Liberty MavenBob Barr West Virginia Ballot Access Update
August 2nd, 2008 1:38 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Activism, Bob Barr, Court Cases, Election, Libertarianism, Liberty, Maven Commentary | 1
The not so good news From Ballot Access News…
The West Virginia Libertarian presidential petition probably doesn’t have enough valid signatures. The campaign is continuing to obtain more, and will submit them soon. If the first batch is insufficient, a particular experienced attorney will file a lawsuit against the deadline. The basis for the lawsuit will be Anderson v Celebrezze.
For an explanation of Anderson v Celebrezze…
…the U.S. Supreme Court said in Anderson v Celebrezze that states may not discriminate against independent and minor party presidential candidates in the matter of timing.
The argument would be that since the Democrats and Republicans don’t even have official nominees yet it shows discrimination against minor party and independent candidates to have a ballot access deadline so early. It makes logical sense that this argument would win, but in the real world of politics logic isn’t always applicable.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm (#)
The Democrats and Republicans may not have filed the official paperwork as to their Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees yet, but each state party has submitted the names of their candidates for Presidential electors. These are the men and women who will be elected, or not, when the nation goes to the polls in November, whether their names are on the ballot or not. If the deadline for submitting these names is past, and the major parties have met the mark, the Libertarians won’t have ground to complain that they haven’t gathered the names needed for their petitions by that deadline as well. The trouble is, most Americans aren’t accustomed to think in terms of voting for third parties, and, until they do, third parties can’t succeed. But most Americans are looking to vote for a winner, not political crusaders, so Americans won’t vote for third parties until they view them as a likely success. It is Catch-22. Teddy Roosevelt came closest, because, as a popular ex-President, sufficient numbers of Americans viewed him as a likely success in 1912. But even he only finished in second place, and his party never achieved the same impact without him. George Wallace and Ross Perot were able to rouse substantial minorities of dissatisfied voters. Russ Verney knows how to do this, but he doesn’t have the money now he had with Perot in 1992.