The following Letter to the Editor ran in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
The Republican and Democratic national conventions revealed that the two major parties are no longer in step with Idahoans. In Idaho 70 percent of members in both parties said they do not want either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
Idaho is ripe for challenging the two major parties this year and uniting around a movement for an Independent Idaho. Neither party’s nominee reflects the will of Idaho primary voters, with an estimated 59 percent of the state’s voters as unaffiliated independents. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is on the Idaho ballot already and citizens are working hard right now to get Green Party candidate Jill Stein added, too.
A third-party victory is possible. As of last week Gary Johnson was polling at 26 percent in Utah – just a few percentage points behind Trump and Clinton. And, this is without much advertising or organizing.
Those interested in talking constructively about the pros and cons of voting third-party can go to Independent Idaho on Facebook.
We are not hostages of these parties and shouldn’t have to hold our noses each time we vote. Idaho can build a more perfect union by blazing a path to a multi-party political system. If not now, when? If not us, who?
Leontina Hormel
Moscow