Cynthia McKinney has told Atlanta Progressive News that she will attempt to get on the ballot for U.S. House, 4th district, this year, as the Green Party nominee. See this story. Also see this story. She needs almost 19,000 valid signatures. She also must pay a large filing fee (2% of the annual salary) and each petition sheet must be notarized. The people who do the notarization work must not be petition circulators themselves.
If McKinney can accomplish this petition drive, she will have made history. Georgia’s law, requiring a petition of 5% of the number of registered voters, has been in place since 1943, and no minor party candidate for U.S. House has ever succeeded in overcoming it. Independent candidates need the same number of signatures, and no independent has met the petition requirement since 1964. Back in 1964, the signatures did not need to be notarized; no filing fee was needed; and the petition was not due until October, and was not actually checked for validity.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said several times that ballot access laws that are seldom used are probably too difficult. But the federal and state courts in Georgia have upheld the requirement many times. The most recent case lost in the 11th circuit in 2010. The 11th circuit admitted that the law had not been used in 46 years, but said perhaps that is because no one ever tries. There have been serious attempts, but unfortunately the record of those attempts was not in the court record.
McKinney’s petition is due July 10. She must pay the filing fee in June. If she makes a good attempt, but fails, that at least will provide evidence for a new lawsuit. However, there is no reason McKinney doesn’t plan to succeed.
2% of which annual salary ?
annual salary for US House, which I think is about $170,000. If anyone else knows exactly, please comment.
The salary for U.S. Representatives is $174,000.
http://www.house.gov/daily/salaries.htm
This is more great news for the Green Party. Cynthia McKinney led the Green Party Black Caucus endorsement of Rosanne Barr last week. At the Saturday Green Party convention in D.C. Rosanne told delegates she wants to focus on ballot access, getting the Green Party on the ballot in difficult states. This is a great Green Party opportunity for Rosanne to work with Cynthia.
Rosanne could hire professional signature gatherers to collect presidential petitions to put Rosanne on the Green Party ballot line in Georgia, and at the same time as the petitions could collect signatures to put Cynthia on the ballot for U.S. House.
It’s a win, win, win. Win for Rosanne. Win for Cynthia. Win for Green Party.
So, Cynthia’s hired petitioners, and let’s be honest only experienced professional petitioners – and the Green Party has several could do this. They will have to collect 40,000 raw for Cynthia to get the 18,000 valid.
It appears 2% of $174,000 is $3,480.
Richard, who has come the closest in meeting this law? I would thought the LP would done so by now or the Reform Party would have done so when they were popular in the 90’s.
Cynthia
My hero.
#5, the closest in recent years were Wayne Parker, a Libertarian in 2002, and Jeff Anderson, an independent in 2010.
The Reform Party never tried to get anyone on the Georgia ballot for US House. Ross Perot wasn’t very interested in Reform Party campaigns for Congress and state office. If he had been, that would have made a big difference.
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I thought that Cynthia McKinney had moved to California and was running for office there? Why the change in location and plans?
Good Luck Cynthia!
This is *very* good news because hers is an exceptionally strong, clear voice.
Does anyone know whether she has a new website for the campaign yet? I’m sure she could bear to get some money.
#9 Cynthia lived in California while she worked on her graduate degree there. She has kept her home and her residency in Georgia.
Run Cynthia Run!