According to Pew Research, “Very few voters are hearing much about third party candidates in this year’s election. A quarter of voters have heard of Gary Johnson, presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, but only 5% have heard a lot about him. Fully 74% have not heard of him at all.”
The survey goes on to note 81% have not heard of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and 90% have not heard of Virgil Goode.
The article was published on September 19, 2012. The information on third party presidential candidates is on page 5 of the online article and can be found here.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Q2Q // Sep 20, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Gee, what a shocker, the voters have never heard of a candidate with no ads.
2 Austin Battenberg // Sep 20, 2012 at 4:49 pm
To be fair, even if you don’t watch the commercials, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC will mention Romney and Obama all the time.
3 Zapper // Sep 20, 2012 at 4:57 pm
When asked if they’ve heard of something, such as a candidate for public office, people also have a tendency to lie. They will claim to have heard of people or things in order to appear informed. This has been repeatedly confirmed by offering ficticious choices. In addition, with names like Gary Johnson, many will think they have heard that name because it has a common ring to it.
It is quite likely that most of the 26% have not, in fact, heard of Gary Johnson at all.
The 5% number is probably closer to the real number for those who have actually heard of Johnson and have any comprehension of what they have heard.
4 Melty // Sep 23, 2012 at 2:49 am
Then, if he gets 6% in a national poll, he’s doing very well.
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