In Wisconsin — perhaps more than any other swing state — every vote counts. In four of the last six presidential elections, the margin of victory was less than 1%, or about 20,000 votes.
Critics say that’s why Democrats are trying so hard to kick Green Party candidate Jill Stein and other third-party candidates off the ballot.
“You can count on [the Democrats] to challenge Green Party candidates’ ballot access, as they feel Greens will steal the vote from them,” Wisconsin Green Party Elections Chair Pete Karas told The Post Wednesday.
“Not realizing that they should be putting effort into earning those votes and not lessening options in the voting booth.”
In 2016, Democrats accused Stein of being a “spoiler candidate” who helped Donald Trump win the election after she drew 30,000 votes in Wisconsin that Hillary Clinton supporters claimed should have been theirs.
But that thinking ignores the third-party voters who would never vote for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m tired of a two-party monopoly that doesn’t represent me,” Roy Martin, a disabled veteran from Gresham, Wis., who supports the Libertarian Party. Martin said he believes the GOP “exploits” veterans for their votes but only cares about military spending.
The war in Gaza is a top issue this election for a huge portion of Green Party supporters, state co-chair Michael White told The Post.
Stein has called the Israeli military operation to wipe out Hamas a “genocide” and the party platform includes boycotts and economic sanctions against Israel. It also favors the abolition of the Jewish state to create a “secular” nation governed by both Israelis and Palestinians.
The support for the Green Party among anti-Israel voters is significant.
There were the 48,000 protest votes in the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary earlier this year — driven by a movement critical of President Biden’s support for Israel.
White, a dermatologist and military veteran, said his party’s supporters also feel like the Democrats are “using us as pawns” and then “pushing us aside.”
On Monday the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge brought by the Democratic National Committee to boot Stein off the ballot in November.
The claim was based on an argument that the party did not have any state officeholders or legislative candidates authorized to nominate presidential electors.
Constitutional law Rick Esenberg said that argument could disenfranchise voters and “ultimately undermined ballot access by future third-party candidates.”
On Tuesday, the Democratic Chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) attempted again to kick the Green Party, Constitution Party and Libertarian Party off the ballot, based on the same reading of the qualified electors law.
The commission also maneuvered to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot — despite his request to be removed after the former Democrat endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Phillip Anderson of Madison is a libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate and staunch proponent of third-party options. “I’m appalled that the [Wisconsin Election Committion] would try to take anyone off the ballot,” Anderson said.
Anderson believes third-party candidates help advance causes and push the major parties to consider the issues that matter to non-aligned voters.
“I rebel against the idea people are wasting their vote if they vote for a 3rd party,” said Anderson, who garnered 3%, or over 87,000 votes statewide when he ran in the 2016 Senate race.
The Senate candidate said he appeals to voters with a wide variety of political allegiances who agree with the idea that Israel is committing genocide, and who are opposed to corruption in government and the DNC and Republican National Committee “controlling who runs,” pointing as an example to RFK Jr.’s treatment by Democrats.
Anderson supporter Reese Wood, a state employee from south-central Wisconsin, told The Post he’s voting in opposition to “endless wars,” and corruption in government and in favor of individual liberty.
An Emerson College Poll out Thursday puts the presidential race in Wisconsin still in a dead heat, with Trump up one point at 49% to 48% for Harris.