# Is Jill Stein going to spoil the election? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 6, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227 "2016-09-06T21:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/1 "2016-09-06T21:05:26Z")
Living in Maine, I feel like she will. She is quite popular in Portland. A few recent polls have shown Trump leading Maine. I do not know if these polls include her or not, but this is making me sad. We (Left-wing Mainers) should have learned our lesson in the last two governor’s races, when the liberal vote split and put Lepage in office. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/2 "2016-09-06T21:22:02Z")
Not at all, Jill Stein is a joke. She got only .30% of the vote in 2012. Her campaign is so incompetent they flee to the wrong Ohio city for a rally last week. The turnout at that rally? 100 people. This silly woman can’t draw more than a yard sale ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/3 "2016-09-07T14:46:55Z")
Her polling says she’ll get 3%, but yeah, her actual vote total could be less than 1%. But if it does get as high as 3% then that may just hand the election to Trump. Although since it’s Jill freakin’ Stein and not Ralph Nader you can’t blame Stein voters. She’s a nobody. The only voters she can win are those who would never in a million years support Clinton but might have supported a more reformist Democrat. One thing is nearly 90% certain: the difference in the race will be third party voters, although Johnson is going to have a much bigger impact than Stein. Nate Silver’s model currently predicts Johnson getting 7.2%, with Clinton winning by 2.7%. So it looks like conservative voters are going to do a lot of bitching about Johnson when the election is over. Okay, so next time don’t nominate a Donald Trump and you won’t have to worry about a third party conservative candidate. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/4 "2016-09-07T14:51:56Z")
Who? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/5 "2016-09-07T15:51:42Z")
It’s not a matter of great concern to me whether Jill Stein spoils the election. Hell, I’ll spoil it right now (although as a token of traditional Doper courtesy, I’ll place it within spoiler tags): Clinton wins; Trump loses. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/6 "2016-09-07T15:57:46Z")
For Stein to spoil it, she’d have to essentially have Gary Johnson-esque numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/7 "2016-09-07T16:01:21Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > For Stein to spoil it, she’d have to essentially have Gary Johnson-esque numbers. Even Johnson doesn’t have a big enough Johnson to spoil this election. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/8 "2016-09-07T16:34:28Z")
No. There will be some Bernie-bots that can’t bring themselves to vote for Clinton. Otherwise, she’ll have much less of an impact than Nader ever did, which wasn’t much. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/9 "2016-09-07T18:52:26Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No. There will be some Bernie-bots that can’t bring themselves to vote for Clinton. Otherwise, she’ll have much less of an impact than Nader ever did, which wasn’t much. Nader gave George W. Bush the election by drawing enough Florida votes from Gore to throw the whole chad count thing into the courts. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/10 "2016-09-07T18:56:53Z")
Polling at @ 2% nationwide. She’s got about as much chance of being elected as Vermin Supreme. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/11 "2016-09-07T18:57:27Z")
Jill Stein couldn’t spoil egg salad. She’s less than a joke, just like all libertarians. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/12 "2016-09-07T18:57:54Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No. There will be some Bernie-bots that can’t bring themselves to vote for Clinton. Otherwise, she’ll have much less of an impact than Nader ever did, **which wasn’t much**. Giving Bush the presidency “wasn’t much?” ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/13 "2016-09-07T19:04:24Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Polling at @ 2% nationwide. She’s got about as much chance of being elected as Vermin Supreme. And third party vote totals tend to decline on election day. Maybe she gets 1% nationally…but I doubt it. As for the OPs ‘Trump is leading in some polls’? Where? The ones tracked by 538 show him last leading Hillary a month ago [at the beginning of August](http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/maine/). ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/14 "2016-09-07T19:10:27Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Giving Bush the presidency “wasn’t much?” I wouldn’t say that. If Gore had let Clinton campaign for him he could have carried his own state. Or make FL so that Bush couldn’t steal it from him. Mostly I blame a poor ballot design, the butterfly ballot, whereby many would-be Gore voters actually punched the Pat Buchanan hole (as lovely as that sounds). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/15 "2016-09-07T19:30:53Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Living in Maine, I feel like she will. She is quite popular in Portland. A few recent polls have shown Trump leading Maine. I do not know if these polls include her or not, but this is making me sad. We (Left-wing Mainers) should have learned our lesson in the last two governor’s races, when the liberal vote split and put Lepage in office. Stein will get too few votes to win the election. If Maine is that close, \*Clinton will lose the election anyway. \* ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/16 "2016-09-07T19:57:24Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Stein will get too few votes to win the election. > > If Maine is that close, \*Clinton will lose the election anyway. \* I know Stein can’t win. I am asking if she will turn blue states red by splitting the liberal vote. Much like Ralph Nader in 2000, or Eliot Cutler in Maine’s last two gubernatorial elections. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/17 "2016-09-07T19:58:54Z")
Nader got some mainstream media coverage because he was already a household name and the 2000 election was quite boring. No one, outside of political junkies, knows who Jill Stein is. She picked up some coverage on cable and PBS during the slow news time of August during the Olympics. The post Labor Day campaign won’t feature Clinton and Trump discussing the lock box and Stein will be ignored. She’ll only be mentioned when get gets arrested for trying to trespass into the debate or commits vandalism ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/18 "2016-09-07T19:59:04Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > A few recent polls have shown Trump leading Maine. Can you cite them? They’re not on [270toWin](http://www.270towin.com/2016-polls-clinton-trump/maine/) or [Real Clear Politics](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/me/maine_trump_vs_clinton-5896.html). He may get the one vote from the 2nd district, but that’s not Maine. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/19 "2016-09-07T20:13:16Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Can you cite them? They’re not on [270toWin](http://www.270towin.com/2016-polls-clinton-trump/maine/) or [Real Clear Politics](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/me/maine_trump_vs_clinton-5896.html). He may get the one vote from the 2nd district, but that’s not Maine. When was the last time a Republican won an electoral vote from Maine? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227/20 "2016-09-07T20:22:53Z")
1. Now here’s one for you. When was the last time Maine had 10 electoral votes? (Are we in Thread Games all of a sudden?) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jill-stein-going-to-spoil-the-election/765227.md?page=2)