Articles by Griffin Edwards

The 2016 election has quickly turned into more than a two-person race as a growing segment of the electorate is looking outside the major parties to viable alternative options. This year, increased interest has propelled Libertarian Gary Johnson near the polling threshold required to appear alongside Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump in the presidential debates, and is helping Green Party candidate Jill Stein gain ballot access in most states. But as Johnson and Stein rise in...

The focus for minor party candidates Gary Johnson and Dr. Jill Stein right now is getting to the 15 percent polling threshold to qualify for the presidential debate stage. However, there is another important number for both candidates, and that is the number 5. With widely disliked major-party candidates representing the Democrats and Republicans this year, third parties are seeing unprecedented support. Current polling puts Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson as high as 9 percent and Green ...

A challenge to the Commission on Presidential Debates was effectively dismissed in federal court Friday. U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that there is little merit to the claim that the CPD is violating antitrust laws and there is no evidence the commission is intentionally working to shut out minor party presidential challengers. Gov. Gary Johnson, Dr. Jill Stein, the Libertarian and Green Parties, and several affiliated organizations sued the CPD, the sponsors of the fall pre...

It’s been a few days now since WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails and over 8,000 attachments from the Democratic National Committee. IVN’s own Andrew Gripp has published an article detailing some of their damning content. Emails show multiple occasions of collusion with the press, anti-Trump campaign tactics, and party financial support of Hillary Clinton. In other emails, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, chair of the DNC, calls Sanders’ campaign manager a “damn liar” and an “ASS”. The controve...

Faced with the prospect of Bernie Sanders not being the Democratic nominee, many of his supporters are taking a step in the seemingly opposite direction, lending support to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. At first glance, Trump is a surprising choice. After all, the media narrative presents Trump and Sanders as diametrically opposed: Sanders supporters are portrayed as hip -- often unrealistic and impulsive -- college students dedicated to social change, while Trump fans are charac...

The #NeverTrump movement is dead. Squashed, as it were, by a new party rule. A 77-21 vote in the RNC Rules committee Thursday effectively banned “conscience voting” for delegates to the Convention, ending the movement among delegates to vote for someone, anyone, other than Donald Trump. The movement was spearheaded by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh and a variety of outside organizations, including Free The Delegates 2016 and Our Principles PAC. Unruh and company strove to encourage delegates t...

“Americans vote for their president.” Well, yes and no. America’s presidential election system relies on the Electoral College, a group of men and women chosen by state parties to vote in their favor. When Americans go to the polls, they choose their candidate of choice, and trust that the party electors will vote as the citizens have chosen. Each state has a certain number of electors: California has the most, with 55; other states, like Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska, have as few as three. The...

A July 11 federal court case in Richmond, Virginia, comes in the midst of much debate over delegate rules, and has the potential to turn the tables on Trump at the GOP convention. Virginia RNC delegate Carroll Correll Jr., backed by the Citizens in Charge Foundation, sued Virginia Attorney General Mark Herrig and other state officials over delegate binding laws. Correll was successful in overturning rules that required delegates to vote winner-take-all, rather than proportionally. He hopes the ...

Third party candidates like Jill Stein (Green Party) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) face a major hurdle to political legitimacy : not being included in national polls that determine debate eligibility. Historically, third party candidates have had a difficult time establishing name recognition. Media coverage, mega donors, and attention tend to gravitate toward the Republican and Democratic candidates -- leaving outside voices out of the national dialogue. This year, Stein and Johnson ha...