Hearing in Pennsylvania
September 5th, 2008 by Jason PyeRichard Winger has an update on today’s hearing in Pennsylvania where the McCain campaign is attempting to have Bob Barr removed from the ballot:
On September 5, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in Philadelphia held a trial on whether there is anything deficient with the paperwork that names Bob Barr as the Libertarian presidential nominee in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania law authorizes substitution. The Libertarian Party started circulating its statewide petition in February 2008, before the party had chosen its national nominee. After the petition was submitted, paperwork was submitted showing that the stand-in, Rochelle Etzel, had withdrawn, and that Bob Barr is the substitution committee’s choice to replace her.
The objectors had claimed that it was wrong for the party to continue circulating the petition (with the stand-in’s name on it) in the months after the Libertarian national convention. Bob Barr’s attorney put on witnesses to establish that the party simply followed normal procedure in Pennsylvania for presidential petitions, and that the same thing was done in the three previous presidential elections, not only for the Libertarians, but for other minor parties as well.
We’re anxiously waiting a decision. Russ Verney just told me that he is “confidant that this frivolous lawsuit will fail” and he expect Bob Barr to appear on the ballot in Pennsylvania.
We’ll keep you posted.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
this is a joke. it is so frivolous, it’s ridiculous. Let’s see how the Repubs like it when we sure to get them off Texas. I just hope barr does it already and is not playing games
September 5th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I feel like the people are the real losers with all that is going on in Texas. It’s proof that the Republicans and Democrats at the national level for the most part don’t care about the people. If they did they’d follow the law. After all, they sure like to stick it to the commonfolk, what with federal raids on medical marijuana, suspense of habeus corpus, etc.
I don’t care so much about Obama and McCain being on the ballot–I’d like to see as many choices as possible with a level playing field (which it seems we’ll never get)–the problem I have is that if these roles were reversed and it was Bob who was trying to get on the ballot late, this wouldn’t even be up for discussion. He’d be left off the ballot. So, for that reason, I support this lawsuit, even though I think it’s sad that it is having to come to this.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
The Texas LP should pass out flyers to voters explaining this situation and how the law is being violated and ask that when they cast their vote on November 4th that they chose not to vote for either of these “illegal” candidates and either not vote for vote for one of the third party candidates that are legally on the ballot.
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Petition the CPD to open the Debates:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/presidential_debates/