Voters Deserve a Good Debate

With the election season kicking into high gear I am sure everyone is waiting to see which candidates the Pathfinder's editors will endorse and what sides we will take on ballot issues. If that's you, I am sorry to inform you, it won't happen.

We feel it's important for the Pathfinder to remain neutral and as unbiased as we can in our reporting. That would be impossible if we start taking sides. If you feel that we ever are, certainly call us out on it.

I am sure in the coming weeks we will be printing a lot of letters to the editor and political ads that we may or may not agree with or endorse. It's important for us to allow this open format and public speech. Our pages are available to everyone equally.

On that note, there is one issue that I will come out with a position on: The presidential debate's exclusion of third parties. Nothing is more frustrating to me than going into the polling booth, opening up the ballot and thinking, "Who the heck is that?" It's the media's job to put out information and the Pathfinder will always fight and dig for more information.

Recently, when the Seeley Lake Community Council was organizing their Candidate Forum, I took notice that the third party candidates were not being invited. When asked why not, the council agreed that if a candidate was on the ballot, they should be invited. One of those candidates, Mike Fellows, Libertarian for US House of Representatives, accepted the invite and came to Monday night's forum. Look for the Pathfinder's coverage of the candidate forums starting in next week's issue.

I understand that there has to be a bar set for a spot on the national debate stage. The bar that is set by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), combined with an almost complete blackout of third party candidates by mainstream media, all but guarantees that voters will be left in the dark on Election Day.

One requirement set by the CPD is that candidates must be on enough state's ballots to mathematically win the general election. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton easily meet this requirement.

Libertarian Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, also meet this qualification and both are on the ballot in Montana. A fifth candidate on Montana's ballot, "Rocky" Roque De La Fuente, American Delta Party, doesn't meet this qualification. Johnson is on the ballot in all 50 states while Stein has gained ballot access in 44 states and write-in status in three.

The second requirement is that candidates must poll at an average of 15 percent in five selected polls ahead of the debate. This year the CPD has selected polls from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC.

Though this seems like a reasonable level, the polling methodology has some huge flaws that hurt third party candidates. For instance, CBS asks respondents a two-way race between Clinton and Trump as question three and adds in Johnson and Stein at question seven.

NBC's poll starts out asking voters their opinions on 13 people, all with Democrat and Republican ties, including Trump's daughter, Ivanka and Clinton's daughter, Chelsea but leaves off candidates, Stein and Johnson. NBC then asks a two-way race before the four-way race.

CNN's poll failed to sample enough 18-34 year old voters to even report results for the age category while other polls are showing that Johnson and Stein's highest support is coming from 18-34 year old voters. A Quinnipiac University poll has Johnson at 29 percent, just 2 points behind Clinton and 3 points ahead of Trump in the 18-34 group. Stein shows 15 percent in that age group.

Fox News under sampled Independents, another demographic where Johnson polls particularly strong. Fox shows that 19 percent of those polled identified as independents while 40 percent were Democrats and 39 percent Republicans.

Pew Research Center has recently updated their party identification numbers showing 34 percent Independent, 33 percent Democrats and 29 percent Republicans whereas Gallup's most recent numbers have Independents making up 38 percent, Democrats at 31 percent and Republicans at 27 percent.

Now throw in a media blackout on third parties. A recent Washington Times article on network news coverage by ABC, CBS and NBC show the media's bias against third parties. According to research done by the Media Research Center, from Jan. 1, 2016 through August of 2016, Johnson received just 11 seconds of coverage in 1,713 campaign stories. Stein received three seconds of coverage while Clinton racked up 1,020 minutes and Trump 1,773 minutes of coverage.

It's no wonder when multiple polls asked if voters have a favorable or unfavorable view of Johnson and Stein that nearly half of respondents had no opinion or answered, "Never heard of".

Ask yourself if you'd like to see Johnson or Stein in the debates this fall. Quinnipiac asked that exact question in its most recent poll and found that 57 percent said that Johnson should be included in the debates. USA Today asked and found 76 percent favored having third parties in the debates.

So, when you tune into the first debate Monday, Sept. 26 think about what it would look like to have Johnson and Stein on the stage. It certainly would take on a new tone having candidates with a wider range of views, whether it's ending US military interventions and balancing the budget or providing healthcare and schooling to all citizens.

Never be afraid of a good debate and when Election Day comes around don't be one of the many staring at your ballot thinking, "Who the heck is that?"