-Caveat Lector-
Voters Want Alternative to System
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Americans don't have much faith in the two-party
system to elect their president, according to a recent poll.
Nearly half of all polled said they want a third-party candidate to run as an
alternative to the Republican and Democratic candidates, and only 23 percent
agreed ``the two party system works fairly well.''
What was most surprising about the poll was that a possible race between the
two candidates considered challengers to their parties' front-runners -
former Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley and John McCain, Republican senator
from Arizona - does not lessen the voters' desire for a third-party
alternative.
Faced with a possible contest between Bradley and McCain - often portrayed as
outsiders or mavericks within their parties - 43 percent of all voters
surveyed said they would also want to have a third-party candidate.
Nearly the same percentage - 45 percent - said they wanted a third-party
candidate if they were faced with a race between Texas Gov. George W. Bush
and Vice President Al Gore.
``We were actually surprised to find that the Bradley-McCain match-up didn't
reduce the desire for a third party,'' said Tami Buhr, research coordinator
for the Vanishing Voter Project, which conducted the poll.
Thomas Patterson, project co-director, said the results reflect a steady,
15-year increase in the public's desire for a third party.
``For a lot of people, simply having that choice is an important thing,''
Patterson said.
But he said the survey results don't necessarily mean more than 40 percent of
Americans will vote for a third-party candidate in the next election.
The results are from a nationwide telephone survey of 1,009 adults conducted
between Dec. 15-19. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 3
percentage points.
It is the latest installment in the Vanishing Voter Project at Harvard's Joan
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
The project, which began Nov. 10, is designed to get at the root of voter
apathy. Project directors plans to have interviews conducted of at least
1,000 Americans weekly through the November election - more than 50,000
voters in total.
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