Third Party Presidential Candidate Results

While thrid party candidates have won some local offices, they did not have a meaningful effect on the presidential race. Straight Talk has summarized the results of the major third party candidates:

In 2004, Independent Candidate, Ralph Nader earned .38% of the total vote with 463,655 votes and in 2008 so far, Ralph Nader has earned 656,670 votes which equals to.53% of the total vote thus far.

In 2004, Libertarian Party Candidate, Michael Badnarik earned .32% of the total vote with 397,265 votes and in 2008 so far, Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr earned 488,873 votes which equals to .40% of the total vote thus far

In 2004, Constitution Party candidate, Michael Peroutka earned .12% of the total vote with 143,630 votes and in 2008 so far, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin earned 174,634 votes which equals to .14% of the total vote thus far.

In 2004, Green Party candidate David Cobb earned .10% of the total vote with 119,859 votes and in 2008 so far, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney earned 142,785 votes which equals to roughly .12% of the total vote thus far.

These results are with 98 percent of the vote in so the popular vote totals might get a little higher for some but the percentages are unlikely to change significantly. Overall the third party candidates only received about one percent of the vote. As might be expected with a higher turn out, all four received more votes than their party four years go. They also have increased their percentage of the vote, but not by enough to be meaningful.

Many Libertarians were disappointed that the Libertarian Party nominated what they considered a conservative Republican ticket with Bob Barr and Wayne Allyn Root. Many voted for the nomination of Barr believing that, being better known, he might be able to receive a significantly higher vote total than previous nominees. It didn’t turn out this way as seen by a review of all the results for all of the Libertarian Party presidential candidates:

LIBERTARIAN PARTY

2008 (Barr) 0.4% (45 states)
2004 (Badnarik) 0.3% (48 states plus DC)
2000 (Browne) 0.4% (49 states plus DC, plus Smith in Arizona)
1996 (Browne) 0.5% (50 states plus DC)
1992 (Marrou) 0.3% (50 states plus DC)
1988 (Paul) 0.5% (46 states plus DC)
1984 (Bergland) 0.3% (39 states)
1980 (Clark) 1.1% (50 states plus DC)
1976 (MacBride) 0.2% (32 states)
1972 (Hospers) statistically insignificant (2 states)

4 Comments

  1. 1
    battlebob says:

    So far, the only race that is affected by a third party is the Coleman- Franken race.  Coleman leads by 236 votes (DKos).  Other candidates drew over 460k votes.  A few of those votes – either way – would prove decisive.
    The uncounted early voting totals could decide.

    As far as I can tell, in all other races, other candidates talleys were in the insignificant noise level. 

  2. 2
    Bruce Alan Martin says:

    Minnesota’s Coleman-Franken race is NOT “the only race that is affected by a third party”. In Georgia, the Libertarian candidate’s 3% showing will probably keep incumbent Chambliss under 50% and throw him in to a runoff.

    (In 1992, LP candidate Jim Hudson also caused a runoff by keeping incumbent Wyche Fowler below 50%. Hudson then threw his support to Paul Coverdell, who won the runoff and became Georgia’s Senator. Ironically, it was Bob Barr who nearly beat Coverdell in the GOP primary; in the runoff primary, Coverdell beat Barr by 1600 votes.)

  3. 3
    alexis says:

    i want to know the results of electoral votes

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Unless we have a situation such as when Roger McBride was elected as an elector for Richard Nixon but voted for the Libertarian Party instead there won’t be any electoral votes for any of the third party candidates.

    The most likely electoral vote result, assuming no unfaithful electors and Missouri goes Republican, is 365 electoral votes for Obama and 173 for McCain.

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