WILKES-BARRE — Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein made a pitch to end student loan debt during a campaign event Wednesday on the Wilkes University campus.

About 43 million Americans are victims of "predatory student loan debt," and they could determine who wins the presidential election in November, Stein told a cheering crowd of more than 300.

Stein wants to cancel

$1.3 trillion in student loan debts by asking the Federal Reserve to buy the debt and agree not to collect on it.

"We bailed out the crooks on Wall Street," Stein told The Citizens' Voice in an interview before her speech.

The Wall Street bailout in 2008 cost $16 trillion and was approved with "no questions asked" by Congress, she said. The federal government can also save billion of dollars by cutting military spending by at least 50 percent and closing overseas military bases, Stein said.

Growing dissatisfaction with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump could boost vote totals for Stein and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson. Stein and Johnson both ran in 2012 against President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, and each received less than 1 percent of the popular vote.

In recent polls, Stein is averaging about 3 percent and Johnson is close to 9 percent.

"Because we have not been covered. Donald Trump has had 35,000 times as much time on prime-time TV. Hillary has had 20,000 times as much," Stein said during the interview, explaining her poll numbers. "A non-corporate, public-interest party has never done this well in recent times in the polls. We have been up as high as 7 percent."

Stein and Johnson will not appear in the first prime-time presidential debate on Monday. Third-party candidates must receive an average of 15 percent support in five national polls to be allowed to participate.

"These pundits and these party operatives are telling voters to be good little boys and girls and keep voting for the system that's throwing us under the bus," Stein said. "There are differences between the parties, but they are not different enough to save your life, to save your job or to save the planet."

Carl Romanelli, a Green Party leader from Wilkes-Barre, introduced Stein during Wednesday's event.

"Jill not Hill," Romanelli chanted, as Stein approached the podium and the crowd picked up the cheer.

Stein, a physician from Massachusetts, said she supports democratic reforms such ranked-choice voting, which requires an instant run-off when the leading candidate fails to receive 50 percent of the vote.

The current system with two major parties sharing power is "a race to the bottom between the greater and lesser evil," Stein said.

"You are being told to vote against the guy you fear the most," she said

The result is policies that are corporate friendly, imperialist and militarist, Stein added. She also is in favor of a "Medicare-for-All" healthcare system that's funded and run by the government and has no co-pays, premiums or deductibles.

The crowd cheered when she talked about legalizing cannabis and hemp. Her platform also includes plans to reduce the impact of climate change and a $15 minimum wage.

About 40 percent of likely Pennsylvania voters were backing Clinton in a four-candidate survey released Saturday. The Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll had Trump at 32 percent, Johnson at 14 percent and Stein with 5 percent.

Clinton supporters argue that votes for Stein and Johnson will help elect Trump and claim votes for Green nominee Ralph Nader in 2000 cost Democrat Al Gore in the controversial election of George W. Bush. Nader received 2.7 percent of the popular vote in 2000.

"I don't expect Green Party nominee, Dr. Stein, will likely play as big a role in this election," Wilkes University political science professor Thomas Baldino said. "She will take away a few votes from Mrs. Clinton."

Baldino said Johnson will have a bigger impact this year and appears to be taking away votes from both Clinton and Trump.

"That ticket has more money and as been more visible," Baldino said. "The platform has more appeal to traditional Republicans and also some liberal Democrats."

Stein and Johnson also appear to be more attractive options for younger voters. In a Quinnipiac national poll from last week, Clinton received 31 percent support from likely voters 18-34. Johnson was in second with 29 percent, Trump was at 26 percent, and Stein had 15 percent.

"The reason for that is they are not as deeply tied to any other party," Baldino said. "They have no long voting history. It will be easier to be swayed by a third party candidate."

mbuffer@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2073, @cvmikebuffer