The University got its own presidential debate Thursday afternoon.
Although neither of the Texan candidates belong to one of the parties likely to win in November, Libertarian candidate and Austinite Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb, a Houston lawyer, stressed the importance of voters choosing candidates who best represent them at a debate in the Texas Union.
Both said citizens would not waste their votes by supporting third parties.
"The only wasted vote is when you vote for someone you do not respect," Badnarik said. He and Cobb spoke to an audience of nearly 300.
In an election that is expected to have close results for the Democratic and Republican candidates, third-party candidates are poised to greatly impact the presidential election, said Sherri Greenberg, a lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Greenberg said former Green Party candidate Ralph Nader arguably cost Democratic candidate Al Gore the election in 2000 by drawing votes that would otherwise have gone to the Democratic Party. Nader is running as an independent this year.
"That was one of the closest races we've ever seen in the history of the United States," Greenberg said. "Looking at the voting patterns and voting in different states and precincts in the last election, you can see that Nader did have a real effect."
Cobb said he is unapologetic about his party's role in subverting the two-party system.
"What others call spoiling, Greens call participating," Cobb said. "We will execute our democratic right to participate in elections, and if our participation is really a problem, the solution is not to squelch our voices or restrict voter choice. The solution is to change the voting system."
Cobb and Badnarik managed to find some common ground-both favored ending the war in Iraq, repealing the Patriot Act and limiting nuclear proliferation.
"Our current strategy for winning friends and influencing people is to bomb buildings and kill innocent civilians," Badnarik said. "What we are doing in Iraq is increasing the threat of terrorism, and the only rational choice is to bring our sons and daughters home as safely and quickly as possible."
Both advocated conflicting policies regarding health care, minimum-wage standards and gun control.
Badnarik referred to both the welfare and health-care systems as government-assisted theft, whereas Cobb supports the call for universal health care.
"Michael and I agree on a lot of things, but this area of the economics of the appropriate role of elected representation in government is probably the sharpest difference," Cobb said.
Government freshman Ben Campagna said anyone who attended the event and is not part of an alternative party was given a better idea of their platforms.
"Anybody who was already associated with one of these parties is now better prepared to inform the public about them," Campagna said.
Bill Holloway, a liaison with Campus Greens who helped organize the debate, said there was a solid turnout.
"We were happy with it," he said. "There was also a mixture of people in the crowd, including students, people from the city and even kids. There were people from all walks of life."
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