Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Bar is Set Too High, in Virginia, and Arkansas

 Trouble with Numbers: Perry falls short in Virginia

Texas Governor Rick Perry and Former Speaker Newt Gingrich have failed to qualify for the ballot in the GOP Presidential Primary in the state of Virginia.  GOP voters in that state will be limited to Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney or Congressman Dr. Ron Paul.

Requirements for ballot access were pretty stiff in the Old Dominion.   The primary requirement was 10,000 authentic voter signatures.    Incidentally, that is also where the bar is set in Arkansas for a new political party to get ballot access, or an independent running for statewide office to get ballot access.

Many Republican members of the state legislature signed a letter supporting Perry in his Presidential run.  That included Kim Hammer, who sponsored a bill making it even harder for new parties to get ballot access than it was previously.

So I have to ask them, if your own Presidential candidate, who has raised about $20 million and is Governor of a gigantic state, can't meet the 10K bar in a huge state like Virginia, then how is it fair that you guys are for imposing that hurdle on independents running for state wide office or third parties seeking ballot access in Arkansas?   Please spare us any complaints about how the requirements in Virgina are too burdensome until you ease those same requirements on the folks here at home.  More and more of us are not satisfied with the representation we are getting from either of the DC-run political clubs that have jointly led this nation to impending ruin.

There are no problems with more voter choice that can't be solved with instant run off voting.  In fact, the alleged "problems" with more voter choice are really just artifacts of the flawed "first past the post" method of determining election winners.    Funny how the parties don't use first past the post in their own party primaries, nor when electing their own officers, but impose it on the rest of us for all offices above the county level.




5 Comments:

Blogger Mark Moore (Moderator) said...

"So I have to ask them, if your own Presidential candidate, who has raised about $20 million and is Governor of a gigantic state, can't meet the 10K bar in a huge state like Virginia, then how is it fair that you guys are for imposing that hurdle on independents running for state wide office or third parties seeking ballot access in Arkansas?"

6:39 PM, December 24, 2011  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What would this do to the GOOOH candidates? How the hell do we do this without creating all the red tape? At this rate Arkansas or the rest of the nation for that matter will not see the light of day let alone the restoration of our Constitution.

7:14 PM, December 24, 2011  
Blogger Linton said...

Good post and very good observation comparing Perry's qualification difficulty to that in AR for independent/3rd party candidates. It says something that a man with his resources couldn't get enough signatures.

It can be done in AR though, even if it is very tough. Just look at Rod Bryan's run for governor in 2006. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

9:36 PM, December 24, 2011  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bryan got it done with an exceptional effort and had to devote almost all his resources just getting on the ballot, with little left over for campaigning.

10:56 AM, December 26, 2011  
Anonymous Dwayne Hall said...

You are correct. We live in the age of Ron Paul when a good idea is hard to stop. Opening the political process is the coming thing. Ballot access is the way BOTH parties have made sure they were the only players in town. Keep in mind that the Libertarians got ballot access this year in Arkansas and we need to see the bar set lower for more voices in the political spectrum.

3:32 PM, December 26, 2011  

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