Irving said it would send him and his fellow Libertarians over the moon if their ticket of former New Mexico governor Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts governor William Weld, were able to chalk up 6 to 8 percent of North Carolina’s presidential ballots.

Several political analysts said last week that if the Libertarian ticket were to make inroads that deep, Johnson and Weld could play a spoiler role by taking enough votes away from Trump or Clinton to change the outcome.

But they don’t expect that to occur.

“While they have almost zero chance of actually winning, I think the Libertarian Party this year will certainly do much better, both statewide and nationally,” said Charles Prysby, political science professor at UNC-Greensboro. “I think they’ll easily go over 1 percent of the vote.”

In fact, despite their presence in North Carolina politics for four decades, the Libertarians have yet to carve out a secure niche.

The party’s philosophy centers on limited government that allows people to chart an independent course through life with the least possible restrictions on free will, such as excessive regulation and taxation.