On May 31, 2017, Andrew Straw filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana’s 2% petition requirement for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, as applied to people who are physically disabled and unable to engage in petitioning in public in the normal fashion, which requires mobility. The lawsuit is based on the federal law that prohibits states from discriminating against disabled individuals. Straw v State of Indiana, s.d., 1:17cv-1797. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge William T. Lawrence, a Bush Jr. appointee.
For 2018, Straw wants to be on the ballot as the Disability Party nominee for Secretary of State. Here is the ballotpedia page about him.
This sounds interesting, has their ever been a challenge to petitioning laws using disability as the rational before?
Even the most able-bodied individuals can’t possibly fulfill statewide ballot petitions on their own. Do you think the candidate running for statewide office in a place like California or Illinois collects all their signatures on their own, no matter how well they walk? The point of petitioning is to get campaign volunteers to help out
I have long said that there ought to be a lawsuit in regard to disabled people being able to gather petition signatures. What I mean here is that there have been numerous instances across the country where petition circulators have been told that they can’t use chairs when they gather petition signatures at various venues, or that they can’t set up tables at various venues, or where the only places they can gather signatures without being run out by the police, security guards, and/or venue managers are places where they can’t sit down.
I know petition circulators who have knee or back problems or other health issues where they can’t reaming standing long, and the situations I have described above have hindered their ability to gather petition signatures.
Should everyone, including the handicapped, and those with other health problems, have a fair shot at being able to gather petition signatures?
There should/must be very simple nominating forms —
Nominating petition form (3.5 inches high, 4.25 inches wide, 9 point type)-
I nominate (nonpartisan or party name) (name and address) for (office) in (election area) at the (date) election.
Elector signature, printed name, address, date signed.
IE put in newspapers, mags, internet, etc.
—
Filing fees option based on the min. number of signatures
I had the same problem in the 8th District of Illinois. It hurts to collect signatures because I broke both my legs and my pelvis in a 6-car crash on the way to work at the Indiana Supreme Court. That court has been savage toward me and my rights as a disabled person and their actions have driven me into poverty. I cannot pay someone to gather signatures. I asked to be allowed to collect signatures online like Utah does. I asked to be able to sign for someone over the phone, or witness someone signing over Facebook rather than in person. The answers were NO NO NO, Hell no, exclusion from the ballot.
If you want to make sure someone has enough support, let them get on a primary ballot without signatures and see how many votes they get. Collecting signatures is the ultimate act of futility imposed by a state. Getting a signature does not mean the person who signed is even going to vote! When my Party is on the ballot without signatures, people with disabilities in Indiana will finally be able to participate without the expense or pain of gathering signatures. It’s about time.
Andrew Straw, andrew@andrewstraw.com
By the way, I wrote to the Indiana Democratic Party, Republican Party, and Libertarian Party and none of these parties objected to me being on the ballot without the massive 26,699 signatures burden. I don’t ask for more burden for them. Why should they demand it from me?
Is it true that Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress do not require a petition, but independents/non-qualified party candidates need 3000+ signatures? It appears that Indiana has a bizarre law that requires signatures based on votes cast in whole counties, even if a district only contains part of a county!!!
Segregated partisan primaries are a ballot access device!!!
What century will the SCOTUS hacks detect that every election is N-E-W ???
IE EQUAL ballot access tests — IE overrule ALL the JUNK/UNEQUAL SCOTUS ballot access cases since 1968 — now a mere 49 LONG years ago.
In Indiana, unless you have that 2% status from the last Secretary of State campaign, running for Congress takes nearly 4,000 signatures. The Democrats, Republicans, and libertarians do not need to collect any signatures in any congressional race. This is not fair because none of those democratic and Republican candidates did anything to demonstrate that they should not gather signatures. They did not have to demonstrate that they have enough support, only small parties have to do that. Or rather, candidates from small parties.
I think the whole signature gathering requirement is a complete travesty of democracy because only those with new ideas and new parties to match them have to collect the signatures. If you represent an old party with old ideas, you get the benefit of not needing any signatures.
To add to Andrew’s point, the Democratic nominee for the Indiana’s 3rd district for U.S. House was a perennial candidate Tommy Schrader, a possibly mentally ill man who lives in a motel room in Fort Wayne, who the Third District Democratic Party Committee said they wouldn’t even support, yet because he won the Democratic nomination, he didn’t need to collect anything. The system is completely screwed up here.
Richard, the Disability laws are Federal, but the election laws are State laws. What is your opinion on the path to proceed?
Article V of the US Constitution answers this question. Federal laws are supreme, including Title II of the ADA. The ADA is higher than any state constitution.
Has anyone considered that circulating a petition can spread Coronavirus? That should be the death knell of in-person gathering of signatures. Period.
I have circulated petitions for many years, yet I rarely get sick. I was in fact circulating petitions right up until most things started shutting down, or limiting their hours, yet I have not gotten sick. I know, and know of, lots of other people who regularly circulate petitions, yet I do not know, or know of, any petition circulators who have gotten Coronavirus.
Also, if the threat of getting Coronavirus, or more specifically, COVID-19, would grocery store workers and gas station attendants be in even more danger than petition circulators? Shouldn’t all grocery stores and gas stations shut down, or put their workers in HAZMAT suits?
This threat is being exaggerated, and it is a manufactured crisis meant to provide cover for a financial downturn that waa going to happen anyway, due to the central banksters inflationary monetary policies, and reckless government spending, and so they can have an excuse to get bailout money (via counterfeiting, which is all the central banking fiat currency scam is), which only creates more debt on the back of the taxpayers, and devalues the currency already in circulation, and also so the government can push more police state measures, including forced vaccinations and biometric identifiers. This is all a big globalist scam. This is New World Order agenda.