The influence of the Green Party on the outcome of the elections

2024-10-29 15:30:38, Kosova & Bota CNA

In the November 5 election, according to polls, Green Party candidate Jill Stein could get 1 percent of the vote. As Voice of America correspondent Maxim Adams reports, Ms. Stein's candidacy could have a very big impact on the outcome of the election. Some political analysts say even a small percentage of votes for candidate Stein could change the outcome in what are considered swing states.

It is not the first time that Green Party candidate Jill Stein is running for president of the United States. In 2016, Ms. Stein received just over 1 percent of the vote.

Many Democrats believe that these votes cost Hillary Clinton the loss of the presidential race. In Michigan, for example, Donald Trump won over Hillary Clinton by less than 11,000 votes, while candidate Stein received over 51,000 votes.

Some experts say it is not clear whether all the votes that were cast for candidate Stein would have gone in support of candidate Clinton.

"I don't think it's easy to say 'this person got my votes,' because you don't know who the voters would support if they had to choose between only two candidates," says Kyle Kondik from the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

A similar situation was seen in 2000, when Green Party candidate Ralph Nader won nearly 100,000 votes in Florida and Republican George W. Bush won over Democrat Al Gore by just 537 votes.

"Those who vote for a third-party candidate do so for very individual reasons. They are so angry with the major parties and as a result they produce a protest vote," says Jack Rakove of Stanford University.

Still, Democrats continue to raise concerns that Ms. Stein could hurt their party's chances of victory in the election, accusing her on several occasions of trying to target candidate Kamala Harris.

VOA reached out to Ms. Stein's campaign, and spokesman Sam Pfeifle responded by saying that the attack on a third-party candidate "is not just an attack on democracy, but a form of oppression to scare people into not voting." vote for the candidate they want, or even not to vote at all".

But in key states like Michigan, home to the highest number of Muslims in the United States, the Green Party could have more influence.

That's because many Muslims concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are angry that President Biden has given support to Israel.

According to a report released last month by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 40 percent of Muslims in Michigan said they plan to vote for Stein, while 12 percent said they will vote for Democrat Harris.

"Candidate Stein is expected to take many of the votes that could have gone to Kamala Harris, and Democrats in swing states failed to prevent her from registering as a presidential candidate. So, if this race is going to hinge on key states, it is possible that the vote for Ms. Stein will affect states with narrow margins," says John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute.

The same report also shows that many Muslims plan to vote for Stein over Harris in Wisconsin and Arizona, key states where Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in 2020.

In an election year where it is very difficult to predict who the winner might be, the votes of the Green Party can make the difference./ VOA