Under normal circumstances, there’s always a concern that the Libertarian candidate will take votes away from the Republican candidate. The 2016 election however, is not a normal election and the Libertarian is doing more harm to the Democrat.
Hot Air reported:
Polls show Gary Johnson taking more support from Clinton, not Trump
There’s always been this notion the Libertarian Party is just full of Republicans who want to smoke pot. It’s one of the dumbest stereotypes out there because there’s so much more to libertarianism than people realize. Libertarians believe in a much smaller federal government than the GOP does, focusing on free trade vs. endless wars, and letting consenting adults do what they want to do in the bedroom. This isn’t stopping Republicans from pushing the entire, “A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Hillary Clinton,” claim…
The Libertarian Party is the only third party which will (probably) be on all the ballot in all 50 states. A Libertarian Party spokesperson confirmed to me they expect to be on the ballot in every state, plus Washington DC. The Green Party is on the ballot in only 23 states (plus DC), and may or may not make the other states. A spokesperson said they’re shooting for more states than in 2012, when they were on the ballot in 37 states. The Constitution Party is on the ballot in 18 or so states and working on more. Ballot access is a major factor in giving the Libertarian Party the edge over all other third parties.
There’s also the fact the Libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld is actually taking more votes away from Clinton, than Trump. Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com found this:
The majority of pollsters (12) have Clinton’s margin over Trump shrinking when at least one third-party candidate is included. The difference in margins, however, varies among pollsters, and a few, such as Ipsos, have Clinton’s lead rising by the tiniest of bits when at least Johnson is included. Overall, including third-party candidates takes about 1 percentage point away from Clinton’s margin, on average.
This election could rewrite the political science textbooks.
Not that they were very good to begin with.
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