According to this story, another Indiana resident has now pleaded guilty in the 2008 incident in which signatures on petitions to get Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the Indiana presidential primary ballot were forged. This second individual who has confessed guilt was the Democratic Party’s representative in the St. Joseph County voter registration office. A trial against two other individuals will start next month.
The fraud occurred because it is so difficult to get candidates on the Indiana presidential primary ballot. Even the campaigns of Obama and Clinton felt it necessary to forge signatures, rather than to fulfill the requirements. Indiana’s presidential primary ballot access is the most difficult of any state, for candidates who are recognized by the national news media. And Indiana’s ballot access requirements for independent and newly-qualifying parties are even worse than the presidential primary requirements. It is possible that publicity about the 2008 petition fraud might cause some Indiana legislator to introduce a bill to ease the ballot access requirements next year. Unfortunately, it is already too late for bills to be introduced in Indiana this year. There are many states with ballot access that is too strict, but Indiana is unique among these states, in that no legislator has introduced a bill to ease them, in recent decades. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
“The fraud occurred because it is so difficult to get candidates on the Indiana presidential primary ballot. Even the campaigns of Obama and Clinton felt it necessary to forge signatures, rather than to fulfill the requirement.”
I worked on the effort to get Ron Paul on the ballot in Indiana in 2008 and in 2012. We did not forge any signatures, we did it by getting off of our rear ends and going out to public places and asking people to sign the petitions. We gathered more than enough valid signatures both times.
The truth of the matter is that the campaigns of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton were too lazy and too arrogant to gather petition signatures the right way, so they cheated by forging signatures, which is clearly illegal.
The real question here given that both campaigns turned in forged signatures and did not really have enough valid signatures to qualify for the Indiana ballot is why did Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton get placed on the ballot in Indiana? Given that they cheated by turning in forged signatures, all of their votes should be thrown out from that state.
I heard that there was something wrong with John McCain’s petition in Indiana in 2008 as well, and that he should not have made the ballot in that state.
It seems pretty clear to me that there is a double standard in this country. If you are one of the establishment choices the election officials will “look the other way” if you don’t jump through all of the hoops to qualify for the ballot, but if you are not an establishment choice, the election officials will kick you off the ballot if you don’t jump through all of their hoops and dot every i and cross every t.
No statewide minor party or independent petition has succeeded in Indiana since 2000. The only states for which that is true are Georgia and Indiana. That says something is really wrong with Indiana law.
“Richard Winger Says:
April 15th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
No statewide minor party or independent petition has succeeded in Indiana since 2000. The only states for which that is true are Georgia and Indiana. That says something is really wrong with Indiana law.”
The state wide petition to place minor party or independent candidates on the ballot is far more difficult than than the Democrat and Republican primary petitions. The state wide minor party or independent candidate petition requires somewhere around 34,000-39,000 valid signatures. They are due in the summer, sometime in July I believe. That is a difficult requirement and it ought to be reduced.