[Imc-radio] update & 3rd party story

[Sandra Ahten]

Hello everyone, I'm back from my painting expedition in Kentucky.  I've been 
speaking to Dave and it looks like he has plenty of material for this weeks 
show. He is going to be using my interview on voting machines with Jeff 
Nicolson Owens. He is going to be using (at least part) of the story that 
I've filed below. (Dave, feel free to edit as you deem fit.) I am going to 
try to pull a similar story together regarding the Urbana City Council. If 
he needs it he will be using parts of an interview he did with Greg Springer 
regarding his Columbia trip.

For next week. We are looking for a feature and/ or a producer/ and 
contributions. What can you suggest?

I called the solidier who wanted to be interviewed... but he hasn't called 
me back yet.

Hope to see you at noon on Tuesday.

Sandra


This report on the status of third party candidacy in local elections was 
filed by IMC reporter Sandra Ahten


Champaign County Officer's Electoral Board upheld the right of Green 
Candidates Susan Rodgers, Ken Urban, Dave Sacks, and Zach Miller, to remain 
on the ballot for Champaign County Board. These candidates' ballot access 
rights had recently been challenged by local democratic party operatives. 
This decision was made at a hearing on Tuesday, July 27, 2004. One of the 
candidates was challenged on the number of valid signatures on his petition. 
The remaining candidates, were challenged on election law issues such as the 
residency and intentions of student candidates.

The News Gazette reported that, incredibly,the Democratic Party Chair Tony 
Fabri sent a letter to candidates Sacks and Rogers that said that (quote) 
Under Republican control, the Champaign County Board was the most 
conservative body in local government (and adding) Your candidacy threatens 
to put an end to the progressive transformation of Champaign County 
Government. (end quote)


In other local“third party” news a Social Equality Party candidate, Thomas 
Mackaman had his candidacy for a seat in 103rd Distirct in the House of 
Representatives challenged by the Democratic Party also. This seat is 
currently held by Naomi Jakobsson a Democrat from Urbana. The candidacy was 
being challenged on the number of valid signatures. However on last 
Thursday, July 29 the electoral board showed that the candidate has indeed 
reached the minimum number of signatures.
Reporting on the World Socialist Website says that  Andrew Spiegel, an 
attorney who specializes in Illinois state election law stated that  
Democratic and Republican parties routinely challenge all third party 
petitions in Illinois even though the state maintains some of the most 
restrictive ballot access legislation in the nation. For example, to gain 
“New Party” ballot access, a party needs to achieve a valid signature 
minimum of 5 percent of the total number of voters who voted in a political 
subdivision the last presidential election. For independents it increases to 
10-16 percent. To achieve ballot access as a presidential candidate in 
Illinois, petitioners must gather a minimum of 25,000 valid signatures and 
have a complete slate of statewide candidates along with party electors.
Spiegel, who has worked with numerous third parties from across the 
political spectrum, said that Democrats and Republicans may challenge a 
signature’s validity on several grounds, but that the most frequent 
objection is that the signature does not closely enough resemble the 
signature as it appears on the voter’s registration card. Spiegel pointed 
out the difficulty of defending against such objections, “As we all know, 
every signature changes every time it’s written down.” Another typical 
objection is that although the address of the person signing may be current, 
he or she may be registered at a previous address.
According to the World Socialist Website:


Efforts to block third-party and independent candidates from the ballot are 
standard procedure for the Democratic and Republican political machines in 
Illinois. In addition to the objections against Mackaman, officials from 
both the Illinois Democratic and Republican Parties filed objections against 
nearly two dozen third-party or independent candidates, including 
independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, the Green Party’s 
presidential campaign and other Green candidates and several Libertarian 
Party candidates.
The determination of both parties to eliminate independent challenges in one 
of the most populous states in the US is a measure of how narrow the base of 
support of the two-party system is. Functioning on behalf of the wealthy 
elite and confronting ever greater opposition to their right-wing policies, 
neither party can tolerate dissenting viewpoints. It is noteworthy that the 
Democratic Party has responded to the trampling of voters’ rights in the 
2000 elections in Florida, not by opposing the criminal methods of Bush and 
his supporters, but by stepping up efforts to block ballot access to any 
party that might cost it votes.
Mackaman, a University of Illinois graduate student and lecturer in History 
said, (quote) “The Democratic Party’s efforts to prevent the SEP from 
gaining ballot access is an attack not only on our party but on the more 
than two thousand voters who signed petitions to place me on the ballot. It 
is aimed at frustrating their desire for a political alternative to the two 
big business parties and their bipartisan policies of war in Iraq and 
continuing cutbacks in social services, education, housing and healthcare, 
not only at the local level in District 103, but throughout the state and 
nation. (end quote)