It’s possible the next president will pick up where Millard Fillmore left off.

Fillmore, perhaps best known for signing the Compromise of 1850 that continued slavery under various conditions, is also the last president to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

More than a century-and-a-half later, there are serious efforts afoot to give voters a choice other than the one polls indicate that most Americans find distasteful: keep Democrat Joe Biden in the White House, or return Republican Donald Trump to the Oval Office.

“What we're hearing from Americans all across America is they do want better choices,” says Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., national co-chair of No Labels, which is reportedly attempting to raise $70 million dollars to field a third-party centrist ticket.

Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is one name that is floated, along with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona. Republican Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, is a national co-chair of the group. All are seen as irritants to their parties, or former parties, which No Labels sees as a mark of distinction.

But No Labels itself is dividing people, even those otherwise sympathetic to boosting compromise and centrism in our body politic. Some analysts say its ticket not only couldn’t win, but likely would take more votes from Biden, re-electing Trump.

“This is not a third party strategy,” says Bernard Tamas, an associate professor at Valdosta State University. 

Tamas, author of “The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties,” says the Electoral College now has a built-in bias towards Republican candidates. In 2020, Biden won key states by narrow margins, like Arizona and Georgia. With the nation deeply polarized, that could easily repeat in next year’s presidential election. Every vote counts. 

“It is absolutely possible that a third-party candidate could shift the election over,” Tamas told Spectrum News. 

The concern that No Labels could shift the election to Trump prompted one of its co-founders to quit. Adding to the worry about No Labels is that it does not disclose the names of its donors. That’s creating suspicions that it is accepting some money from people who want to see Trump win - and believe a No Labels ticket is a way to make a Trump victory more likely.

It’s a charge No Labels denies. In a recent interview, Spectrum asked Chavis for a message to Americans who may have reservations about a possible third-party bid diverting votes from Biden, bringing Trump back to the White House.

“That's a very good question," Chavis said, adding that he wanted to assure people "that there will be no circumstance, no eventuality, where No Labels will be a spoiler in favor of Donald Trump in the 2024 elections. We will stand down before we let anything like that happen.” 

Chavis says the group would only launch a ticket if it identifies a clear path to the Electoral College majority. He added that supporting Biden is a possibility.

Third-party candidates have traditionally lost badly, and sometimes have been spoilers -- like in the infamous 2000 election, where Green Party candidate Ralph Nader won more votes than Democrat Al Gore needed in Florida to win the presidency.

A quarter-century later, there’s a twist: No Labels’ founding chairman is Joe Lieberman, the former Connecticut senator and Gore's former running mate.

Dr. Cornel West, a noted philosopher and academic, is running for the Green Party nomination this year, also raising fears he will only siphon votes from Democrats.

While it's unclear who, if anyone, will head the No Labels ticket, No Labels is hosting a national convention next April in Dallas. 

The venue is already booked.