Having Trouble Voting For Donald Trump Or Hillary Clinton? Here Are Some Lesser-Known Candidates That May Surprise You

The president of the United States is someone who is willing to assume the responsibilities of the good and bad situation that the country is currently in. Different policies and strategies are implemented in an attempt to improve the overall status of the country as a whole, and strong partnerships with other countries are essential.

There are many hurdles that a president must successfully jump over, with one of the most significant ones being that everyone does not agree on one particular person’s worldview and beliefs concerning issues — namely, military assignment and spending, education, abortion, and views on gay rights.

Interestingly, there are only three requirements for someone to be eligible for United States presidency. The person must be a natural-born U.S. citizen, although one can be eligible if both parents were born in the U.S or if they were a citizen when the constitution was adopted. One must be 35 years of age, although no one has ever become president in his 30s, with Theodore Roosevelt being the youngest after being appointed to office in 1901 at the age of 42. Lastly, one would have to live in the U.S. for 14 years, although it does not have to be consecutive.

Outside of those requirements, anyone can register to be president; and people surely have capitalized on that opportunity. Currently, there is much tension among the presidential nominees, with a number of voters unsure of whether they will vote for either one, potentially neither. Besides Trump and Clinton, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein are two of the most publicized presidential candidates.

However, the choices do not stop there. If a voter feels no allegiance to the publicized candidates, there are a list of other options. While there is virtually no chance that any of them will win, one may consider voting for one of them simply for peace of mind. Currently, there are 1,885 people who have filed a Statement of Candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Out of those, some have actually made it to state ballots. One candidate, Princess Khadijah M. Jacob-Fambro, has made a few ballots, mostly due to the nature of her filing.

In 2012, Jacob-Fambro was obsessed with rapper Lil Wayne. In fact, she was so obsessed that she used a filing form to propose to him shortly after the election.

The statement, which indeed is a formal document, read, “From one alien to another alien, ‘Lil Wayne’ Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. ‘President Carter’ will you marry me? I am God!!! President Princess Khadijah M. Jacob Fambro.”

If Jacob-Fambro does not work for you, there is always Independent Party representative Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado, whose campaign is “Joe Exotic for President 2016: It’s about everyone.” However, on the same page, he firmly takes a stance on issues such as pro-choice, gun laws, social security, regulating non-profits, and cutting federal spending.

“We have 353,000 babies born on this planet daily. As long as a fetus is not viable and not considered living or if there is a severe birth defect that is not going to allow it to have any quality of life.

“We cannot continue to give tax credits and bonuses for just having children vs going to work.”

The election can also be used to solely push an agenda for the sake of one’s own benefit. In Minnesota, there is an official Legalize Marijuana Now party, represented by Dan Vacek and Mark Elworth, Jr. The respective presidential and vice presidential nominees were not able to make legalizing marijuana an issue on the state ballot, like Colorado and Oregon, so instead they went a step further and decided to take it to the election.

“Minnesota doesn’t allow us to use Ballot Initiative petitions so we can’t vote directly to Legalize Weed as they did in Colorado & Oregon. Therefore we use the election campaign to give voters the chance to support legalization by voting for candidates with the slogan “Legal Marijuana Now” next to their names on the ballot.”

While these particular candidates may seem bizarre, they all have one thing in common: They represent a candidate that someone may actually feel more comfortable voting for. Although none of these choices have even a small chance of winning, at least they were bold enough to stand for what they believe in and gather supporters to forward their movement.

[Featured Image by Tim Boyles/Getty Images]