The campaign said Stein “considers the 15 percent polling barrier to be illegitimate, and calls for the debates to be open to candidates who are on ballots in enough states to achieve 270 electoral college votes”.
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The commission said polling averages put Clinton at 43 percent, Trump at 40.4 percent, Johnson at 8.4 percent and Stein at 3.2 percent.
According to Mark Dankof, a former third-party US Senate candidate, third-party presidential candidates in the US face “insurmountable obstacles” from the two major political parties, as well as from wealthy corporations and the mainstream media. “It should be noted that, when [Ross] Perot was allowed on the stage, polls showed his support to be in single digits, below where Johnson and Weld are now polling” he said.
“It is unfortunate that the CPD doesn’t believe such a voice should be heard”.
Only Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, and Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, qualify to participate in the September 26 presidential debate and the October 4 vice-presidential debate, the commission said.
The announcement also means that William Weld, the Libertarian vice presidential nominee, will not participate in an October 4 debate involving Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence. Johnson’s strongest result – 13 percent support – came in a Quinnipiac poll that was not included in the average.
Some polls have found a majority of the American public would like to see more options on the debate stage, and prominent Republicans such as Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, have said publicly that the Libertarian ticket should be part of the mix. Sen.
Johnson continued: “The CPD may scoff at a ticket that enjoys “only” 9 or 10% in their hand-selected polls, but even 9% represents 13 million voters, more than the total population of OH and most other states”.
“Yet, the Republicans and Democrats are choosing to silence the candidate preferred by those millions of Americans”. The commission invited Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to debate.
In an op-ed by Stein in The Guardian on September 6, she wrote that excluding Johnson and her from the debates was “undemocratic” and that the CPD was “phony”.
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“At the time of its creation, the leaders of those two parties made no effort to hide the fact that they didn’t want any third-party intrusions into their shows”, Johnson said.
