Those third parties (parties which- unlike the Democrats and Republicans did not receive electoral votes through winning a plurality of a state's [or the District of Columbia's] popular vote) receiving a minimum of 2/10ths of 1 percent of the nationwide popular vote in any presidential election between 1972 and 1996 and which fielded candidates in the previous presidential election (1996) are hereby defined as "Major third parties" for the purposes of "The Green Papers" website.

(Excluded from this are the following non-party Independent bids for President which received at least 0.2% of the nationwide popular vote between 1972 and 1996:

• Eugene McCarthy in 1976
• John Anderson in 1980
• Ross Perot in 1992

[NOTE: while it is true that John Anderson called his organization the "National Unity Campaign" and Ross Perot's first bid was under the guise of "United We Stand", neither of these campaign organizations were, in any way, true political parties.])

The third parties whose candidate for President of the United States received a minimum of 0.2% of the nationwide popular vote in at least one presidential election between 1972 and 1996 were as follows:

• AMERICAN PARTY 1972 & 1976
• AMERICAN INDEPENDENT PARTY 1976
• CITIZENS PARTY 1980
• GREEN PARTY 1996
• LIBERTARIAN PARTY 1976-1996
• NEW ALLIANCE PARTY 1988
• REFORM PARTY 1996

However, both the AMERICAN PARTY and AMERICAN INDEPENDENT PARTY (both lineal successors to the AMERICAN INDEPENDENT PARTY of George Wallace) have been, for all intents and purposes, defunct since the 1992 election, the CITIZENS PARTY has not been active in national presidential politics since the 1984 election, and the NEW ALLIANCE PARTY failed to field a national presidential ticket in 1996. This leaves- as major third parties under the definition above and hereby formally adopted by "The Green Papers" staff- the GREEN, the LIBERTARIAN and the REFORM Parties as the only three major third parties under our "0.2% of the popular vote in any election 1972-1996"-based definition.