The Green Papers
2012 Political Parties
Parties Grouped by Classification

The Classification of Political parties listed on TheGreenPapers.com.

1. Major Parties (those parties which received electoral votes through winning a plurality of a state's [or the District of Columbia's] popular vote in any presidential election between 1980 and 2008)
1. Democrats and affiliates
2. Republicans and affiliates
2. Third Parties
1. Major Third Parties and affiliates (any Party, other than a Major Party [as defined in 1. above], receiving a minimum of 15/100ths of 1 percent of the nationwide popular vote in any presidential election between 1980 and 2008 and which fielded candidates in the previous presidential election [2008] are hereby defined as "Major third parties" for the purposes of "The Green Papers" website. Excluded from this are non-party Independent bids for President which received at least 0.15% of the nationwide popular vote. See Criteria for including Major Third Parties.)
2. Other Third Parties (i.e., not a Major Third Party)
3. Independents (covering Unaffiliated, Nonpartisan and all the other synonyms/euphemisms for Independent)
4. Write-in/Scattered/otherwise not readily classifiable

Incumbents, candidates, and links to state affiliates
4 Candidates

"The US Peace Government (http://www.uspeacegovernment.org) is now carrying forward the programs, policies, and ideals of the Natural Law Party. Dr. John Hagelin, the 2000 NLP presidential candidate, is now president of the US Peace Government, and many former NLP candidates and supporters have taken leadership positions in this new, complementary government, whose purpose is to prevent social violence, terrorism, and war and to promote harmony and peace in the U.S. and throughout the world. We encourage all supporters of the Natural Law Party to consider giving their support now to the US Peace Government."

Parties are listed as (party) where either it has been reported that a given candidacy is affiliated with a given Party but said affiliation does not appear on the ballot or 'The Green Papers' does not have independent confirmation from an election authority that the given Party has its own separate line on the ballot.