Stein and Honkala (via Facebook)

CNN has a new poll out, in which they’ve included third-party candidates Gary Johnson, of the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, of the Green Party. And as it happens, both Johnson and Stein poll: Johnson earns 3 percent; Stein gets 2. And while it doesn’t necessarily mean either candidate is on the verge of winning the election (or a single state), it does represent a heightened presence for third parties in American politics. Most years, third parties don’t show up in polling data at all.

“We’re very excited,” says Green Party vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala, a resident of Kensington who last year ran for Philadelphia sheriff. “It shows that people are really beginning to wake up and be conscious to the fact that we have a one-party system in this country … I think this is an indication of our country going in the right direction.”

Honkala was chosen as the VP candidate earlier this summer, the week of the Green Party convention in Baltimore. Her running mate at the top of the ticket, Jill Stein, is a medical doctor from Massachusetts who previously ran against Mitt Romney for governor of that state in 2002. Her campaign platform relies on what she’s dubbed a “Green New Deal”: An economic overhaul she says will provide new education and job standards to fulfill employment for those who want it.

Stein gained attention in the campaign last week when Google TV Ads rejected a campaign commercial that featured a bleeped-out obscenity. Or, more specifically: “We don’t deserve pandering irresponsible bullshit that passes itself off as campaigning. I can’t believe I just said that, but that’s how I feel.”

Google eventually relented and the ad is up on the page.

Honkala says she partially credits the ad and the surrounding controversy for their polling numbers, but adds their general social media campaign has been the real story: The campaign recently bought $150,000 worth of air time across the country, which is a hefty sum for third-party candidates.

In spite of previous efforts, the Democratic Party did not challenge the Green Party for ballot access this year in Pennsylvania. The campaign claims it will be on the ballot in 40 states in November. As it happens, CNN notes, the addition of both Stein and Johnson in their poll has made things worse for Mitt Romney. Gary Johnson’s signatures to get on the Pennsylvania ballot are currently being challenged in Harrisburg.