国际英语资讯:Americans desire for major third party surges: poll_时事

国际英语资讯:Americans desire for major third party surges: poll

When Gallup first asked Americans about the need for a third party in 2003, a majority said the parties were doing an adequate job, leaving 40 percent advocating for a third party. By 2006, Americans were evenly divided, but they have shown a clearer preference for a third party since then, apart from 2008 and 2012, said Jeffrey Jones, an analyst with the Gallup.

The political environment is different this year, with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's favorable ratings struggling to break 40 percent, while her Republican rival Donald Trump's have been stuck even lower at around 33 percent, said Jones.

It's not likely for any third-party candidate to win the election, but they would be likely to play "spoiler" by taking away enough votes from one major-party candidate to allow the other to prevail.

Americans' appetite for a third party may not be as great as they say it is, since Americans' unfamiliarity with the third-party candidates and possibly Americans' reluctance to cast their vote for a candidate with little chance of winning, said Jones.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted between Sept. 7 and 11, with a random sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older across the United States. The margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.