Democracy

I have been supporting third party candidates since 1984. 2004 was an exception when I voted for Kerry in an effort to kick a person out of office - little good that did ... I was with the Natural Law Party until it stopped participating in national races and morphed into something different. I almost went with the Peace and Freedom Party until I read their platform - a bit too socialist for my taste. I am thinking of going back to Libertarian. So if Ron Paul gets the Republican nomination, I might vote (shudder) republican. Are you in a rural area? Everyplace I have lived listed many third party candidates. If you live in a remote area you can always write in a candidate name.

I'm glad to see another person who has voted for many third party candidates! If more people voted on pricincple rather than party, we would have probably had very different people in office over the years. I'm pretty sure Bush would have never been elected either. I'm not in a rural area. I live on the coast of VA in a highly populated area. In my entire state it takes 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot. 400 from each district. Each signature must come from a person who is registered to vote in that district. There are a whole list of requirements and restrictions that make the process daunting to put it mildly. I am part of a meetup group (www.ronpaul.meetup.com) with almost 200 members. We are working on getting petitions signed right now so that we can get Ron Paul on the ballot. We have ran into Guiliani and Hillary people getting signatures as well but they were all paid workers from a firm. They get paid per vote and don't even care for either candidate. Can you imagine a third party candidate able to raise enough money to pay for that many signatures over all 50 states? We are doing what we can so that Ron Paul does not have to pay for it to be done. We care that much. After much hard work, I think we will be able to cover our area but it won't be possible for us to reach all the rural areas that cover other districts in our state. The official campaign is going to have to pay for that. Ron Paul (and often many other third party candidates) does not pander to lobbyists so he doesn't get that corporate money that other candidates like Hillary and Giuliani enjoy so it is a whole different ball game.

Writing candidates in is always an option but the vote will not be counted unless the candidate files a declaration of intent after failing to get on the ballot. Regardless, no candidate has ever won as a write in for a major election. Getting your name on the ballot is crucial.