Trump charges the elections are rigged, and the Democratic Party’s treatment of Sen. Bernie Sanders proved it. But there are no clearer obstacles than those in the way of the Green Party and Libertarian Party campaigns.

There are four candidates running for president, not two. In spite of the obstacles, Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president, and her running mate Ajamu Baraka, are officially on the Connecticut ballot. It took hundreds of hours by Green volunteers, Sanders supporters and paid petitioners to collect more than 16,000 signatures. There is a need to collect double the required 7,500 because there are no legal guidelines in Connecticut for qualifying signatures, so town clerks can arbitrarily throw some out.

Nationally, petitioning in all states has ended. Americans in 48 states are able to cast a vote for Stein/Baraka. They are on the ballot in 45 states and are qualified as write-ins in another three states. The party was unable to get on the ballot in three states due to restrictive ballot requirements.

Requirements put in place by the two major parties in all states vary. In many, unreasonable amounts of signatures can only be collected in a very short period of time, must be gathered in each section of a state and must be turned in early in the election cycle, among other discriminatory requirements.

Despite Stein’s and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson’s rise in the polls, neither will be invited to take part in this fall’s presidential debates unless they top 15 percent of the vote in certain polls. Except for 90-minutes town hall meetings given by CNN to the third-party candidates, there has been a virtual blackout of their campaigns by the major media, making it impossible to reach 15 percent. Stein compared this to the billions of dollars of free press coverage given to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, despite their disapproval ratings.

Recently a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by Johnson and Stein over the debate rules against the Commission on Presidential Ddebates, which in 1988 seized control from the independent League of Women Voters. That group had a policy to include everyone who was on the ballot, standing up to major-party candidates’ demands to control the debates.

Most Americans don’t agree with the commission’s criteria. In a recent USA Today poll, 76 percent of respondents said that they wanted third-party candidates to be given the right to debate with Clinton and Trump. Only 17 percent were against the idea.

Stein calls for ranked-choice voting, which would take the fear out of voting for a third party. Votes for the Green Party of 1 percent in Connecticut will automatically qualify it for ballot status in the next election, and a 5 percent vote nationally will qualify it for federal matching funds next time.

A Gallup poll shows over 60 percent of people want a third party. If voters vote their conscience, it can pave the way for real alternatives.

Linda Lancz, of Norwich, is a past co-chairman of the Green Party of Connecticut.