Americans are unsatisfied with the two national parties, so they’re starting to support alternatives, independent vice presidential candidate Peter Camejo said.

But, he said, support doesn’t equal votes because they don’t think independents can win.

Camejo, who is independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s running mate, spoke to a crowd of 75 Thursday at Willey Hall. Camejo urged attendees to vote for the indepedents and get others to join their cause.

The candidate is a civil-rights activist who ran for California governor in 2002 and in the 2003 recall election.

Erin Heermance, a 25-year-old 3M employee who attended the event, said she thinks it’s important for people to vote for third-party candidates, even if they don’t think they can win.

“If enough people say they don’t like what the other candidates offer, then there will be a shift in the views of who’s running to get (independents) to vote for them,” she said.

Heermance compared the election to deciding where to go out to eat.

“I don’t want Burger King or McDonalds,” she said. “I want to go somewhere fancy.”

University Spanish sophomore Ben Canine said he plans to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, even though he identifies more with the Green Party.

“A vote for Kerry is really a vote against (President George W.) Bush,” he said.

Canine said he had to decide between two evils because he does not want Bush in office anymore.

“It’s a tragic decision I had to make,” he said.

Brian Ellis, a 24-year-old systems engineer, said he thinks people who vote for Kerry based on their dislike of Bush are cop-outs.

“They’re letting fear dominate their decision,” he said.

Heermance said she doesn’t think Kerry deserves most of the votes he will get.

“It’s Kerry’s vote to earn,” she said. “If he doesn’t make an effort to earn it, he’s not getting it.”