Buckwheat wrote:This is not entirely correct. I believe that when any candidate gets a certain percentage of the votes they are entitled to receive federal election funding which can help to further establish a third party.
Yes this is correct 5% to receive general election funds. A candidate has to be polling at 15% to be included in debates. There was some discussion about how that system is manipulated as they took three polls to average for the recent debate and one didn't include voters under 25 and another didn't include independents that were selected for the decision. Those 2 demographics make a large portion of the 3rd party vote.
This is why I get so aggravated when people say a vote for a 3rd party is a wasted vote. Since I'm in Indiana and the republicans have it wrapped up I have always voted for the biggest 3rd party candidate to feel that I did my part to try to meet this threshold regardless of whether I supported the major candidates. It is clear we need more options.
http://ivn.us/2012/11/01/why-5-matters-to-gary-johnson/