The 2016 Election: Third Parties and Their Effect

Irene Ciocirlan, Reporter/Copy Editor
November 21, 2016

Though they are small in number, third party voters may have helped Republican nominee, Donald Trump, win the election.

In this May 27, 2016, file photo, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson speaks at the National Libertarian Party Convention in Orlando, Fla. Broadside, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Aug. 31, that Johnson's new campaign book "Common Sense for the Common Good: Libertarianism as the End of Two-Party Tyranny" will be released as an ebook on Sept. 27, 2016. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
In this May 27, 2016, file photo, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson speaks at the National Libertarian Party Convention in Orlando, Fla. Broadside, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Aug. 31, that Johnson’s new campaign book “Common Sense for the Common Good: Libertarianism as the End of Two-Party Tyranny” will be released as an ebook on Sept. 27, 2016. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

With Trump and Clinton as the leading candidates, many people who disliked both were considering voting a third party. The outcome: third parties won only about four percent of the vote and received no electoral college votes. Votes for third party candidates were dubbed “protest” votes in this election.

This year’s major third parties were the Green Party and Libertarian Party. Dr. Jill Stein was the Green Party nominee and Gary Johnson was the Libertarian Party nominee. Evan McMullin was a candidate that ran independently, but his name was on the ballot in only 11 states.

Stein won roughly 1% of the votes, and Johnson won 3.2%, according to FiveThirtyEight.

In this contentious election, casting a vote for a third party might have helped Trump secure the presidency.

According to the Washington Post, in almost every swing state where the race was close, votes for Johnson and Stein would have been enough to elect Clinton.

In Florida, nearly 204,000 people voted for Johnson, and more than 63,000 voted for Stein, according to the New York Times. Even if Clinton won just half of those 267,000 voters, that would have been enough for her to overtake Trump’s 132,000-vote win.

Although not true for every state, in Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan, third-party voters played a huge effect on electing Trump.

According to MSNBC, in Pennsylvania, Trump stood 68,236 votes ahead of Clinton. The total votes for Johnson and Stein across the country was 191,565 — almost three times Trump’s margin of victory.

In this Oct. 6, 2016 file photo, Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein in Oakland, Calif. Stein says America is running out of time. Out of time to avert a climate disaster, out of time to alleviate millions of people from crushing student debt, and out of time to end conflicts she says are leading the U,S. toward nuclear war. The 66-year-old Massachusetts doctor and Green Party candidate is offering an aggressive set of policy prescriptions to avoid such disasters in her longshot bid for the presidency. (AP Photo/D. Ross Cameron, File)
In this Oct. 6, 2016 file photo, Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein in Oakland, Calif. Stein says America is running out of time. Out of time to avert a climate disaster, out of time to alleviate millions of people from crushing student debt, and out of time to end conflicts she says are leading the U,S. toward nuclear war. The 66-year-old Massachusetts doctor and Green Party candidate is offering an aggressive set of policy prescriptions to avoid such disasters in her longshot bid for the presidency. (AP Photo/D. Ross Cameron, File)

“If half of Johnson’s supporters and all of Stein’s supporters had voted Clinton, it would have flipped the state.” said MSNBC.

Third parties were mostly popular among young voters. According to FiveThirtyEight, nine percent of voters ages 18-29 went for third parties.

Gary Johnson said, “There is going to be a third voice in this country.” Yet in the end, most voters made their choice for either Trump or Clinton.