Heres the letter to the editior I composed to send to the Morris Daily Herald. I may also send it to the Aurora Beacon, the Joliet Herald, and the other small papers within my local vicinity. Election time shenanigans Ive been involved in the petition drive to get Libertarian candidates onto the ballot here in Illinois. People are unaware of the massive hurdles we have to go through to actually get on the ballot. In Illinois, For statewide races, third parties have to get 25,000 signatures in 90 days, whereas the establishment parties (they are called this in the Illinois code) only need 5000. One party challenged the Green Party signatures, and instead of defending, they filed a lawsuit that got thrown out, whereas the other one challenged the Libertarian and Constitution signatures. The Constitution party got thrown off the ballot. We gathered roughly 44,000 signatures, and the establishment party challenged 22,000. I took a vacation day off of work to go down to Springfield to help defend our signatures from these challenges. Most of the election judges, from what I sussed, were convinced that the whole procedure was a colossal waste of time and resources. All of the people who were defending the Libertarian right to ballot access were volunteers who had to take days off of work, some unpaid, whereas the establishment party brought in highly paid staffers, bussed in paid college interns, and also had party higher ups involved in the prosecution. Several of the establishment higher ups were thrown out of the process by the State of Illinois elections board because they were acting boisterous and belligerent. We retained 45% of our signatures, giving us over 29,000, but the story is not over. Next the establishment party decided to challenge the residency of the petitioners. A friend of mine, who is the head of the DuPage Libertarians, was challenged because they claimed he didnt live where he said he lived. He was amazed they would bring this up as a challenge. Had this been successful, about 1400 of his signatures would have been thrown out. During the petitioner challenge, it was revealed that the establishment party was using armed investigators to scare petitioners and petition signers into filing false affidavits, claiming that they knew the signatures were false. Fortunately one of the people that were harassed wasnt intimidated, and testified in front of the elections board. The full story was reported by the Chicago Sun Times. Google Under the Gun In Petition Challenges for the article. Next the establishment party tried to appeal to the elections board to have all votes for the Libertarian Party thrown out. In other words, we had our spot on the ballot secured, but if the establishment party had succeeded not a single vote for the Libertarian party would have counted. Fortunately this was thrown out. Votes for the Libertarian Party will count this coming November. Now the establishment party that challenged us is sending out fliers saying that voting for us is the same as voting for the other establishment candidate. Its the old lesser of two evils logical fallacy that I despise. What they are saying is that if I have a cookie, and I give it to person A, Im really giving it to person B. It just doesnt make sense. As a Libertarian, I dont believe the government has jurisdiction in most of the things they claim they do, however, I believe the federal government does have a responsibility to protect the rights of the people, and mandating a standard level of ballot access nationwide is one of those rights. The problem is that the two party oligarchy is running the system so that their power isnt challenged by people who have fresh, new ideas. The whole process left me so disgusted, that I will never vote for the establishment party that brought these frivolous challenges up. They have a bankroll of millions propped up by corporations. Us? The Illinois Libertarian Party finances are drained because of all the unfair hurdles put in our way. In closing, we have good candidates who deserve a fair shot - we have small business owners running for Governor and the Senate, we have a CPA running for comptroller who is the only accountant running for that office; we have a person running for Treasurer who is an accountant for a local governing body -- these individuals are eminently qualified. If, as the establishment party says, that well never win, then let us in fairly, and also into the debates equally. We should pose no threat. I like to think of myself as a person with integrity, so I vote for someone. I dont vote against a candidate, so that an opposing candidate wont win. Remember,voting for the lesser of two evils only nets you evil. Jim Goebel Illinois Libertarian Party Deputy Communications Director. Morris,IL
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:11:29 +0000
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