The Peace and Freedom Party was added back to the June primary ballot today, two days after the Secretary of State Bruce McPhersoner ruled the party didn’t have enough registered voters to qualify.
McPherson had stunned observers when he invented a new interpretation of the rule regarding ballot access.
Oakland attorney Bob Evans, the party central committee’s recording secretary credited Richard Winger with providing McPherson historical information on the law’s application.
Posted by Eric Garris
Ahnold Schwarzenegger has lied about all kinds of things, including and especially, veterans issues. Now the tree huggers and rice eaters of Peace and Freedom are back on ‘der vallot’! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Who is the real ‘Girly Mon’?
Kevin Akin, state chair of the California Peace and Freedom Party, sent the following message to its State Central Committee members and some others at 2:30 this afternoon:
Thank you all for the work you did to get attention directed upon the malicious partisan exclusion of the Peace and Freedom Party from the ballot by Schwarzenegger’s appointed Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.
Our press conference in front of McPherson’s office was scheduled for 2:00 pm today. All morning his office got calls from press, radio and TV folks. At 1:57, three minutes before the press conference was to begin, our attorney Bob Evans got a call from an official at the office of the Secretary of State, telling him that on second thought, the Peace and Freedom Party is a qualified party after all.
Bob called me, I tried to call people at the press conference, but it wasn’t until 2:05 pm that I got through. By that time, some press people had already told our folks that the Secretary of State’s office was telling callers that Peace and Freedom is still on the ballot. I heard some loud happy sounds, but have not yet received a report as to just what happened at the press conference. I made sure that CT Weber (candidate for State Senate) understood that our attorney was notified only three minutes before the start of the press conference, and asked him to thank the media people for their attention that made McPherson fold his hand.
You might want to check out the TV news this evening to see if anything makes it to the tube. If it is mentioned, I would be very grateful if you could tell me roughly what is said, and what TV station it was on. Thanks!
Oh, a special thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News. The official who called Bob Evans said that it was Richard’s list of precendents that made it clear to them that their side had no hope of prevailing in court. But she (the official) was quite grudging, and said McPherson will try to get the law changed to make it easier to take us off. What an idiot! How many times does he want to stick his hand into this particular hornet’s nest? We’re organized! Be prepared for struggles ahead, but have a very satisfactory weekend (gathering signatures, of course).
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Good going Richard. Your expert knowledge and efforts helped maintain minor party ballot access. Although I am not a Peace and Freedom member, the protection of ballot access for another party helps preserve it for mine, too.
Three cheers to Richard for protecting ballot access in America!!!