With the presidential election quickly approaching, many people are not thrilled with our options. While I could talk about either candidate’s positives and negatives, I want to focus on the biggest issue in American politics for now and years to come.

There is a third option this year, and her name is Dr. Jo Jorgensen. If this is the first time you’ve heard this name, then the American media and our entire system has failed you.

Jorgensen is a senior lecturer at Clemson University and is the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President. Jorgensen is on all 50 state ballots, plus Washington, D.C. Still, many Americans will vote this year with no prior knowledge of her.

This is the result of years of societal indoctrination by both Democrats and Republicans to make you think you only have two choices. There are common myths that we are all told that have kept those two parties in charge. Not only are they false, but they are also active tools of voter suppression. 

The first is that if you vote for Jorgensen this year, you are helping either Joe Biden or President Trump. 

This is obviously false, because both sides use this tactic as a way of deterring voters from voting for a third party. You can simultaneously be told that a vote for Jorgensen will help Biden by a Republican and that it will help President Trump by a Democrat. Neither are true, as the vote will only count for Jorgensen.

Second, we are told that voting third party is a wasted vote. This is blatantly false. 

If Jorgensen receives 5% of the national vote, the Federal Election Commission will acknowledge the Libertarian Party as a national minor party, qualifying them for federal campaigning funds. This would help even the playing field of campaign finance in future races and give the 2024 Libertarian presidential candidate a chance of winning the election.

A third-party vote is not wasted. In fact, it is worth significantly more than a two-party vote. When you vote for either President Trump or Biden, your vote counts toward your state electors. If your candidate loses at the state level, even by one vote, your vote is not represented. In a majority of states, the candidate that wins the state receives all of the electoral votes. However, every vote for Jorgensen counts toward the national 5% requirement.

The final myth we are told is that these candidates don’t even exist. 

Major media outlets hardly ever cover third-party candidates until election night. You won’t see Jorgensen on the debate stage because she did not poll an average of 15% in six polls randomly selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The catch? The CPD was established by the Democrats and Republicans in 1987, and they hold all of the power in deciding who qualifies for the debate stage. Also, a majority of the polls “randomly” selected do not include third party candidates as choices. 

These candidates exist, and in the case of Jorgensen, have the same mathematical probability of reaching 270 electors in the electoral college as President Trump or Biden.

I could understand Jorgensen losing the election because the American people believe someone else is the better option, but why not let the people decide?

This isn’t a President Trump issue or a Joe Biden issue. This is an issue rooted in both the Republican and Democratic party. The political spectrum is not left and right, it is statism and liberty. Both parties represent statism, therefore there is no representation for liberty. The biggest issue in American politics today is whether or not we allow the state to continue perpetuating the lie that we have no other option.