• [ network ]
  • goatmatrix.net
  • gvid.tv
  • img.gvid.tv
  • games.gvid.tv
  • apps.gvid.tv
HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

How Third Parties Are Getting Screwed This Election Season

Views:1072
@ReasonVids

Republicans and Democrats genuinely hate each other. They love their own power even more.

————————

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magaz...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.

————————
Republicans and Democrats may genuinely hate each other, but they love their own power even more. That's why they collude so often to keep those pesky Libertarians, Greens, and independents away from the lucrative levers of government.

The 2018 midterms have been chock full of two-party shenanigans, all too often aided and abetted by journalists, pollsters, and the voters themselves.

It all starts with ballot access. If a state government considers you a "major party," getting on the ballot is a snap. Worst-case scenario, you need to collect signatures from a tiny fraction of your own registered voter base. Best case, you just show up.

Third-party and independent candidates, on the other hand, have to collect tens of thousands of signatures in some states—15,000 to run for governor in New York, for example, including at least 100 in each congressional district. Arizona Republicans recently changed the law to say that Libertarians need to collect signatures not just from their own members but from registered independents as well. And by the way, the Green Party is subject to a less stringent set of rules, which is why there's a Green but not a Libertarian running in Arizona's neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race.

Some states push their filing deadlines all the way back to a year before the election. That's one of many reasons why candidates such as Evan McMullin, when they get a sudden itch to run for president, are lucky to make it on even a dozen ballots.

New Hampshire this year herded all third parties under the same ballot line, confusingly titled "Libertarians and Other Candidates." New Mexico tried—and thankfully failed—to institute a "straight party" ballot, meaning voters in this 3–2 Democratic state could automatically vote for all the candidates in one party by checking off just one box.

Gary Johnson's surging poll numbers, I am sure, were purely coincidental.

Getting your name on the ballot doesn't mean it will be included in the polls. The Nevada race for U.S. Senate is universally rated a tossup, and yet the first three independent polls released this October failed to include Libertarian Tim Hagan, even though previous surveys had him at around four percent.

How about debates? Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dale Kerns was assured of a spot on stage, then uninvited. Texas gubernatorial candidate Mark Tippets was told he didn't have enough qualifying press, in part because his coverage in the Spanish-language media didn't count. In Texas. Iowa governor candidate Jake Porter, who's polling higher than any other L.P. statehouse contender, says his debate invitations were rescinded, in part because he refused to buy commercials.

"The freer and more general the competition," Adam Smith wrote in 1776, the more "advantageous" it will be to the public. Competitors, he warned, will "always" try "to widen the market and to narrow the competition." For too long we have allowed our system of government, that other glorious achievement from 1776, to be controlled by the market-rigging forces Smith warned us about. It's about time to make American politics competitive again.

Written by Matt Welch. Camera by Jim Epstein. Edited by Alexis Garcia.

Photo credits: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom, Hill Street Studios Blend Images/Newscom

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
third parties
,
republican
,
democrat
,
ballot access
,
independent
,
voting
,
voter
,
ballot
,
polling
,
politics
    Thumbnail for Policing for Profit? California Towns Bill Residents Thousands for Nuisance Violations7:52
    Policing for Profit? California Towns Bill Residents Thousands for Nuisance Violations
    ReasonVids
    1174 views
    Thumbnail for Boycott Walmart! Starting right now!0:07
    Boycott Walmart! Starting right now!
    bestofvoatxyz
    601 views
    Thumbnail for Killer Chic: Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara (Chinese translation)8:35
    Killer Chic: Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara (Chinese translation)
    ReasonVids
    1055 views
    Thumbnail for Citizen vs. Government (Vol. 4)1:50
    Citizen vs. Government (Vol. 4)
    ReasonVids
    896 views
    Thumbnail for 3 Reasons Obamacare is Not Apple1:33
    3 Reasons Obamacare is Not Apple
    ReasonVids
    1017 views
    Thumbnail for Just a few decades ago people did not fear to speak honestly in public2:10
    Just a few decades ago people did not fear to speak honestly in public
    AOUisgay
    650 views
    Thumbnail for How to Create a Gun-Free America in 5 Easy Steps2:11
    How to Create a Gun-Free America in 5 Easy Steps
    ReasonVids
    1088 views
    Thumbnail for Freedomworks' Matt Kibbe on the Hostile Takeover of The GOP4:31
    Freedomworks' Matt Kibbe on the Hostile Takeover of The GOP
    ReasonVids
    821 views
    Thumbnail for The War on Fast Food: Can a D.C. Suburb Fight Fat with Zoning?2:30
    The War on Fast Food: Can a D.C. Suburb Fight Fat with Zoning?
    ReasonVids
    963 views
    Thumbnail for Don’t Jail Trump for January 62:36
    Don’t Jail Trump for January 6
    ReasonVids
    1083 views
    Thumbnail for Did you come to libertarianism from the left or right?2:44
    Did you come to libertarianism from the left or right?
    ReasonVids
    940 views
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Hurricane Reconstruction4:52
    Stossel: Hurricane Reconstruction
    ReasonVids
    920 views
    Thumbnail for Don't Hate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Because It's Imperfect10:22
    Don't Hate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Because It's Imperfect
    ReasonVids
    909 views
    Thumbnail for MCCAIN'S BIG CASH PRIZE2:06
    MCCAIN'S BIG CASH PRIZE
    ReasonVids
    830 views
    Thumbnail for Why Washington DC is Not Part of Any State 🇺🇸 | GeoGlobeTales0:33
    Why Washington DC is Not Part of Any State 🇺🇸 | GeoGlobeTales
    invidious
    158 views
    Thumbnail for Honest Trailers | Andor (Season 2) | Screen Junkies9:00
    Honest Trailers | Andor (Season 2) | Screen Junkies
    invidious
    132 views
    Thumbnail for An Update On Dianna's Health | Physics Girl4:38
    An Update On Dianna's Health | Physics Girl
    invidious
    187 views
    Thumbnail for Wheat, Weed, and ObamaCare: How the Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful10:06
    Wheat, Weed, and ObamaCare: How the Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful
    ReasonVids
    1079 views
    Thumbnail for Elon musk is not a Nazi...0:06
    Elon musk is not a Nazi...
    bestofupgoat
    149 views
    Thumbnail for Arnold's Last Stand: How the Lame-Duck Governor Is Fighting for One Last Win Over Unions6:10
    Arnold's Last Stand: How the Lame-Duck Governor Is Fighting for One Last Win Over Unions
    ReasonVids
    958 views
    Thumbnail for If We Can Put a Man on The Moon...Then Why Does Government Fail at Just About Everything Else?9:59
    If We Can Put a Man on The Moon...Then Why Does Government Fail at Just About Everything Else?
    ReasonVids
    997 views
    Thumbnail for John Stossel vs. Noam Chomsky on Venezuela4:11
    John Stossel vs. Noam Chomsky on Venezuela
    ReasonVids
    902 views
    Thumbnail for How Roman aqueducts worked2:07
    How Roman aqueducts worked
    bestofupgoat
    555 views
    Thumbnail for COCA PLANT : Where Cocaine Comes From - Weird Fruit Explorer4:59
    COCA PLANT : Where Cocaine Comes From - Weird Fruit Explorer
    Invidious2
    50 views
    Thumbnail for Walter E. Williams, Free Market Scholar and Iconoclast, RIP3:59
    Walter E. Williams, Free Market Scholar and Iconoclast, RIP
    ReasonVids
    983 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
third parties
,
republican
,
democrat
,
ballot access
,
independent
,
voting
,
voter
,
ballot
,
polling
,
politics
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle