With Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party's Jill Stein making national headlines as alternatives to the Republican and Democrat presidential nominees, it's been quite the year for railing against the two-party system.

A candidate in Florida's U.S. Senate race is suing the Federal Communications Commission and a number of media outlets over the inclusion of only two candidates — Republican incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy, a Jupiter-area Congressman — on the debate stage.

Steven Machat, a Miami music industry lawyer and activist running for the seat as a non-party-affiliated candidate, said media outlets are presenting the election as an either/or even though there are more than half a dozen candidates on the ballot.

“It's made it so the people have no choice,” he said. “I sued because I have every right to be included in that debate, to tell people they have an option.”

It's driven by money, he said, given that the two major parties have the most to offer media outlets in terms of advertising revenue. The FCC, meanwhile, has allowed it to happen, he said.

“We created a country where the FCC has allowed a monopoly of the airwaves. So to make money they are running a political debate of Republicans against Democrats, the two parties that pay the stations the most money,” he said. “The FCC needs to stop this two-party payola scam from going forward. We need to have the people's candidates speak as much as Republicans and Democrats.”

Machat said he's running as a non-party candidate because although he has been registered as both a Republican and a Democrat in the past, he is critical of the influence large corporations have on elections and, subsequently, policymaking.

"I did not want the major political parties to tell me what to do," he said. "I can't go against Big Sugar…You can't go against fracking…you can't tell people the Second Amendment was written in 1788; there were no assault weapons. You can't teach people common sense.”

Also named in the suit are Cox Media Group, Capital New Company (which owns Politico Florida) and the nonprofit Leadership Florida Statewide Community Foundation. (Read the full text of the complaint, filed Sept. 28, here).

He's hoping a South Florida judge will require Cox and Politico, who are jointly holding the debate in Orlando, to invite all candidates to the Oct. 17 event.

“I asked for all of them to be included so there's six of us on that stand, so the people of the state of Florida can see and hear that maybe someone here deserves to be our Senator more than Patrick Murphy, who's done what? Or Marco Rubio, who told everyone 'I don't want it' but was told to run again? I stand to represent the people,” he said.

He said the argument that only candidates who poll above a certain percent should be invited is invalid, given that most polling has only included the two major party candidates.

Even if his suit isn't successful, it does reflect a growing sentiment across the country, namely in Florida, where non- and third-party voters make up more than a third of the electorate and outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.

This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 7, 2016.