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As the 2016 Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday, one aspect was clear: Americans are increasingly looking for alternative candidates outside of the two-party duopoly. According to Google Trends, searches for "3rd party candidate 2016" increased by 1,150 percent over the last week. Interestingly, states with the highest third party candidate searches in the United States were (in order): Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and Michigan. Politico reports t

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

On July 14, congressional lawmakers introduced the Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2016, which would ensure that whenever a citizen interacts with the government, they are automatically registered to vote unless they choose to decline. The bill is being led by Representative Robert Brady (D-PA). While support at the congressional level has been primarily among Democrats, automatic registration is a bi-partisan reform at its very core. Five states have adopted automatic voter registration th

To date, seventeen Democratic State Conventions, one legislative district convention, and one county convention have voted to either abolish or reform superdelegates. Following frustration voiced by Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Maine was the first state to pass a resolution at their convention in early May, followed closely by Alaska.Delegates Awarded to Democratic Candidates | InsideGov Since then, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, We

With many voters disappointed with their choices for president in the presumptive nominees of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, many are considering alternative candidates. Thus far, the greatest beneficiary of this disappointment has been Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, who is consistently polling in double digits in three-way contests with Clinton and Trump. Johnson's growing popularity is alarming many conservatives, who fear that Johnson could play the role of "spoiler" by siphoni

Too often in American history, we romanticize about a past that never happened. One of these beliefs, that the Founding Fathers were a group of inexperienced politicians, is particularly damaging in modern politics when we consider placing inexperienced business leaders into positions of authority. Reality was that all of the Founding Fathers who eventually became president were very active in politics from a young age. For example, George Washington was active in the House of Burgesses, Virgi

Now that the major parties have all but decided who their nominees will be – with the official nominations coming this July – leaders in both parties are eager to unify their respective bases and discourage voters from considering independent and third party alternatives. Yet this task will prove especially difficult this election season, as the presumptive nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both have unfavorability ratings above 50 percent. Many members of both parties are dissatisfi

By sheer statistical coincidence, the percentage of Americans who self-identify as independents (approximately 40 percent) is nearly identical to the percentage of Americans who self-identify as moderates. This coincidence has nurtured a common misunderstanding: that independents are mostly moderates who want members of both parties to move toward the center. But a growing body of literature studying the precise political attitudes of the public – and especially moderates and independents – is

Faye Flam, who has written for Science Magazine and continues to write about science, mathematics, and medicine, recently explained in detail  a number of reasons why nature isn't as simple as some people believe, as exemplified by the contentious debate over transgender access to bathrooms. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has been attempting damage control after backlash from a bill requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms matching the gender on their birth certificate in schoo

Anyone who has ever supported a third-party presidential candidate in an election has likely had to defend their decision from partisans who endorse the lesser-of-two-evils voter theory. By the logic offered by proponents of the theory, anyone who votes for an independent candidate is at best wasting their vote, and at worst handing the election over to their least-favorite major-party candidate. With as many as four potential Supreme Court replacements looming during the next presidency, parti