Dear Readers, Virginia libertarian Paul Jacob wrote last Thursday (May 21) about Ohio Republican Party leaders and their role in throwing Libertarians off the Ohio ballot..
-------- Anti-Democratic Republicans? The Republican Party of Ohio paid lawyers $300,000 to keep a competitor off the ballot. Typical two-party corruption. We can blame the party, yes but also blame the system. A two-party system is, mathematicians tell us, the logical result of simple plurality/winner-takes-all elections. That is, when the first candidate <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting>past the post wins enough votes to best any other, that candidate wins. When you count votes like this, two parties emerge to dominate. But to really rule the roost, those parties are incentivized to pile on . . . to make it hard for minor-party challengers. Ballot access becomes a nasty business. Last year Charlie Earl ran for the governorship of Ohio as a Libertarian Party candidate. But he was blocked from the ballot. <http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/05/ohio_republican_party_paid_300.html>And when the Ohio LP filed a federal lawsuit to try to force Earls name on the ballot, Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges testified that his party had nothing to do with the legal maneuvers involved. As Borges put it at the time, Anyone whos looking for the conspiracy behind it its just not there. Now, it turns out, the conspiracy was there. His party paid the bills. Whether Borges was lying or not maybe he was clueless about these shenanigans the deed got done. More important than whether Borges himself can be held culpable for the ballot-access conspiracy, its the system that encourages such anti-democratic nonsense that needs changing. First-past-the-post elections must go. There are alternatives, as my friends at <http://FairVote.org>FairVote.org champion. As Ohio GOP leaders stand shame-faced with the evidence of evildoing, its time to press such reforms. This is Common Sense. Im Paul Jacob. -------- Common Sense by Paul Jacob -- sponsored by The Sam Adams Alliance. See their website at http://www.ThisIsCommonSense.com. Paul Jacob gave his standing permission for LPVA to re-publish Common Sense articles on 9/24/2007. The original article is here: http://ThisIsCommonSense.com/2015/05/21/anti-democratic-republicans/ Take a few minutes to check out Paul's other writing. To discuss this article with other Virginia Libertarians, go to the Facebook page where the above article is also posted: https://www.facebook.com/LPVirginia/posts/1076488259045940 -- Marc Montoni, Secretary Libertarian Party of Virginia P.S. Do you know of other Virginia Libertarians with recently-published material? Send us the link to each article, and pen a few words to introduce it to your fellow Libertarians! ============================================ RUN FOR OFFICE! The Libertarian Party of Virginia is currently seeking candidates to run for public office for the 2015 election season. Let us know: http://Campaign.LPVA.com ============================================ -- end -- ############################################################# Have an announcement you'd like to post? SCC members & many committee heads are all authorized to post; or you may send your announcements to the List Master: <webmas...@lpva.com> <mailto:webmas...@lpva.com?subject=Announcement>. ############################################################# Unsubscribe: Send an email to sts...@lpva.com with no subject and "Unsubscribe Announce" as the text. ############################################################# Libertarian Party of Virginia http://www.LPVA.com Phone: 703-715-6230 ############################################################# Want to see past messages? Check the Archive: http://www.Mail-Archive.com/announce@lpva.com/ #############################################################
