Libertarians have largely solved a third party’s biggest problem, ballot access, after decades of work and great expense every election cycle since their first presidential race in 1972. They are already locked into 32 ballots for November. Though the signature deadlines for many states still lie ahead, the party is confident it’s on track to nab them all. Success, however, is about far more than ballot access. The Libertarians need a national profile they don’t really have yet. They are coming out of their highest raw vote total ever, with Johnson’s 1.27 million in 2012—but even that was slightly less than 1 percent of the vote. Johnson believes the only way to avoid a repeat of his 2012 showing is getting into a nationally televised presidential debate with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. That’s not going to be easy.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/never-trump-2016-elections-libertarians-213917
