To the editor:

I was disappointed to see that your “Election day survival kit” included descriptions of only the Democrat and Republican candidates in each race. So-called third-party candidates deserve an equal voice. In particular, the Libertarian Party has consistently been one of the most prominent third parties, with dozens of candidates running for office in this year’s Ohio general election. Depending on whether the formal label of ‘libertarian’ is used in posing their questions, scientific polls have found that between 15 percent and 58 percent of U.S. voters hold libertarian ideologies (i.e., fiscally conservative and socially liberal, in the true sense of those terms). Given that government dominated by the two major parties has consistently led down a path of uncontrolled borrowing and deficit spending, inflationary monetary policy, a failed and increasingly deadly drug war, unrealistic entitlement promises, loss of our freedoms, empire-building and perpetual war, voters deserve to hear genuine alternatives to the established welfare-warfare parties. Until the media chooses to allow new voices into the political debate, we can continue to expect more of the same.

Kathleen Jagodnik

Graduate Student