a trio of candidates is on course for the best showing by third party or independent candidates in nearly two decades, but significant barriers remain to disrupting or dismantling the nation<u+2019>s two-party system. if opinion polls are correct, libertarian gary johnson , green party nominee jill stein and independent evan mcmullin are likely as a group to receive a level of support unseen since consumer advocate ralph nader <u+2019>s run for president on the green party ticket in 2000, when he drew roughly 3% of the national vote. mr. johnson is drawing about 6% of the national vote according to a new wall street journal/nbc news poll , but in some states he has polled in the double digits. mr. mcmullin, a former cia officer and practicing mormon, has shown strong appeal in his home state of utah, with some indications that he could pull off an upset victory in the state. if mr. mcmullin were to win utah, it would be the first time that someone not from one of the major parties won electoral college votes since 1968. ms. stein has about 2% support, according to the wsj/nbc poll, drawing left-leaning voters unhappy with the democratic ticket. questions remain about whether voters are increasingly open to third parties, or whether their renewed appeal in 2016 is because of the record unpopularity of both democrat hillary clinton and republican donald trump . polls show that a majority of americans support the idea of having choices beyond the republican and democratic tickets, with 57% telling gallup in september that a third major political party is needed. the number of self-identified independent voters has hit record levels in recent years, though many of those voters lean toward one major party or the other. <u+201c>the libertarian party is the only political party that is growing by partisan registration in the entire country,<u+201d> said nicholas sarwark, chairman of the libertarian national committee. <u+201c>the democrats, the republicans, the greens, the constitution [party]<u+2014>they<u+2019>re all in decline. only libertarians are going up.<u+201d> yet the u.s. political system from the very beginning has been dominated by two parties<u+2014>initially the federalists versus the democratic-republican party, then the whigs versus the democrats and finally the republicans versus the democrats. no independent or third-party candidate has ever won the presidency, though a number have played important supporting roles in elections. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s very difficult to be an independent candidate in the united states,<u+201d> said theresa amato, who ran mr. nader<u+2019>s campaign in 2000. as impediments, she cited criteria that limit access to the televised debates , difficult ballot-access requirements for independents and third parties, a skeptical media unwilling to devote significant coverage to third party-candidates and a campaign finance system dominated by big money. scholars have advanced various theories for the durability of the two-party duopoly in u.s. politics<u+2014>primarily, that a voting system in which the winner is determined by a plurality of the electorate tends to favor a two-party system.<u+00a0>alternatives include systems in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, as well as parliamentary systems that allow parties to govern in coalitions or partnerships, enabling minor parties to have more of a governing role. one scholar once likened third parties in the u.s. system to <u+201c>bees,<u+201d> who sting and then die after their issues are adopted by one of the major parties. mr. mcmullin wrestled with that history in a recent interview. he and running mate mindy finn are trying to build a movement of conservatives dissatisfied with the republican party and aren<u+2019>t sure where to take it after the election. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re trying to figure out if that means a new political party, or if that means we work within the republican party to reform it,<u+201d> mr. mcmullin said. <u+201c>both mindy and i have spent years trying to do that, and we have seen that there are challenges there that we believe will take a generation to fix, if they can be fixed at all.<u+2019><u+2019> the greens and libertarians are relative newcomers to the political scene, compared with republicans and democrats. the libertarian party was founded in 1971 and advocates for a combination of small government and liberal social policies, with an emphasis on personal freedom in both economic and social life. the left-leaning green party emerged in the 1990s and advocates for environmental stewardship, anti-interventionism and what it terms social justice. <u+201c>the green party<u+2019>s goal is to become a major party, a party that is competitive with the democrats and republicans<u+2014>to be able to get people elected to high office,<u+2019><u+2019> said party spokesman scott mclarty. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re realistic about what our chances are about getting jill stein into the white house. but votes to jill stein are valuable to us for so many other reasons.<u+2019><u+2019> a strong showing by the green party or the libertarians in some states would preserve easy ballot access for either 2018 or 2020. if either the libertarian or the green party received 5% of the national popular vote, their presidential candidate would be eligible for public financing in the next election. <u+2014>natalie andrews contributed to this article. write to byron tau at byron.tau@wsj.com
third party candidates could have their best election day in years  - wsj
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