There’s something about third parties and third party political candidates that has always fascinated me.

It’s probably because I’m a Libertarian and have been so for decades. It’s probably also because I have such a soft spot for the underdog, regardless if it’s on the football field or at the election ballot box.

Libertarians, in case you didn’t know, believe in less government in all areas of our life. Unlike the Republicans and Democrats, who believe in freedom in some areas, Libertarians are 100 percent freedom 100 percent of the time.

Unfortunately, no Libertarian candidate has ever made an impact on a presidential race. It’s not been for a lack of trying. In many presidential elections, Libertarians have qualified for ballot access in all 50 states. It’s a major accomplishment considering the obstacles Democrats and Republicans work together to put in their path.

No third party or independent candidate has carried a state in a presidential election since 1968. That year Alabama’s George Wallace won five states, including Georgia. Wallace finished second in others and came close to preventing Richard Nixon from getting the required number of electoral votes to win.

Even Ross Perot’s high profile candidacy in 1992 and 1996 resulted in no electoral votes and that’s really the name of the game. Perot gained millions of popular votes but no electoral votes.

Of course, the Libertarian Party has a presidential candidate in 2024 in Georgia’s Chase Oliver, who helped push the 2022 U.S. Senate battle between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock into a runoff.

Oliver is on the Georgia ballot this year. So is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. It is the first time a Green Party presidential candidate has been on Georgia’s ballot. Remember, both Democrats and Republicans don’t want voters to have more choices and do everything in their power to make sure that happens.

Some states have more lax ballot access laws. Georgia has some of the toughest although the signature total was lowered in recent years due to lawsuits brought by the Libertarian Party.

Still, this year Democrats went to court to keep other candidates off the presidential ballot. Ballot access laws are so confusing that often judges don’t even understand them. That was the case this year as Democrats said that since Georgia has 16 electors then independent and third-party candidates had to collect 7,500 signatures per elector.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that is not how the law reads. The number of signatures needed is 7,500 not 120,000. Raffensperger is right but a judge ruled against two independent candidates anyway.

Stein and Oliver qualified for the ballot through other avenues, not by meeting the signature requirement.

Name recognition has always been important in political movements outside the mainstream.

One of the more memorable third party campaigns in our country’s history came when Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 when he helped formed The Progressive Party, known in some circles as the Bull Moose Party.

Roosevelt lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protege turned rival, incumbent president William Howard Taft. The new party was known for taking advanced positions on progressive reforms and attracting leading national reformers.

As a member of the Republican Party, Roosevelt had served as president from 1901 to 1909, becoming increasingly progressive in the later years of his presidency. In the 1908 presidential election, Roosevelt helped ensure that he would be succeeded by Secretary of War William Howard Taft. 

In the 1912 presidential election, Roosevelt won 27.4 percent of the popular vote compared to Taft’s 23.2 percent, making Roosevelt the only third party presidential nominee to finish with a higher share of the popular vote than a major party’s presidential nominee.

Both Taft and Roosevelt finished behind Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson, who won 41.8 percent of the popular vote and the vast majority of the electoral vote.

Decades later, the Conservative Party of New York was formed in 1962 following dissatisfaction with the state’s Republican Party. 

James L. Buckley won election to the U.S. Senate in 1970 and served for one term. The party continues to be on the New York ballot receiving the highest number of votes for a third party for governor in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Regardless of what transpires on Nov. 5, 2024, more choice is always a good thing at the ballot box. You might hear different from the talking heads of the two-head political monster, but don’t believe it for a second.

Chris Bridges is managing editor of The Walton Tribune. Email comments about this column tomchris.bridges@waltontribune.com.