This past Tuesday the presidential election ended leaving our nation stunned and divided. Many people are shocked and angry, while others are excited and pleased. Supporters of President-Elect Donald Trump are cheering while those who oppose him are protesting. While I was somewhat shocked at Donald Trump's election victory, one thing captured my interest more this election: the increased interest in third party candidates by young voters.
The 2016 election marked the first time many young adults had the opportunity to vote and while many voted between Trump and Hillary, an increasing number instead looked to the third party candidates. A lot of young voters were unsatisfied with the suspicious and, depending on who you might ask, criminal like actions of both the major party candidates. Yet instead of just not voting, many of them instead decided to vote for the third party candidates like Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Many people might call this a wasted vote as historically third party candidates have never received the required amount of votes to be elected into the position of president. I, instead, look at it as a signal of possible change.
According to various sources such as Bustle.com and Bloomberg.com, 8 percent of millennial voters voted for third party candidates in this year's election, a 5 percent increase in millennial votes for third party candidates from the 2012 presidential election. Theguardian.com states that third party candidates received a combined total of 4.9 percent of the votes with Gary Johnson taking over 3 percent and Jill Stein taking 1 percent. This is a big increase from the 1.7 percent of votes that third party candidates received in 2012 and the 1.4 percent they received in 2008. There are even talks among Clinton supporters that the large amount of third party votes is why she lost the election. What that potentially shows is that more millennial voters are not looking at what party a candidate belongs too, but rather at the candidate themselves. They are looking at a candidates policies and, most importantly, who the candidate is as a person. This is very significant as it shows that millennial voters are growing tired of the two party system that our elections currently run on and it could influence how political parties look at future elections. The Republican and Democrat parties will have to seriously look at the third party candidates and at possibly having to sway voters away from them as well as the opposing major party.
Our third party candidates are becoming more influential as young voters are now turning their attention to them instead of the usual two party candidates. The more attention the third party candidates get from voters, the higher the chance of them appearing on debates and being considered as serious candidates themselves instead of being seen as "wasted votes" as they are today. They might even start getting an increase in attention in other government office elections as well. Before long a third party candidate could actually win a presidential election signaling an end to the two party system that runs elections today.
