[Political Junkie Too]

I think the impact shows up in the totals. For example, in Ohio the vote is tied at 45%. Other candidates get 6%, and 4% are undecided. The candidates that you list would show up in that 6%.

Are you asking whether that 6% is coming from Romney's or Obama's total, or whether they would go to neither and the voter will just stay home, or whether they would still vote for the 3rd party candidate on election day?

Most people think that the undecided vote tends to break for the challenger, because if they supported the incumbent they'd already have made up their mind. Along those lines, one could surmise that the 3rd party vote is also a protest against the incumbent moreso than a refusal to support the challenger.

I use Rasmussen's public polling data, so I'm not diving (yet) into the details where 3rd party insights may lie. That said, I'm 100% certain that a 3rd party candidate will not win the Presidency.

-PJ

[gleeaikin]

I too am certain that a third party candidate will not win. The question is how much will one candidate or the other be hurt by them. The Libertarians and Goode supporters will probably draw from the Republican side. The Greens will tend to be from the Democrats. Not sure what the trend would be for Rohmer. There is a party, I think called Peace and Freedom in California which would probably draw from the Democrats. I’m not sure what else is out there. Given the growth of green parties in Europe, I wonder about the future of the Green Party in the US.