When American voters complain about holding their collective nose before voting for president, that there’s never been anything quite like this year, history has a response.

What about the campaign of 1884?

Well, they didn’t have polling then that showed sky-high unfavorable ratings like those of Republican Donald Trump (70 percent) and Democrat Hillary Clinton (55 percent).

But the race between Grover (“Where’s My Pa?”) Cleveland and James (“Slippery Jim”) Blaine did nothing to elevate the national spirit.

Cleveland, a New York Democrat, got exposed for having a child out of wedlock and dodging service in the Civil War. Blaine, a Maine Republican, apparently never met a kickback he didn’t like.

Immorality and corruption made for some fun heckling at campaign events.

Candidates back then could rest easy in not knowing social media would increase campaign scrutiny 132 years hence. And the republic not only survived, the number of popular votes in 1884 actually increased by 10 percent from four years earlier.

Mary Baack-Garvey, the county clerk and chief election authority in Buchanan County, has an idea about this contest between two presidential contestants not flush with likeability.

“I don’t know if they’re so dissatisfied with (one candidate) that they want to vote for the other one anyway,” she said.

That is, Clinton haters will crowd the polls for Trump, even though he might not be a favorite. And Trump haters will rally on behalf of Clinton, even if some feel her unworthy of a vote.

This follows the results of some national polling. Last week, Rasmussen Reports released a survey showing that 66 percent of likely Republican voters believed that leaders of the party do not want Trump as the nominee.

Yet another poll out the same day, one conducted by Pew Research Center, revealed that 70 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans say they have a fear of the other party.

“This year is going to definitely prove are we going to have a crazy turnout or are we going to have a horrible turnout?” said Baack-Garvey, who expects a high turnout in November.

The alternatives

Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, believes a change has come in the political landscape.

“The two-party system is a two-party dinosaur, and they’re about to come in contact with the comet,” the Libertarian Party presidential nominee said on CNN last week.

That might include some political bravado, but the unlikeability factor of the Democrat and Republican cracks the door a bit for Johnson and others to get their messages heard.

Johnson, who served as a Republican governor from 1995 through 2003, amassed more than 1.2 million votes as the Libertarian candidate in 2012, or about 1 percent of the total.

Though it appears likely he will be on ballots in all 50 states, his bid depicts the plight of all “third” parties.

Nominated candidates like Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party and Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party have people who support them and points to make. But they get lost in the media crush that surrounds the major-party entrants.

This remark might have gotten some attention: “Trump says very scary things (about) deporting immigrants, massive militarism and ignoring the climate. Hillary, unfortunately, has a track record for doing all of those things.”

But does the broader electorate know which presidential candidate said it? (Answer: It was Stein, a Harvard-educated physician who holds the record for most general-election votes by a female running for the American presidency, more than 469,000 in 2012.)

Paul Hamby, a Maysville, Missouri, businessman who has been involved in the Libertarian Party, has reservations about what a third-party insurgency might look like in the presidential race.

“Gary Johnson has a great story to tell, but can he get 33 percent plus one?” he said, referring to the math of a three-way race.

Hamby remains convinced that any substantial bloc of voters veering to a third-party candidate “will be a repeat of 1992,” when independent candidate H. Ross Perot took enough votes from President George H.W. Bush to cost him re-election.

He feels Libertarians might fare best in seeking change within the structure of the Republican Party, building at the local and state levels.

“The vast majority of Republicans believe in those Libertarian principles,” he said. “The best hope is in the Republican Party to get Libertarian-thinking people elected.”

Write-in or stay home

A campaign button made the rounds in 1964, when Democratic President Lyndon Johnson faced Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater. It read: “Vote No for President.”

A lesser-of-two-evils vote depends on the presidential field and the cynicism of a particular age. And the write-in has a storied place as an act of protest. Just jot down a preferred candidate or a satirical one.

“A lot of people do that because I think they still want to vote. Even though they don’t have the right candidate they want to pick, they’ll write in Jesse James or Mickey Mouse,” said Baack-Garvey, who worked in the clerk’s office 10 years before getting elected to the top position in 2010.

“What happens is, it doesn’t count because you have to be a certified write-in candidate for it to count.”

Write-ins must align with declared write-in candidacies, as spelled out by Missouri statutes and, in local cases, community charter provisions.

The protest might prove cathartic. It does not prove productive.

The county clerk has seen plenty of odd write-in votes.

“Jesse James is popular,” she said. “He should have been elected some time ago.”