,” said Reznik. “The victory will come not by [Johnson] winning, but if there’s enough demonstrated support for third party candidates...we can show that there are more than the two options.”

Still others are using the election to pressure the Democratic party to embrace a more liberal platform. College sophomore Nicholas Scarsdale, who is a self-proclaimed “borderline communist,” said he supported Jill Stein.

“I don’t want to reward the Democratic Party by voting for someone who I see as so backwards, especially when it comes to foreign policy,” Scarsdale said. “Of course Trump is much worse than her, so if it comes to Election Day and it seems like the race might be tight, I’ll have to vote for Clinton, but otherwise I want to show that I am not going to support them just because there is someone worse.”

While voting third party has become a popular option for students disenchanted by Trump and Clinton, others argue that the American political system is built upon the two-party system, so voting third party is simply a waste of a vote.

“First of all, let’s be clear, one of two people are going to be president on November 8 — voting third party is not going to change that,” said College senior and co-president of Penn for Hillary Sam Iacobellis. “We do not live in a country like Britain where voting for less popular candidates will shift the policy of the coalition — that’s what the primaries are for. Even though Bernie Sanders lost, he was able to push the Democratic Party to adopt the most progressive platform ever. Both party’s platforms are set — now it’s time to choose.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Nicholas Scarsdale supports Jill Stein, not Gary Johnson.