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Elections today are not truly democratic but they have never been. Simply put, to win an election a candidate needs money and to get money he needs the support of special interests. The wealthy and powerful dictate the course of elections while the common man has little influence. It is true that in the end people can do what they want and vote for who they want but what they want and who they want to vote for is easily influenced. 527 groups bombard the media with advertisements that can quickly sway the undecided voter. Not only is funding and support needed to win elections but because of the massive amounts of legal documentation that accompanies the campaign money is needed simply to participate. In addition to financial support candidates need the support of one of the two major parties to win an election. In 2004 35% of registered voters were democrats and 28% were republicans. Because of this there is only 37% undecided voters so an independent would have to win almost all of these votes to win. It is commonly said that a third party candidate cannot win and in today’s elections this is unfortunately true. Without some earthshaking catastrophe to loosen people from their political alliances independent or third party candidate could not win. The individual truly has very little influence in elections and because of this alienation there are low voter turnouts. The most democratic governments benefit from a high rate of voluntary public participation so our low voter turnouts are the symptoms of much deeper problems in our government.