Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Pennsylvania: Russ Diamond battles extreme unfair ballot access as independent candidate for gov

Pennsylvania lags behind the rest of the nation on ballot access

WEBCommentary and Redstate

by Tony PhyrillasApr. 26, 2006

Democrats and Republicans consider elections an invitation-only affair and unless you follow the party line, you're out in the cold.

Russ Diamond wants to give Pennsylvania voters a choice this November.
The founder of the PACleanSweep movement is running as an independent candidate for governor to give voters an alternative to Ed Rendell, a Democrat who has failed to deliver on his four-year-old promise of property tax relief for homeowners, and Republican Lynn Swann, who has never held public office.
The pundits give Diamond little chance of beating his better-known and well-financed opponents, but his biggest hurdle is getting on the ballot.
Pennsylvania, the birthplace of American democracy, is not very democratic when it comes to its elections.
While Rendell and Swann needed just 2,000 signatures to have their names placed on their respective primary ballots, an independent like Diamond must collect 67,070 names of registered voters to get his name on the ballot for the November general election. That's thirty-three times the number of signatures Republicans and Democrats need to get their candidates on the statewide ballot in 2006....
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