Storm'n Norm'n: 9/27/15

The process of voting in America is not designed to pick the best candidate...a candidate that would support the U.S. Constitution and ultimately the continuity of the Republic. Most, if not all, elections in the United States are about the Party. Democrat Party or Republican Party, it doesn't matter as long as one of them wins and the Constitution be damned. When John F. Kennedy spoke that famous line during his inaugural address, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." the country was united (more than it is now or had been) and people stood behind their new president. But Kennedy knew he was fighting a losing battle because the party backers were totally against such a patriotic concept...and he was a member of the Democratic Party (more on this later).

The goal of the Democratic party has nothing to do with patriotism or the Republic; their objectives have everything to do with control of the individual for purposes of re-electing the party along with the destruction of anything that stands in their way of meeting this objective which includes the Constitution. They have been doing this systematically since they lost the Civil War... Democrats don't like to hear this but facts are facts and when one refuses to believe the truth one becomes the liar. Are all democrats liars? No, some are Alinskyites but what's the difference! Fundamentally the Democrats can best be described as wanting a non-epistemological Corporatocracy and Kleptocracy form of government. That is, a government where the people know only what the corporation wants them to know while a select group of like minded people control the populace at large. While that description fits the current crop of Democrat party leaders let's not forget their fascist-communist leanings. We could also describe them as, 'a government of the government, by the government, and for the government' who keep the populace in their place while the politic elite enjoy the benefits of sucking the life-blood out of the working class.

Getting back to Kennedy for a moment I sincerely believe there was a conspiracy to kill him because he appealed too much to the people rather than the elite who were in charge. If you listen to his Secret Society speech (←link) it is not only obvious that he knew too much, he was literally warning the people while that was a huge no-no...the people must be dumbed down, not informed!

You will also note that Bill Clinton's protégé, Professor Carroll Quigley was part and parcel to that secret society that Kennedy spoke of...but enough of the conspiracy lets get on with why I posted this bit in the first place.

If you have ever wondered why things never seem to get better after an election....especially over the long run. It's because people have been brainwashed into thinking their party is right for the country when there's no evidence to substantiate it; things progressively get worse year after year while the poor remain poor and the ruling class get richer and richer*.

Now some may be wondering why I haven't mentioned much about the Republicans. Remember, it was the Democrats and the Republicans who wrote the rule book (FEC rules and regulations) to keep us peons from running for office...especially the presidency. (On a side note, this peon, yours truly, once attempted to run for a political office and was told by one of the elites that it would cost me about a million dollars. I don't have a million...end of side note!)

While the progressive Democrats appear to be winning their ideology battles (they even got rid of God at their last convention) it is because the Republicans let them win; 'nough said! ~ Norman E. Hooben

*There are just as much or more poor people as there was before President Johnson's War on Poverty even though trillions of dollars were spent...the rich however, are not complaining. Think about it.

Source for the following: IVN

We Have a Representation Problem

America hates Independents. At least it gives that impression. Independents take just two of the 535 seats in Congress and only 20 of these outsiders sit among the nation’s 7,382 state legislators. Yet, 40% of Americans identify as Independent. How could Independents be so underrepresented—by a factor of over 100?

Answer: Our vote-for-one Plurality Voting system suffocates Independents. Plurality ensures this result by coercing voters away from their honest favorites. No one wants to throw away their only vote on a less-than-viable candidate. And it’s this dishonest voting under Plurality that explains the disconnect with whom we elect. ...continued here

Published on Sep 30, 2015

Whether you support political parties or not, one thing we should all agree on is that the public election process should serve voters.
Over the course of our history, voter discrimination has taken many forms. Today, both parties have engaged in a “voting rights” debate related to “voter access” and “voter fraud.” But rarely do we ask fundamental questions about the process itself, like why do our representatives seem to serve their party more than the voters in the first place?
The Independent Voter Project produced a short video explaining the power the two major parties have over the voting process in many states.

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Something to think about...
From Wikipedia
Write-in Candidate

A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. The system is almost totally confined to elections in the United States. Some U.S. states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu of actually writing in the candidate's name. Write-in candidacies are sometimes a result of a candidate being legally or procedurally ineligible to run under his or her own name or party; Write-in candidacies may be permitted where term limits bar an incumbent candidate from being officially nominated for, or being listed on the ballot for, re-election. In some cases, write-in campaigns have been organized to support a candidate who is not personally involved in running; this may be a form of draft campaign.
Write-in candidates rarely win, and votes are often cast for ineligible people or fictional characters. Some jurisdictions require write-in candidates be registered as official candidates before the election.^[1] This is standard in elections with a large pool of potential candidates, as there may be multiple candidates with the same name that could be written in.
Many U.S. states and municipalities allow for write-in votes in a partisan primary election where no candidate is listed on the ballot to have the same functional effect as nominating petitions: for example, if there are no Reform Party members on the ballot for state general assembly and a candidate receives more than 200 write-in votes when the primary election is held (or the other number of signatures that were required for ballot access), the candidate will be placed on the ballot on that ballot line for the general election. In most places, this provision is in place for non-partisan elections as well.

Historical success of write-in candidates

Generally, write-in candidates can compete in any election within the United States. Typically, write-in candidates have a very small chance of winning, but there have been some strong showings by write-in candidates over the years.

Presidential Primaries

In 1928, Herbert Hoover won the Republican Massachusetts presidential primary on write-ins, polling 100,279.
In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the Democratic New Jersey presidential primary with 34,278 write-ins.
In 1944, Thomas Dewey won the Republican Pennsylvania presidential primary with 146,706 write-ins. He also won the Oregon Republican presidential primary with 50,001 write-ins.
In 1948, Harold Stassen won the Republican Pennsylvania presidential primary with 81,242 write-ins.
In 1952, Robert A. Taft won the Republican Nebraska presidential primary with 79,357 write-ins.
Also in 1952, Estes Kefauver won the Democratic Pennsylvania presidential primary with 93,160 write-ins.
Also in 1952, Dwight Eisenhower won the Republican Massachusetts presidential primary with 254,898 write-ins.
In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower won the Republican Massachusetts presidential primary with 51,951 write-ins.
In 1960, Richard Nixon won the Republican Massachusetts presidential primary with 53,164 write-ins.
Also in 1960, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic Pennsylvania presidential primary with 183,073 write-ins, and he won the Democratic Massachusetts presidential primary with 91,607 write-ins.
In 1964, a write-in campaign organized by supporters of former U.S. Senator and vice presidential nominee Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. won Republican primaries for President in New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, defeating declared candidates Barry Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, and Margaret Chase Smith.
In 1968 in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson did not file, but received write-ins totaling 50% of all Democratic votes cast. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who campaigned actively against Johnson’s Vietnam war policies, was on the ballot. He received an impressive 41% of the vote and gained more delegates than the President. Johnson was so stunned that he did not run for reelection.^[2]
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader ran a write-in campaign in 1992 during the New Hampshire primary for the presidential nomination of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Declaring himself the "none of the above candidate" and using the Concord Principles as his platform, Nader received 3,054 votes from Democrats and 3,258 votes from Republicans.

Senate

Republican William Knowland was elected in 1946 to the U.S. Senate from California, for a two-month term. The special election for the two-month term featured a November ballot with no names printed on it, and all candidates in that special election were write-in candidates.^[3]
Democrat Strom Thurmond was elected in 1954 to the United States Senate in South Carolina as a write-in candidate, after state Democratic leaders had blocked him from receiving the party's nomination.^[3]
In 2010 incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller.^[4] Following her defeat she ran in the general election as a write in candidate. Murkowski had filed, and won, a lawsuit requiring election officials to have the list of names of write in candidates distributed at the polls^[5] and subsequently won the election with a wide enough margin over both Miller, and Democratic Party candidate Scott T. McAdams, to make moot the write-in ballots that had been challenged by Miller.^[6]

House of Representatives

In 1918, Peter F. Tague was elected to the U.S. House as a write-in independent Democrat, defeating the Democratic nominee, John F. Fitzgerald.
In 1930 Republican Charles F. Curry, Jr. was elected to the House as a write-in from Sacramento, California. His father, Congressman Charles F. Curry Sr., was to appear on the ballot, but due to his untimely death his name was removed and no candidate's name appeared on the ballot.
Democrat Dale Alford was elected as a write-in candidate to the United States House of Representatives in Arkansas in 1958. As member of the Little Rock school board, Alford launched his write-in campaign a week before the election because the incumbent, Brooks Hays, was involved in the incident in which president Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce racial integration at Little Rock Central High School. Racial integration was unpopular at the time, and Alford won by approximately 1,200 votes, a 2% margin.^[7]
Republican Joe Skeen was elected as a write-in candidate to Congress in New Mexico in November 1980 after the incumbent Democrat, Harold Runnels, died in August of that year. No Republican filed to run against Runnels before the close of filing, and after the death, the New Mexico Secretary of State ruled that the Democrats could have a special primary to pick a replacement candidate, but the Republicans could not have a special election, since they had nobody to replace. Runnels' widow lost the special primary, and launched her own write-in candidacy, which split the Democratic vote and allowed Skeen to win with a 38% plurality.^[7]
Ron Packard of California finished in second place in the 18 candidate Republican primary to replace the retiring Clair Burgener. Packard lost the primary by 92 votes in 1982, and then mounted a write-in campaign as an independent. He won the election with a 37% plurality against both a Republican and a Democratic candidate. Following the elections, he re-aligned himself as a Republican.^[7]
Democrat Charlie Wilson was the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Party for Ohio's 6th congressional district in Ohio to replace Ted Strickland in 2006. Strickland was running for Governor and had to give up his congressional seat. Wilson, though, did not qualify for the ballot because only 46 of the 96 signatures on his candidacy petition were deemed valid, while 50 valid signatures were required for ballot placement. The Democratic Party continued to support Wilson, and an expensive primary campaign ensued – over $1 million was spent by both parties. Wilson overwhelmingly won the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate on May 2, 2006 against two Democratic candidates whose names were on the ballot, with Wilson collecting 44,367 votes, 67% of the Democratic votes cast.^[8] Wilson faced Republican Chuck Blasdel in the general election on November 7, 2006, and won, receiving 61% of the votes.
Democrat Dave Loebsack entered the 2006 Democratic primary in Iowa's second congressional district as a write-in candidate after failing to get the required number of signatures. He won the primary and in the general election he defeated 15 term incumbent Jim Leach by a 51% to 49% margin.
Jerry McNerney ran as a write-in candidate in the March 2004 Democratic Primary in California's 11th congressional district. He received 1,667 votes (3% of the votes cast), and, having no opposition (no candidates were listed on the Democratic primary ballot), won the primary.^[9] Although he lost the November 2004 general election to Republican Richard Pombo, McNerney ran again in 2006 (as a candidate listed on the ballot) and won the Democratic Primary in June, and then the rematch against Pombo in November.
Shelley Sekula-Gibbs failed as a write-in candidate in the November 7, 2006 election to represent the 22nd Texas congressional district in the 110th Congress (for the full term commencing January 3, 2007). The seat had been vacant since June 9, 2006, due to the resignation of the then representative Tom DeLay. Therefore, on the same ballot, there were two races: one for the 110th Congress, as well as a race for the unexpired portion of the term during the 109th Congress (until January 3, 2007). Sekula-Gibbs won the race for the unexpired portion of the term during the 109th Congress as a candidate listed on the ballot. She could not be listed on the ballot for the full term because Texas law did not allow a replacement candidate to be listed on the ballot after the winner of the primary (Tom DeLay) has resigned.
Peter Welch, a Democrat representing Vermont's sole congressional district, became both the Democratic and Republican nominee for the House when he ran for re-election in 2008. Because the Republicans did not field any candidate on the primary ballot, Welch won enough write-in votes to win the Republican nomination.^[10]

State legislatures

Several members of the Alaska House of Representatives were elected as write-in candidates during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly from rural districts in the northern and western portions of the state. Factors in play at the time include the newness of Alaska as a state and the previous absence of electoral politics in many of the rural communities, creating an environment which made it hard to attract candidates to file for office during the official filing period. Most of the areas in question were largely populated by Alaska natives, who held little political power in Alaska at the time. This only began to change following the formation of the Alaska Federation of Natives and the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Known examples of successful write-in candidates include Kenneth A. Garrison and Father Segundo Llorente (1960), Frank R. Ferguson (1972), James H. "Jimmy" Huntington (1974), and Nels A. Anderson, Jr. (1976). The incumbent in Llorente's election, Axel C. Johnson, ran for re-election as a write-in candidate after failing to formally file his candidacy paperwork. Johnson and Llorente, as write-in candidates, both outpolled the one candidate who did appear on the ballot. Ferguson and Anderson were both incumbents who launched their write-in campaigns after being defeated in the primary election. Anderson's main opponent, Joseph McGill, had himself won election to the House in 1970 against a write-in candidate by only 5 votes.
Carl Hawkinson of Galesburg won the Republican primary for the Illinois Senate from Illinois's 47th District in 1986 as a write-in candidate. He went on to be elected in the general election and served until 2003. Hawkinson defeated another write-in, David Leitch, in the primary. Incumbent State Senator Prescott Bloom died in a home fire after the filing date for the primary had passed.
After failing to receive the Republican Party's 1990 Wilson Pakula nomination, incumbent and registered Conservative New York State Senator Serphin Maltese won the party's nomination as a write-in candidate.^[11]
Charlotte Burks won as a Democratic write-in candidate for the Tennessee Senate seat left vacant when the incumbent, her husband Tommy, was assassinated by his opponent, Byron Looper, two weeks before the elections of November 2, 1998. The assassin was the only name on the ballot, so Charlotte ran as a write-in candidate.
Winnie Brinks was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2012 after a series of unusual events. In May of that year, State Representative Roy Schmidt - who had previously filed to run for re-election as a Democrat - withdrew from the Democratic primary and re-filed as a Republican. A friend of Schmidt's nephew filed to run as a Democrat, but withdrew two days later amid anger among local Democrats. This left Democrats without a candidate. Brinks ran as a write-in to be the Democratic nominee for the seat. She won the primary and therefore qualified to be on the general election ballot, which she also won. Coincidentally, the general election also saw a write-in candidate, Bing Goei, receive significant support.^[12]
Scott Wagner was elected as an anti-establishment Republican write-in candidate to the Pennsylvania Senate in a March 2014 special election over endorsed Republican nominee Ron Miller and Democrat Linda Small.^[13]

Local government

Julia Allen of Readington, New Jersey won a write-in campaign in the November 2005 elections for the Township Committee,^[14] after a candidate accused of corruption had won the primary.^[15]
Tom Ammiano, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, entered the race for Mayor of San Francisco as a write-in candidate two weeks before the 1999 general election. He received 25% of the vote, coming in second place and forcing incumbent Mayor Willie Brown into a runoff election, which Brown won by margin of 59% to 40%. In 2001, the campaign was immortalized in the award-winning documentary film See How They Run.
John R. Brinkley ran as a write-in candidate for governor of Kansas in 1930. He was motivated at least in part by the state's revocation of his medical license and attempts to shut down his clinic, where he performed alternative medical procedures including transplantation of goat glands into humans. He won 29.5% of the vote in a three-way race. Brinkley's medical and political career are documented in Pope Brock's book Charlatan.
Mike Duggan filed petition to run for mayor of Detroit in 2013; however, following a court challenge, Duggan's name was removed from the ballot. Duggan then campaigned as a write-in in the August 2013 primary, with the intent of being one of the top two vote-getters and thus advancing to the general election in November. Duggan received the highest number of votes in the primary, and advanced to the runoff in November.He eventually defeated challenger Sheriff Benny Napoleon to become the Mayor of Detroit. ^[16]
Donna Frye ran as a write-in candidate for Mayor of San Diego in 2004. A controversy erupted when several thousand votes for her were not counted because the voters had failed to fill in the bubble next to the write-in line. Had those votes been counted, she would have won the election.^[17]
Michael Jarjura was re-elected Mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut in 2005 as a write-in candidate after losing the Democratic party primary to Karen Mulcahy, who used to serve as Waterbury's tax collector before Jarjura fired her in 2004 "for what he claimed was her rude and abusive conduct toward citizens".^[18] After spending $100,000 on a general elections write-in campaign,^[19] Jarjura received 7,907 votes, enough for a plurality of 39%.^[20]
James Maher won the mayorship of Baxter Estates, New York on March 15, 2005 as a write-in candidate with 29 votes. Being the only one on the ballot, the incumbent mayor, James Neville, did not campaign, as he did not realize that there was a write-in campaign going on. Neville received only 13 votes.^[21]
Beverly O'Neil won a third term as Mayor of Long Beach, California as a write-in candidate in 2002. The Long Beach City City Charter has a term limit amendment that says a candidate cannot be on the ballot after two full terms, but does not prevent the person from running as a write-in candidate.^[22] She finished first in a seven-candidate primary, but did not receive more than 50% of the vote, forcing a runoff contest. In the runoff, still restricted from the ballot, she got roughly 47% of the vote in a three-way election that included a second write-in candidate.^[23]
Michael Sessions, an 18-year-old high school senior, won as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan in 2005. He was too young to qualify for the ballot.
In Galesburg, Illinois, an error by the Galesburg Election Commission ^[24] in late 2010 gave city council candidate Chuck Reynolds the wrong number of signatures he required to be on the ballot for the April 2011 city council election,^[25] resulting in him being removed from the ballot when challenged by Incumbent Russell Fleming.^[24]^[26] Reynolds ran as a write-in vote ^[27] in the April 2011 election, and lost by 9 votes.^[28]^[29]
Anthony A. Williams, then incumbent Mayor of Washington, D.C. was forced to run as a write-in candidate in the 2002 Democratic primary, because he had too many invalid signatures for his petition. He won the Democratic primary, and went on to win re-election.
In the November 8, 2011, election for Commonwealth's Attorney of Richmond County, Virginia, 16-year incumbent Wayne Emery has been certified the winner as a write-in candidate over challenger James Monroe by a margin of 53 votes (2.4%) out of 2,230 votes cast, after his petitions were challenged and his name was removed from the ballot.^[30]
In the 1997 election for Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, Stubbs the Cat won over the two human candidates. He has been re-elected every mayoral election since, and as of July 18, 2012, celebrates 15 years in office.^[31]

Others

Aaron Schock was elected to the District 150 School Board in Peoria, Illinois in 2001 by a write-in vote, after his petitions were challenged and his name was removed from the ballot. He defeated the incumbent by over 2,000 votes, approximately 6,400 to 4,300 votes.^[32] He went on to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives, and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2008.
John Adams became an Orange County, California judge in November 2002 after running along with 10 other write-in candidates in the primaries on March 5, 2002 against incumbent Judge Ronald Kline.^[33] After the filing deadline in which no candidate filed to run against Kline, a computer hacker discovered that Judge Kline had child pornography on his home computer. Kline got less than 50% of the vote in the primaries, requiring a runoff between him and write-in candidate John Adams (who actually received more votes than Kline).^[34] After some legal maneuvers, Kline's name was removed from the general elections, leaving the general election a runoff between Adams and Gay Sandoval, who was the second highest write-in vote getter.^[35] Charges against Kline were eventually thrown out.^[36]
On September 15, 2009, four write-in candidates in the Independence Party primaries for various offices in Putnam County, New York defeated their on-ballot opponents.^[37]
In a May 2011 school board election for the Bentley School Board in Michigan, Lisa Osborn ran as a write-in candidate and needed just one vote to win a seat. However, she did not receive any votes, even from herself. She explained herself by saying that she was at her son's baseball game and did not have time to go to the polls.^[38]

California's Proposition 14 impact on write-in candidate

In 2010, California voters passed Proposition 14 which set up a new election system for the United States Senate, United States House of Representatives, all statewide offices (governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, state controller, attorney general, insurance commissioner, and superintendent of public instruction), California Board of Equalization, and for the California State Legislature. In the system set up by Proposition 14, there are two rounds of voting, and the top two vote-getters for each race in the first round advance to a second round. Proposition 14 specifically prohibits write-in candidates in the second round, and this prohibition was upheld in a court challenge.^[39] Another court challenge to the prohibition on write-in candidates in the second round was filed in July 2014.^[40]
Although Proposition 14 prohibits write-in candidates in the second round of voting, it has made it easier for write-in candidates in the first round to advance to the second round. This generally happens in elections where only one candidate is listed on the ballot. Since in each race the top two vote-getters from the first round are guaranteed to advance to the second round, if only one candidate is listed on the ballot, a write-in candidate can easily advance to the second round, as the write-in candidate would only have to compete with other write in candidates for the 2nd spot, not with any listed candidates. In the 2012 elections, the first election for which Proposition 14 went into effect, 5 write-in candidates advanced to the second round, but none received more than 40% of the vote in the second round.^[41] In the 2014 elections, 16 write-in candidates advanced to the 2nd round of voting.^[42] All 16 candidates lost in the second round, with only two of the 16 receiving more than 40% of the vote.^{[n 1]}

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This just in...
The following video has no connection to the above subject matter but I post it here because it is current news. It also strengthens my argument that these shootings are well planned.