Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had scheduled a campaign stop at Capital University in Bexley Friday afternoon, but ran a bit late. That's because instead of flying into Columbus, she accidentally went to Cincinnati instead. The campaign says a staffer mistakenly booked her flight for the wrong city. Stein is running a campaign on a small budget, and uses commercial flights rather than the private jets used by the major party candidates. Stein was scheduled to speak at noon, but wound up appearing in the 2 p.m. hour. She told the estimated crowd of 150 people about a “future where people, planet and peace are placed above profit.” She said she would cut the Department of Defense budget by 50 percent, and put the money toward free public college education, forgiving student loan debt and funding other social programs. She called for an end to the use of fossil fuels and set a goal of having the U.S. use “clean, renewable energy by 2030.” Her appearance was sponsored by a student organization. Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow spoke with some young voters who say they have no problem voting for another presidential option this year.
Students at Capital University near Columbus gathered for a rally that brought out a lot of young voters who have decided to support third party candidates such as the Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson.
Elijah Johnson, a sophomore is voting for the Libertarian nominee, says more people need to stand up against the two-party system.
Johnson: “I think everyone on those two sides think ‘if I vote for a third party I’m giving the vote to the other person I don’t want to win.’ So they’ll vote for somebody either Democrat or Republican but it’s not a waste of a vote, if everyone voted third party we wouldn’t have to worry about Trump or Hillary.”
Stein and Johnson are currently falling short of qualifying for the national debates.