George Phillies, who appeared on the New Hampshire ballot with the label “Libertarian”, polled .07% of the vote cast in New Hampshire. New Hampshire only cast .5% of the national presidential vote.
Charles Jay, presidential candidate of the Boston Tea Party, polled .02% of the vote cast in the three states in which he was on the ballot. Those three states accounted for 10.2% of the national presidential vote.
Thomas Stevens, presidential candidate of the Objectivist Party, polled .01% of the vote cast in the two states in which he was on the ballot. Those two states cast 8.2% of the national presidential vote.
Other than in 2008, the only other Libertarian who ever ran for president in the general election, even though he was not the Libertarian presidential nominee, was L. Neil Smith in 2000. He appeared on the Arizona ballot with the label “Libertarian”, and polled .38% in that state.
I think the small-government movement is building steam; let’s compare these numbers to 2012 & 2016
It is not completely true that L. Neil Smith was the only other Libertarian to run for president in the general election without being the national party’s nominee. Charles Jay was the nominee of the Personal Choice Party in 2004 and appeared on the ballot in Utah where he received 0.1% of the vote, 946 votes.
What about write in votes for Ron Paul in this election?