Although Libertarian presidential candidates have not received more than 0.5 percent of the vote since 1980, they have placed their candidate’s name on every presidential ballot since 1972, and have achieved ballot access in at least 36 states in every year since 1980. The Party has won enough votes in statewide races to contribute to the defeat of many Republicans (e.g. Democrat Jim Doyle’s 2002 Wisconsin Gubernatorial win and Democrat Tim Johnson’s 2002 South Dakota U.S. Senate victory).
In U.S. Senate races, third party candidates played King Maker in 7 races from 1998 to 2006. For instance, Washington State Democrat Maria Cantwell eked out a 2,229-vote victory over Republican incumbent Senator Slade Gorton in 2000 as Libertarian Jeff Jared siphoned off nearly 65,000 votes. A Republican incumbent was similarly burned by a Libertarian in Montana’s 2006 U.S. Senate: Democratic challenger Jon Tester upended Republican Conrad Burns by 3,562 votes as the Libertarian Stan Jones won over 10,000 votes.
Again, third parties didn’t give us Obama.
The primary voters of New Hampshire, the citizens of Arizona did, and the New York Times did.