Young voters really want to see a third-party candidate on the ballot this November. A new poll out Wednesday by Florida Republican consulting firm Data Targeting reveals that a "shocking 91 percent of voters under the age of 29 favor having an independent candidate on the ballot."
The support for an independent candidate is not quite so strong among the total voting population, but it's still there. The survey of 979 national voters found that 55 percent favor having an independent in the running for 2016. In a hypothetical matchup between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and a generic third-party candidate, Trump snagged 34 percent of the vote, while Clinton got 31 percent, and the third-party candidate got 21 percent.
The poll suggests that the interest in an independent candidate is largely being driven by Trump and Clinton's "historically high negatives." A total of 58 percent of respondents reported being unhappy with the current options on the ballot.
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"There is a viable path to the victory for a credible independent candidate," conservative columnist Bill Kristol, who is calling for a third-party candidate, tweeted after the poll came out. "Not easy, but doable."
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