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Why ballot access in Oklahoma matters to the Libertarian Party

Ironically, the very toughest ballot access provisions exist in Oklahoma, and even the Libertarian Party may not be able to meet those requirements in time to get Bob Barr on the ballot. Moreover, the Sooners don't even allow write-ins.

Which is doubly unfortunate given that Oklahoma--as evidenced in Delaware Curmudgeon's recent post-- has just served notice to the Feds that under the authority of the Tenth Amendment

THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

THAT this serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

THAT a copy of this resolution be distributed to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state’s legislature of the United States of America, and each member of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.


So there are obviously libertarian-leaning folks out there in Okie-land. We just have to figure out a way for them to be able to vote their conscience and their true political beliefs.

Ironically, as a Libertarian who opposes big government, I find myself wondering about a constitutional amendment guaranteeing universal ballot access standards.

On the other hand, the Demopublicans would probably skew the language on that to forever keep Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, Socialists, and Naderites out of the running, so never mind.

Comments

OK, here's your first. Not so much on the post itself, but just a comment about comments: there is quantity and there is quality.

I prefer quality, myself.
Ooops. The above comment should have been made on the Ron Paul/Michele Obama post.

Now there are two !
tom said…
I find myself wondering about a constitutional amendment guaranteeing universal ballot access standards.

Federally imposed ballot access standards would be a very bad idea.

First of all they would probably look a lot more like Oklahoma's than Tennessee's or Delaware's, and we'd also have stuff like the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act to deal with during ballot access campaigns too.

And secondly, uniform requirements would preclude efforts like the Free State Project which try to concentrate libertarians in the "easy" areas to build local libertarian governments.
Anonymous said…
As always, a conflict between principle and pragmatism.

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