USA TODAY: By most accounts, Americans are tired of the Democratic and Republican parties, and yet: At the ballot box on Nov. 4, Americans cast fewer votes for independent or third-party candidates for senator and governor than in any other midterm election since 1998.
In senatorial and gubernatorial races this year, just over 4% of votes cast went to independent or third-party candidates, down from 5.5% in 2010, 4.6% in 2006 and 4.9% in 2002, according to data compiled by the website Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Overall, 4.3 million ballots were cast for “off-brand” Senate and governor candidates this year, compared with 7.6 million in 2010.
This even as the center-left think tank Third Way reported in October that between 2008 and 2014, the number of people registering to vote as independents far outstripped new registrants in the Democratic and Republican parties in 10 crucial states. And Gallup polls consistently show more people holding an unfavorable than favorable view of both major parties… (more)
