Fighting back for ballot access: We will be as imaginative as we have to be

You may recall that the Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is the GOPer trying to invoke an arcane "sore loser" law to keep Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson off the ballot. You may also recall that this is a purely political move, because the law has never been interpreted that way before, and was in fact interpreted to allow John Anderson to run in 1980 after having been in the GOP Primary.

So, yes, the Libertarian Party of Michigan will sue if necessary, but how's this for a creative solution.

The LPM has found another "Gary E. Johnson" to run as the party's candidate. This one is a longtime Texas Libertarian, who just happens to share the same name (down to the middle initial) with the former New Mexico governor. He has agree to sign the papers to be the Libertarian Party's nominee in Michigan only. The electors will then be pledged to him, not Governor Gary Earl Johnson.

Of course, should Johnson (which one?) manage to win Michigan, the electors are legally free to vote for the national Libertarian candidate.

We should not have to do this in a republic of laws, but we have allowed the two parties to shut down virtually every avenue of reasonable competition.

So, we'll fight back, with whatever legal tactics we need to use.

Comments

Will McVay said…

Good idea. Sounds familiar.

June 5, 2012 at 9:26 PM

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