[EL] implications of convictions in Indiana petition fraud case

[Richard Winger]

Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news that a jury in Indiana has convicted a former Democratic Party official, and a former employee of a county elections administration office, of felonies involving forging names on the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ballot access petitions.

When even candidates with as much appeal as Obama and Clinton have ballot access troubles, the public, and all of us, ought to grapple with the virtually U.S. unique policy of making it difficult for willing candidates with substantial support to get on ballots.  Other free countries do not do that.

Yet most election reform groups and voices, including Common Cause, the Brennan Center, The Nation Magazine, the League of Women Voters nationally and in most states, and even those of us on this list, seldom include ballot access in their list of areas of election law that need improving.

Richard Winger

415-922-9779

PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
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