On August 3, the Ohio Secretary of State ruled that the petition to place a new or previously unqualified party on the ballot may be circulated by any adult, regardless of where that person usually lives. This is welcome news. It also may make it easier for Ralph Nader to win his pending lawsuit in U.S. District Court on whether out-of-state circulators may circulate for an independent presidential candidate.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
A victory for free speech and petition rights! It’s good to see a decision come down on our side for a change.
Can you please send me the original document for this ruling? I looked on Jennifer Brunner’s web site for a directive, memorandum or advisory and I couldn’t find one.
As Nader (and others) have often pointed out, what difference does it make who circulates these petitions, or even whether or not the people who sign them are registered voters (as long as they’re eligible to become registered voters)? Objections to circulators being paid or coming in from other parts of the state or even the country are very onerous, in my opinion. I circulated petitions for the Texas Libertarian Party back in 1982 in the days when I was still one of those guys and I came in from Illinois to help out.
If a voter in a certain state wants to exercise his or her right to petition the government by signing a petition, why on earth does it matter whose hand is holding the other side of the clipboard? Isn’t a citizen’s intent supposed to trump technicalities? Same thing for these ridiculous rulings dealing with people having moved, people who don’t dot the “i” in their name, etc. etc.