Discontent among voters is leading to an uptick in support for third-party candidates in 2016.
The Hill reports that Libertarian Gary Johnson has jumped nearly 3-percent in polls over the last six weeks, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein has climbed 1-percent in that same time.
Analysts say the interest in other candidates is mostly being driven by dissatisfaction with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
“The fact that we have two major party candidates who are enormously disliked by the electorate, enormously and equally disliked, creates the opportunity for the minor party candidates to do better than they would in other presidential elections,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
“The minor party candidates can have great influence if the final race is very close.”
A CNN survey released last week found that 17 percent of Republican voters who didn’t back Trump in the primary now support Johnson, while only 4 percent of Democrats disgruntled with Clinton supported him. Stein, meanwhile, took 6 percent support among voters who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
