Voters will go to the polls in less than a week and most will choose Democrats or Republicans up and down their ballots.

Third party candidates are a considered a long shot to win an election, but Libertarians continue to make their case to voters during each election cycle.

Dr. Lee Hieb is the Libertarian candidate for Iowa Governor.

“If you like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, you’ll like us. We’re basically the constitutional, limited government people,” Hieb said. “Less government, more freedom.”

The Libertarian Party has been nominating candidates for office since the early 70s and call for a massive reduction in the size of government. At a national level, they generally support scrapping the current tax system and replacing it with the “fair tax,” abolishing the welfare state, allowing people to opt-out of social security, drug legalization, gun rights, strong protection of civil liberties, free trade and many more proposals to shrink government.

“Libertarians tend to want minimalist government,” said David Andersen, ISU assistant professor of political science. “They want little government intervention on every facet of life. No regulation of your social life, your personal life, your economic life, lower taxation, everything.”

Andersen says Libertarians may appeal to college students and some wealthy independents.

For college students, he says once they enter “the real world,” they see a need for more government.

On education issues, an important one to ISU students, Libertarians want government out of the way.

“Before the government got involved in education, it was relatively cheap [to go to college],” Hieb said. “As they give you money (student loans, grants), the regulations come in excess of that money.

“We’re creating a bubble in education. They’re making you dependent on government and you’re never going to get out from underneath it. When there’s free money on the table, the price of college goes up.”

Hieb said the government should not have any involvement in education, from kindergarten to college. Libertarians want government out of the student loan business, to stop the pell grant program and eliminate the Department of Education. In return, they said the cost of college will go down.

Hieb also advocated for getting the government completely out of the regulation of marriages, eliminating wage standards, cutting back unnecessary bureaucracy to cut spending and protecting gun rights in Iowa.

The first things she would do in office would be to get rid of Common Core and federal education standards in Iowa. She would line item veto lots of spending in the upcoming budget and she would get rid of unelected regulatory boards in Iowa.

Jake Porter is running as a Libertarian for Iowa Secretary of State.

“One thing I’ve tried to do in this campaign is to look at what issues the Secretary of State does and how we could apply a Libertarian agenda to the office,” Porter said. “We want to make sure we’re not wasting any tax dollars. Libertarians would agree the [Secretary of State] office a proper function of government, so we just want to run it as official and effective as possible.”

Porter wants to make it easier for businesses in Iowa to complete paperwork and forms. He also wants to update the states election databases, an idea he said would eliminate the need for a voter ID law that has been proposed. Porter has also said he wants to cut the Secretary of State’s salary in half from about $100,000 to $50,000.

This election season has been dominated by television ads for Bruce Braley, Joni Ernst, Terry Branstad and Jack Hatch. No Libertarian or third party candidate has run a TV ad. Some attribute a lack of campaign funds, which hurts Libertarian candidates, as outside groups pour money into the major parties.

When asked about limits on campaign funds, some candidates have said there should be limits on how much money can be donated and other campaign finance regulations. Hieb disagrees.

“[Campaign finance reform] doesn’t work,” Hieb said. “If you limit the upfront spending, the spending will still flow around and it will disenfranchise you. When regular voters want to give money, they’ll then just limit you. The answer is limit government.”

So even with minimal public exposure, advertising and campaigning, Libertarians will still pick up five to six percent of the vote. Some have questioned whether Libertarians pull votes from a certain party, which then changes the outcome of an election.

“Generally, third parties convince people to vote, who otherwise would not have,” Andersen said. “When you talk to Libertarian voters, they will generally align with one of the two parties. Right now most Libertarians say ‘Well If I don’t vote for the Libertarian, I’d rather vote for the Republican,’ so Republicans can justly get upset with Libertarian candidacies.”

While Libertarians may be a long shot, they may also influence the two major parties. Revelations of NSA spying and a conservative social policy may have shifted some of the Republican Party into a more Libertarian position. However, you will see the Libertarian party more aligned with Democrats again if a Republican is elected in 2016 Andersen says.

“If you go back ten years, Libertarians were associated more with the Democratic Party…the policy being proposed was general of social nature,” Andersen said. “Banning gay marriage, general opposition to homosexuality in public, and Libertarians said ‘Whoa, you’re regulating our lifestyle.’”

Andersen said you can expect Libertarians to be more opposed to the Republican party once they are in power.

ISU students who are registered to vote in Ames will see Libertarian candidates on the ballot for Iowa’s gubernatorial, Secretary of State and Treasurer races. Voters may also see a Libertarian on the ballot depending on what state House and Senate districts they are registered to vote in.

The Libertarian candidate for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat, Douglas Butzier CQ, was killed in a plane crash on Oct. 13. However, his name will still appear on the ballot.

Election night predictions look good for R-Gov. Terry Branstad while the Senate race will go into the late hours of returns, based on polling. Libertarians will not be picking up any seats this year, but expect them to get a few percentage points, as usual, and watch them continue to grow over the next few decades. They’ll continue to be on the ballot.