Three years ago, Allyson VanCamp, a sophomore political science major, found the political party that best represents her values and ideas: the Libertarian Party. She just wishes presidents were elected based on those factors alone.

“A lot of it just comes down to money,” she said. “Whoever has the most money is going to get the most publicity because they can afford it.”

VanCamp is one of many across the country who support a third party, which is considered any party other than the Democrat or Republican Parties.

Third party candidates obviously do not receive the same amount of publicity as Democratic and Republican candidates. For instance, if you watched last night’s vice presidential debate, you likely didn’t see Wayne Root, the Libertarian candidate, or Rosa Clemente, the Green Party candidate. Last week’s presidential debate didn’t include any third party candidates either.

But just 16 years ago, one candidate who wasn’t a Democrat or a Republican participated in the presidential debates.

If you don’t remember Ross Perot, an independent at the time, maybe you remember Dana Carvey’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live: big ears, white hair, nasally Southern-accent.

Perot was also a billionaire.

“The Commission on Presidential Debates decides who will participate in the debates,” said Matthew Streb, associate professor of political science. “To be invited, candidates must be averaging 15 percent in the national polls.”

There are two sides to the argument on whether this is a fair decision-making tool, Streb said.

“[Some] people believe the 15 percent figure is arbitrary and that the public is not hearing different perspectives about important issues because of the exclusion of third party candidates,” he said. “Others argue, however, that only two candidates have a legitimate chance to win, so we need to hear more from those candidates.”

Marla Harris, a senior nutrition and dietetics major, thinks it would be beneficial to voters if third party candidates partook in the debates.

“Yeah, that would be interesting,” she said, “just to give people more options. Everybody isn’t going to be a Democrat or Republican.”

Student Association has recognized organizations for the “big two” parties – the College Democrats and College Republicans – but there are no third party organizations, said SA President Brent Keller. Any students who wish to form such an organization are welcome to apply for SA recognition, he said.

“I think there’s a potential for them out there,” Keller said.

Third party candidates with a mathematical chance of winning the upcoming election include Barr, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party and Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party.

The only viable independent candidate is Ralph Nader.

“I guess I would say ‘never say never’ but the rules and institutions are certainly stacked in a way that would make it extremely unlikely that third party or independent candidates would win a presidential election,” Streb said.

Still, VanCamp has faith that a third party candidate will eventually win the presidency.

“I like to think that they will,” she said. “People are getting more and more dis-enamored with the two party choices. If they ever got the media coverage…”