Jamze Gillogly doesn’t want to hear warnings against casting a “protest vote,” even from Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The 24-year-old restaurant worker from the battleground state of Ohio registered as a Democrat just to vote for Sanders in the primary. Now he says he doesn’t want to vote for either of the main parties’ “celebrity” candidates. He’s ignoring Sanders’ pleas to vote for Hillary Clinton and instead supporting Green Party candidate Jill Stein, whose views he says match his own.
“If a third-party vote were a protest vote, this is absolutely the time for a protest vote,” said Gillogly of Zanesville. “Because we have two of the most unfavorable main-party candidates in all of American history.”
Most Sanders’ supporters say they’ll vote for Clinton. But the enthusiasm – or “Bern” – young people felt for the Vermont senator during primary season hasn’t shifted to her. Clinton is underperforming against GOP nominee Donald Trump among young voters, who have leaned Democratic in presidential elections since 2004. And a surprisingly large percentage are turning to the third-party candidates, Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson.
“I would hate to see Trump in office, but I guess I wouldn’t like to see Hillary in office,” said Ashley Freeman, 26, a Minneapolis lab tech who supported Sanders. She’s now backing Johnson, mostly to vote against Trump and Clinton.
Eric Butcher, 33, an Indianapolis communications engineer who also backed Sanders, said he’ll vote for Stein because he doesn’t trust Clinton to follow through on her promises.
“I think the country could survive four years of Donald Trump,” he said. “If that’s what happens, I don’t feel responsible for it. I think the people ultimately responsible are the (Democratic National Committee) and ultimately Hillary Clinton herself, if she loses.”
Clinton’s 21-point lead among 18-34-year-olds in a two-way matchup against Trump shrinks to 5 points in a four-way race with Johnson and Stein, a Sept. 14 Quinnipiac University poll showed. And in a McClatchy-Marist national poll of likely voters released Friday, third-party candidates lopped 10 points off Clinton’s 38-point lead over Trump among 18-29-year-olds. In that age group, Clinton gets 47%, Trump and Johnson get 19% each, and Stein gets 13%.
— source usatoday.com