By BEN EFNOR, Guest Reporter
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) — The 2020 Presidential Election has seen some of the largest voting numbers the United States has ever seen, yet third party voting has been down. The Liberatarian and Green Parties are the two largest third parties in the United States.
There are many reasons as to why someone would vote third party, the biggest of the two being a strong belief in the parties’ stances or as a protest to the two-party system.
“I feel disenfranchised by the two major parties, so finding a party that stood by my beliefs was very important,” Avery Schmidt, a third-party voter, said.
Third-party voting was down in this highly anticipated election. As close as the 2016 election was, may have been part of the reason votes were down.
“Due to the closeness of 2016, people felt like one of the two major party candidates may win, so for their vote to count, they feel like they may have to vote for one of the two major party candidates,” Western Illinois University Political Science Chair Keith Boeckelman said, when asked why third-party votes may have been down this year.
