On March 12, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office held a hearing on whether to remove one of the two Libertarians running against each other in the Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate. See this story.
On March 12, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office held a hearing on whether to remove one of the two Libertarians running against each other in the Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate. See this story.
Probably commie carpetbagger Redpath is orchestrating this.
Fred,
Redpath is one of the candidates for the party’s nomination considered in the primary.
It was Kristen Wichers, also known as Krissi Wichers, who filed the objection.
From the article:
“The protest was filed by Kristen Wichers, a Libertarian Party activist who believes Kanter may be a Republican-backed proxy candidate meant to interfere with the Libertarian nomination. Libertarians worry such a candidate could prevent their preferred contender, William Redpath, from appearing on the November ballot.”
It says it right there – the objection is over Jeffrey Kanter potentially being a Republican proxy intended to hijack the Libertarian nomination process via primary election. In fact, the party’s preferred candidate is Redpath, the only Libertarian Party member in the race.
Reading is essential, Fred. Or are you illiterate?
That doesn’t mean Redpath didn’t tell her to do it. He is an evil corrupt commie. Stop being such a fucking tard.
My goodness, signature prices sure went up a lot since I left that business. Not that I’m tempted to go back. It’s US Senate so they had to be statewide. I don’t know off hand whether there were any restrictions on who could sign.
It sounds like if the challenge succeeds, it will probably be because of restrictions on who can circulate. It’s a bad law – the Alvarazes should have been free to circulate regardless of their own personal beliefs or registration or past jobs. But, it is the law. Then again, what really matters is not the letter of the law but who gets to enforce it. If LaRose has the last word, the libertarian party apparatchiks are probably screwed. We’ll see.
FP –
You can blame the Democrats and Republicans for the cause of skyrocketing costs. If you’re able to get them as low as $5 per valid signature, that’s great. But it appears to be in the $8 to $15 per valid signature rate for 2026 and maybe as high as 20% more in 2028.
$5 was astronomical when I was in the business. With rare exceptions only available for things where you had to go door to door in gerrymandered districts or try to have people find themselves on a map or just count on most of your work to be thrown out for being out of district, or signers could be only of a certain party, or if there was organized opposition on your tail asking people not to sign, or if it was really burned out (most people who wanted to sign already signed, most people have been asked repeatedly until they’re sick of it regardless if they signed or not, but more signatures still needed, like when a high percentage of voters have to sign).
Not on regular statewide or countywide petitions with single digit of eligible voters required to qualify petitions without organized opposition or signer party restrictions.
There’s been a lot of inflation in the last decade but not that much.
There is nothing wrong with Redpath backing someone in making a challenge to his opposition’s standing to be in the Ohio Libertarian Primary for US Senate.
Also, nothing wrong with the Democratic Party protecting its investment in getting the Ohio Libertarian Party their ballot access so they could run ringer candidates or spoilers in office in hopes of help the Democratic Party candidate win. The attorney representing Wichers is a well-known Democrat attorney who used to be a head attorney in the last Democrat-led Ohio administration.
Wichers supports communism by hiring a communist.
“Ohio law requires circulators to be affiliated with the same party as the candidate they’re helping” Haven’t courts struck down these restrictions?
Whether they have or not, they should. Redpath himself was involved in legislation against residency requirements. Anyone should be able to circulate a petition, including animals and inanimate objects like unmanned tables.
The signers should matter, not the circulators or their motives, origin, lifestyle, plans, citizenship, age, sex, race, species, or anything at all about them. A petition could be passed from one signer to the next, so who would be the circulator then?
I don’t agree. A lot of people only sign petitions because they are fooled into thinking that someone in their community cares about a cause enough to volunteer their time to ask them to sign.
Anything which precludes other motives, or, failing that ,informs potential signers of financial compensation and its amount and source, the exact nature of what they are being asked to sign (which frequently gets misrepresented), non residency, etc is good.
Anything which limits who can circulate or sign – ideally, property owning White men of good character, over 21 and under 65, military and law enforcement veterans who are still in shape for reserve duty (yes, I’m too old now), gun owners, church members and regular attendees, whose families have owned property in the local area continuously for several generations, sound of body and mind, etc – is good.
That’s if there are petitions at all. Ideally they would not exist. Laws should be too simple and difficult to change to require a regular legislature. Any political offices should be filled by the winning party at election. Participants in the election should be those qualified, well known to each other as heads of long time prominent local families, who show up, pay a substantial poll tax, and are prepared to serve in office themselves if elected at that gathering.
So long as we have legislators, let them legislate, just like we let plumbers plumb. I don’t want to smell what happens if my neighbors who don’t want to or know how to fix their toilets are forced to do so, and the same is true of legislation.
There should be no candidates, only winning parties appointing officeholders, but so long as there are candidates, they should not need any signatures to qualify, either. The party should pick them, ahead of the election or right after, or they can be a party of one by being qualified and showing up. The party qualities by standing together at the election.
Until we get there, see prior comment.
I should add that participation in anything to do with elections ahould be limited to married head of household men with children who have not been divorced and are gainfully employed or independently wealthy. I’d also be excluded for being divorced in addition to too old and retired.
21 as a lower age limit is too low nowadays, but the other restrictions would take care of that. Unlike in the 1700s nowadays it’s rare to find men in their 20s who would qualify.
Of course, any type of past criminal conviction should disqualify. The death penalty should be the default for most serious crimes.
This kind of issue should be resolved by the party itself, and not by the State Secretary.
How well does the price of a nomination signature over time correlate with the price of gold? Or the CPI?
Eliminate formal (i.e. state recognized) party nominations. Filing for a candidate would require a modest handling fee ($15?). A candidate could purchase ballots (one mill per ballot?) distributed in areas selected by the candidate. In other areas, they would be a write-in candidate.
Voting in person, with limited offices at an election. Ohio might elect the six statewide executive offices at one election, federal offices at another, legislative offices at another, and local offices at another. Voters would pick up ballot papers for an office, go to a voting booth and place their choice in an envelope, and deposit the envelope in a ballot box; then proceed to the next office.
At the end of the voting day, pull the ballots from the envelopes, announce the choice, place the ballot in a stack, and then count the stacks to confirm the count. A majority candidate is elected. Otherwise candidates with 10% or more advance to runoff. Candidates with less than 10% may aggregate their votes to advance an other candidate. Candidates may withdraw.
Runoff is a week later. 40% plurality to be elected. 20% or more to advance to second runoff, with ability to aggregate or withdraw.
Second runoff plurality to be elected.
WZ sigs going up way faster.
Reminder what a huge hypocrite Bill Redpath is regarding ballot access.
Who isn’t?