State Wide Alert - Alabama HB 145 - The Write-In Vote...your last bastion of freedom...they're looking to take it away!

This notice is not just for Alabama...other states may be trying the same tactic! It's all about control! Control over you! As my friend over at the Snooper Report says, "Sic vis pacem para bellum." Fight accordingly! ~ Norman E. Hooben


Source: Politics Alabama
Friday, January 15, 2010

HB145: On Write-In Candidates

By Matthew Givens

It's time to look at House Bill 145, which passed out of committee and has had its second reading in the House. It could be voted on as early as Tuesday. Let's look at the bill summary, shall we?

Under existing law, write-in votes are permitted only in non-municipal general elections. This bill would require that in order to have a write-in vote counted, the voter must write the name on the ballot and register the vote by a mark in the space designated for that particular office.

This bill would require that a write-in candidate be registered with the Secretary of State or the judge of probate as an official write-in candidate and comply with the provisions of the Fair Campaign Practices Act and the State Ethics Law in order to have his or her vote counted and would provide for a procedure for counting write-in votes.

You may read the entire bill at the following link:
http://www.politicsalabama.org/files/Leg2010/HB145-int.pdf

Now let's analyze this.

Write-in votes are the electorate's last line of defense against ballot access laws that keep them off. Theoretically, a write-in candidate could win the election, though I don't believe that has ever happened.

This bill will REQUIRE a "write-in" candidate to register 90 days before the election
and fill out all the paperwork that real candidates do. And if you didn't? Then your votes will never be counted.

That's not a write-in candidacy, that's an attempt to make write-in candidacies go away altogether.

Alabama currently has the toughest ballot access and retention laws in the entire nation. In order to get on the ballot as a statewide independent or third-party candidate, you are required to collect more than 40,000 signatures. The time and money you spend doing that just gets you on the ballot, and is wasted as far as campaigning for office is concerned. As intended.

All this bill does is close the "write-in" loophole, and serves to cement the hold that the Democrats and the Republicans have on the electoral process. We could chop our ballot access requirements in half and STILL have the toughest in the nation.

Traditionally, ballot access laws are enacted to keep ballots from being crowded with so many names that voters get confused. But in Alabama we don't have crowded ballots, we have DESERTED ballots. Did you know that, during the 2006 election cycle, more than half of the newly elected legislators had no opponent in the general election?

It's true, more than half the legislators elected in 2006 were unopposed... the very definition of deserted ballots. You can find a complete list of these unelected legislators here:
http://politicsalabama.org/StateFactsLegislature.html

With this as a fact, why TIGHTEN ballot access laws to keep more people from running? This is not in the best interests of the citizens of this state.

I recommend that HB145 FAIL. ~ MG

Home