Now is the time for third-party candidates to make a stand

Many registered voters are not looking forward to this November’s presidential election, which will pit Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

According to a July 7 poll from the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans surveyed said they were satisfied with their choices as president. The survey also says roughly four-in-10 voters (41 percent) say it is difficult to choose between Trump and Clinton “because neither would make a good president.”

Clinton and Trump are the least popular presidential candidates since 1992. During that presidential election, 33 percent of Democrats surveyed were satisfied with nominee Bill Clinton while 40 percent approved of George H.W. Bush.

Although both presidential candidates have low approval ratings, voter interest in the 2016 election is high.

The Pew poll states that 80 percent of registered voters say they have given “quite a lot of thought to the election,” the highest share at this point in any campaign since 1992.

Given Clinton’s and Trump’s track records, it’s not surprising that voters are not keen on the idea of either one of them sitting in the Oval Office and representing the free world.

With so much dissatisfaction from voters toward their candidates, now is the perfect time for third-party presidential candidates to make some noise and really put their campaign foot forward and pick up some votes from people who are dissatisfied with Trump and Clinton.

Third parties like the Libertarian and the Green Party have over 750,000 registered voters. It’s not easy for other parties like these to stand up against the big two, but it can be done.

During the 1992 election, Clinton and Bush faced opposition from H. Ross Perot, who ran as an independent. Perot’s campaign took 18.9 percent of the vote while Bush finished with 37.4 percent and Clinton won with 43 percent. Republicans called Perot a “spoiler,” believing he took many of Bush’s votes, but the independent candidate drew support from both parties and finished second in Maine (a blue state) and Utah (red). This was the strongest vote share of a third-party candidate since 1912.

Perot would run again in 1996 under the Reform Party label, but this time he only received 8.4 percent of the popular vote.

For this year’s election there is Jill Stein, who is the Green Party’s presumptive candidate and Gary Johnson, the presumptive Libertarian candidate.

Both Stein and Johnson ran in the 2012 election. Johnson received over 1.2 million (1 percent) of the popular vote while Stein got 469,628.

Johnson’s chances may fare better this year. According to Pew, 22 percent of millennials (18-29 years old) supported Johnson over Trump, who had 21 percent.

Johnson, along with vice presidential running mate and former Minnesota Gov. Bill Weld, are conservative fiscally and liberal socially and that appeals to moderate Republicans.

This election could be a catalyst for change and now is the perfect time for the Libertarian party to get their platform out there first.

Libertarians, among other things, favor smaller government and scaling back the role of the U.S. in the world. Johnson and Weld could pick up some of the votes from Republican voters who do not want to vote for Trump.

If Johnson and Weld can get 30 percent it would be huge, it could rock the election and bring more attention to their party.

Many people will have the opportunity to vote in a presidential election for the first time. Some voters will vote for everything but the presidential election. Some will abstain all together. If they don’t want to vote for Clinton or Trump, they need a third-party candidate.

Voting for someone you don’t have confidence in, or not voting at all is really wasting your vote.