With the 2016 election approaching all too quickly, many voters are looking for alternatives to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are both third party candidates, promising to provide a better future for the United States than Trump and Clinton. Many voters are against third party candidates because they, in theory, cause “the spoiler effect”. The spoiler effect is when a third party candidate with similar views to a main party candidates skews the votes away from that candidate, possibly keeping the main party from winning an election when they otherwise would have won. Both Stein and Johnson strongly disagree with this effect, and claim third party candidates have always been around and never have been a problem before. Another issue with third party candidates is that they may not be on the ballot in every state. Jill Stein is not on the North Carolina ballot and may not be written in. Spoiler effect and ballot access aside, are these candidates really the better of two evils?

 Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is 63 years old and is a politician, author, and businessman. He was  the governor of New Mexico and former  president and CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc. in 2014, which brands and markets legal marijuana products. The highlights of his political positions are that he is looking to decrease the national debt, believes in keeping civil liberties, and he wants to protect the rights to privacy of the public online. Despite strong political opinions, he has had some major faux pas’ in the press. Two of the most detrimental to his campaign being when he was asked in an MSNBC interview who was the foreign leader he most admired, and he struggled to name a single one. In a separate incident, when asked how he would handle the conflict in Aleppo, Syria, which is the center of the refugee crisis in Syria, Johnson asked what Aleppo was. He has 5.8% of the vote, with Clinton having 45.7% and Trump with 40.3%.

 The other third party candidate is Jill Stein of the Green party. Her main goals are to improve environmental conservation efforts, work to end poverty by making federal minimum wage $15 an hour, and improve racial and LGBTQIA+ issues. She is 66 years old and graduated from Harvard magna cum laude, where she studied psychology, sociology, and anthropology. By trade she is a medical doctor and is known for being very liberal. She has even said that if she could, she would have whistleblower Edward Snowden in her cabinet. Stein has recently come under scrutiny for having large investments in companies, such as Exxon, which goes against the fundamental beliefs of her and her party. On average Stein is drawing 3% of the national vote.

 With poll numbers so low, chances that either Stein or Johnson will win are dropping, but this has been a huge year for third parties. Senior Joey Rivenbark says, “I think Stein has some viable opinions but overall is far fetched, and though Gary Johnson has good ideas for domestic policy, he falls short on foreign policy. I do think Johnson would have had a chance at winning if he had advertised more and made it to the debates.”  In some states, Johnson has been closely rivaling the major party candidates with his support growing to double digits. Whether it is a third party or a major party president, this will certainly have been a historic election.