Tennessee requires 33,844 signatures for a newly-qualifying party to get on the ballot, but only 25 signatures for anyone to run as an independent for any partisan office (except presidential independents need 275).
After years of trying and failing to persuade the legislature to lower the party petition, Tennessee Libertarians have decided to qualify 22 separate independent candidates for Governor this year, to publicize the absurdity of the law that is so harsh on minor parties and so easy for independent candidates. See this story.
No group has successfully completed the Tennessee petition for party status since 1968. Even Americans Elect tried and failed to qualify, in 2011.
This is an original idea which ought to draw some attention to Tennessee’s very poor ballot access laws.
I understand that LPTN was attempting to petition to become a recognized party. Would it be safe to say that their efforts are not going well?
Fascinating idea on the part of the TN Libertarians. It should certainly result in more people demanding something be done about said harsh ballot access laws. Wish we could do something like this here in IL, but Independents have similar ballot access requirements to partisan candidates.
How about ALL minor parties and no party independents get some ballot access lawyers with SOME brain cells —
1. Each election is NEW — by definition of *election*.
2. Separate is NOT equal. — Brown v Bd of Ed 1954 — 14th Amdt, Sec. 1.
Current blatant separate and UN-equal ballot access laws for major party, old minor party, new minor party and no party candidates.
3. EQUAL ballot access tests (same 14th Amdt Sec. 1) for ALL INDIVIDUAL candidates for the SAME office in the SAME election area.
The 3 BASIC election points NOT brought up in Williams v Rhodes 1968 —
result — a mere 50 years of worse and worse MORON ballot access cases.
Difficult only for MORON lawyers and worse MORON party hack judges.
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History Note – 152 years ago — USA 1866 Civil Rights Act today – via veto override – real start of Reconstruction (after the horrific Civil War 1 in 1861-1865) to 1877 (after 1876 chaos Prez election).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1866
Major doubts about legality of Act >>> 14 Amdt, Secs. 1 and 5.
1866 CRA re-enacted after 14 Amdt ratified in 1868.
The pluralist-driven psychology of the TN Libertarians will see their plan fall apart because of the position of conflict and division that their roles will bring to the table.
The only way to unite voters is pure proportional representation (PPR) and no other way will assure the liberty to self-categorize and to encourage the attraction of votes from the 100%.
Unfortunately the Libertarian Party uses pluralist elections from top to bottom and so their party bosses view unity under PPR as a threat to their pluralist plans.
But when people are treated unfairly and the pluralist bias is built-in to block new ideas then those who had tried to be part of the Libertarian Party are driven away never to return.
The United Coalition has been using PPR for more than twenty-three consecutive years and PPR works fine.
http://www.international-parliament.org/ucc.html
Gandhi believed the most effective way to achieve social change — or anything else, really — is to spend all your time posting messages on the internet, where you helpfully criticize everyone else for being MORONS.
MLK, though often lumped together with Gandhi, believed that the distinction between message boards and so-called ‘reality’ was real, in the sense that a moron could understand it, but he thought it was wrong to suggest that effective action could occur outside the realm of the keyboard.
The result was that Gandhi and MLK would often come to the verge of fisticuffs in their effort to determine whose turn it was to post the next message explaining why the entire world was a MORON.
What prevented them from coming to actual blows was their inability to make eye contact.
Has the LP of Tennessee canceled its party status petition driv I know they started one, and that they had several thousand signatures in hand.
Would Ghandi and MLK have been on the internet making comments about the EVIL rotted Brit MORONS in India and the racist MORONS in the ex-slave States in the USA respectively ???
Would the 1761-1776 American patriots have been on the internet making comments about the EVIL rotted Brit MORONS in Great Britain, the American colonies and Canada ???
Sorry – the 2018 internet is the print-radio-TV versions of New Age politics.
Democracy vs EVIL monarch/oligarch MORONS for 6,000 plus years.
Some recent top killer MORONS — Kaiser Bill WW I, Mussolini-Hirohito-Hitler WW II.
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PR and AppV — to END the minority rule of monarch/oligarch EVIL MORONS.
That is a shockingly bad idea that’s almost guaranteed to backfire. If any action is actually taken, it will be to make it more difficult to run for office as an independent and not to ease any restrictions on minor parties.
A.C. is too mild.
The gerrymander Empire will STRIKE BACK (think Star Wars movie series) —
Keep independent candidates OFF ballots the same as with all minor party candidates – new or old — being kept OFF.
This is great story. It highlights the point I’ve made for long while and that is running outside the major parties without the benefit of celebrity requires bringing to the fore the central injustice of the system and abandoning the pretence that voters have only individual profiles to consider.
Confronting the absurdity is not drastic as the article may view it, it’s indispensable if a historic breakthrough is going to be manifested. The context these candidates will be able to leverage in their voter contacts is closer to perfect.
It would work better even with a platform less focused on self interest as that is so closely tied with with the few that made the system.
There’s a lot of weird people posting on this thread
“There’s a lot of weird people posting on this thread.” – Funkmaster V
Then STOP posting! 🙂
Tennessee Libertarians–go for it!!
“Then STOP posting! 🙂” – Casual Observer
Dammit… you got me.
But first! This link will save all of your babies lives:
The great state O’ Tennessee needs your help! Good news… we got the funk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIsePOlH0Ps
You all can go to hell, I’m running for Governor.