Orlando, June 3 (RHC)-- In the United States, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has won the U.S. Libertarian Party's nomination for president.  Johnson was declared the nominee at the Party's convention in Orlando, Florida.

Despite being the favorite, Johnson was only elected on the second ballot and garnered 55.8 percent of the vote.  Voting was forced into a second round after the nominee's votes fell five short of the majority on the first ballot.  During the first round, he received 49.5 percent of the vote and was followed by consultant Austin Petersen, who had 21.3 percent support.

Despite a poor performance over the years, the Libertarian Party has drawn more attention this year as American voters are increasingly seeking alternatives to likely Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton and her presumptive Republican rival Donald Trump, both of whom suffer from unprecedentedly low favorability ratings.

According to a Data Targeting poll released earlier this month, 55 percent of voters preferred a third party candidate in the race.  This is while 65 percent of the respondents said they were willing to support any candidate but Trump and Clinton.

The survey also showed that 56 percent of American voters had an unfavorable impression of Clinton while 55 had the same feeling about Trump.  Johnson attacked Trump at the convention, describing as "just racist" the real estate mogul's immigration policies, particularly his call to deport 11 million undocumented people currently in America.

Johnson was the party's nominee in 2012 and received nearly one percent of the general election vote.  However, he said he stands a chance of breaking through in a year of unpopular offerings from the Democratic and Republican parties.

The Libertarian Party is the only third party with ballot access in 50 states, making Johnson the only alternative option to available to all voters who do not want to choose Trump and Clinton in this election.