Did you know ?
Behind the battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the race for the White House, "small" candidates are desperately trying to find their way into a politico-media scene more saturated than ever.
"There are more than 1,200 people in the presidential race
,
"
a local Houston media headline in mid-October.
According to the online encyclopedia Ballotpedia, among these 1,218 contenders, 324 claim to be Democrats, 164 Republicans.
Despite these staggering figures, it is not easy to make your way through the ultra-locked system across the Atlantic.
Read also: US Presidential: "Donald Trump remains a formidable political force"
Realize: to even consider a single vote for yourself, you must first register in each of the 50 states.
To see his name appear on the ballot papers, it is necessary to have obtained at least 5% of the votes - sometimes 10% - in a previous ballot.
Or, petitions for signatures must be carried out in each state, the number of which varies according to the zone.
All signatures are verified, which is expensive.
Very expensive.
"The weight of money in politics is immense in the United States"
, recalls Marie-Cécile Naves, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), interviewed by
Le Figaro
.
Kanye "
business
" West
If an independent candidate cannot meet all these criteria, there remains the hypothetical recourse to “
write-in
”.
This is a free section on the ballot that allows the voter to manually write the name of their favorite.
Kanye West himself has opted for this strategy.
The rapper announced in July his candidacy, endorsed by a meeting in which he burst into tears, under cover of an anti-abortion speech.
Perhaps he hopes for a scenario similar to this election in Maryland in 2012, where a man who changed his name to "
Santa Claus
" (Santa Claus, Editor's note), had obtained 625 votes all by himself?
Read also: Kim Kardashian could divorce Kanye West because of his positions on abortion
Be that as it may, Kim Kardashian's spouse should not claim victory too quickly: the use of "
write-in
" remains in the minority) each election (only 136,000 votes in 2012, or 0.11%).
“Anyway, his goal is to promote himself.
It is “personal branding”.
He has no intention of getting elected,
”says Marie-Cécile Naves.
The Republicans, on the other hand, seem to have taken his candidacy seriously, seeing it as a way to grab some votes from Joe Biden by dividing the black electorate.
“It is sad to see such a popular artist being used as a pawn to deceive his relatives and fans with a bogus campaign,”
David Bowen, a Democratic representative in Wisconsin, commented recently on CNN.
Allegations denied by the president himself.
“
I really like Kanye West.
I have nothing to do with his presence on the ballot papers,
”he said in early August.
When the Greens play the siphons
Other more serious candidates intend, at a minimum, to make people talk about them, despite this locked system.
This is the case of the Green Party, the Green Party, led this year by one of its co-founders, Howie Hawkins.
The 67-year-old trade unionist hopes to ride the wave of 2016, when Jill Stein won more than 1% of the vote.
The total seems starved, but by all experts, the ex-candidate played a key role in the defeat of Hillary Clinton, with surprising scores in the states narrowly won by Donald Trump: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The problem is that this great breakthrough would have been encouraged by a discreet but generous donation from a close friend of the Trump galaxy: billionaire Bernie Marcus, creator of a chain of DIY stores.
Read also: These Republican officials who will not vote Trump
For this new election, Howie Hawkins is struggling to find his way into the debate.
He and his running mate, Angela Nicole Walker, are almost invisible, never invited to national media.
Unlike 2016, where Stein had managed to put his name on the ballots of 45 states (and three additional in "
write-in
"), Hawkins will be present in only 30 states (but 17 others in "
write-in
" ).
These numbers could have been even lower if the GP candidate had not also enjoyed questionable support from Republicans, who are very interested in a potential siphoning of Democratic votes in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Montana.
"These people who play this game are just pirates for both parties"
, regretted the green candidate.
The failure of the Libertarians
On the side of the Libertarians, officially the third force behind Republicans and Democrats, difficult to take over from the charismatic Gary Johnson.
The governor of New Mexico succeeded in 2016 the feat of gathering more than 3% of the vote (4.5 million votes), tripling the best historical score of the party.
But in May 2020, the Liberal Party primary took a very strange turn, and anything but serious.
Among the candidates, we counted in particular the extravagant John McAfee, sulfur pioneer of the antivirus.
And especially the anarchist Vermin Supreme, known to wear a boot as a headgear.
The latter promised to offer a pony to those who would vote for him ...
Read also: United States: how is the presidential election going?
In this slump that has damaged the credibility of supporters of laissez-faire, academic Jo Jorgensen finally won.
And this, while the candidacy of Justin Amash, the first independent to join the House of Representatives, seemed the most credible to seek the nomination.
A former member of the Republicans, the 40-year-old ultra-conservative finally gave up the race in April, due to the pandemic.
Much less known, Jo Jorgensen, the daughter of a Danish immigrant, has been swimming in relative anonymity since the start of her campaign.
Just as invisible to the mainstream media as her counterpart from the Green Party, she launched a "
tour bus
" a few weeks ago
across the United States.
In the polls, the Libertarian Party would obtain between 3 and 4% of the vote, according to the latest consultations.
An honorable score, which should not however upset the ultradomination of Trump and Biden.
“
We might be 'crazy', but that doesn't mean we're wrong or that our voices aren't important enough to be heard,
” she recently told her supporters.
Vermin Supreme, candidate for the Libertarian Party primaries.
WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
"
Useful vote
"
Other candidates, even smaller than the small ones mentioned above, are trying to carry the famous third vote.
This is the case of entrepreneur Brock Pierce, creator of Tether, a cryptocurrency equivalent to the dollar, which manages to be present on the ballots of 16 states.
Mexican-American Rocky de la Fuente, a former Democratic Party member, will have his name in 15 states, as will pro-Venezuelan socialist Gloria LaRiva.
Kanye West will be registered in 12 states anyway.
Businessman Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, a coal extractor company, will appear on the "
bales
" of 18 states.
"
Many candidates have business motivations, seek to make themselves known for local politics in the short or medium term
", comments Marie-Cécile Naves.
Read also: What if the "devil" Trump wins despite everything?
Unfortunately for these almost anonymous, the anti-Trump sentiment that hangs over the 2020 election should not favor their emergence.
“
The scenario of 2016 will not happen again.
The Democrats want the defeat of Donald Trump at all costs and will favor the useful vote for Joe Biden, who has put the cursor further to the left on the climate, the minimum wage, or the fight against racist violence.
He is the most left-wing candidate since Kennedy, ”
analyzes Marie-Cécile Naves.
“The most important this year is precisely the useful vote, significantly higher than 2016, where the vote for these candidates was historically high.
There it will be weak because it is a “lost” vote for the candidate that we hate the least against the candidate that we hate the most, ”
abounds Lauric Henneton, lecturer at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin -in-Yvelines.
A recent study by the very serious Pew Research Center in early October definitely seems to condemn the hopes of small candidates.
In 2016, 14% of respondents said they wanted to vote for a third party.
This year, that number has fallen to 5%.
Their supporters are also 2.5 times less motivated than those of Trump and Biden to go and put the ballot in the ballot box.
Finally, 42% of them affirm that there is a chance that they will change their vote on D-Day. More than ever, the two-party system has a bright future ahead of it.
Especially since the Supreme Court, which
"considerably liberalized"
campaign financing in 2010, recalls Marie-Cécile Naves, should continue in this direction with the very conservative new judge Amy Coney Barrett.
To the chagrin of the less wealthy candidates.
