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Lesson in Democracy
By Ken Prazak Regarding your editorial last week admonishing Dan Kairis for asking Patricia Reid Lindner to remove the objection to his candidacy for lack of required petition signatures, you are either very misinformed or purposefully disingenuous. You state that Kairis “ought not be asking that the rules be lifted on behalf of his son’s first election experience.” You continue, “He should, instead, be using the experience to teach his son that democracy is played by some very basic election rules. He should be explaining that such rules apply to everyone in every party, no matter who might be voting that year.” Completely wrong, Daily Herald. If you had done your homework, you would have found that the rules don’t apply equally to everyone. The Republicans and Democrats have set up the rules to make it extremely difficult for third-party or independent candidates from getting on the ballot–that the election laws in this state are more aptly described aristocracy, or establishmentocracy rather than democracy. The fact of the matter is, Ms. Lindner needed to get 300 signatures (pp. 45, Candidate’s Guide, State Board of Elections) to get on the primary ballot and Dan Kairis had to get 1,714. Some lesson in democracy. The lesson I am sure Mr. Kairis has taught his son is how hypocritical the “major” parties are about democracy and how sycophantic, lazy and /or dishonest their rah-rah chorus is in the local press. Mr. Kairis actually obtained almost twice the signatures required of his opponent to get on the ballot. And, this at a time when 60% of the voters out there are looking for a political alternative other than the Republicrats,.I suggest that the Daily Herald get the Candidate’s Guide from the State Board of Election to discover the truth in this matter. I have and I have done the math. In order for a “third” party to get on the ballot in Illinois during a typical election cycle, in order to fully place candidates on the ballot, the party would have to get over three and a half million signatures. Theoretically, the Republicrats don’t need to get any. They could forgo the primary election process and instead slate candidates for the election and not be required to get one signature. Even if using the primary process, the so-called major parties need to get less than one-tenth the signatures required of “minor” parties. Some democracy. If the Daily Herald has one ounce of integrity, it will apologize to Mr. Kairis and wage a campaign against the extremely unfair, outrageous, anti-democratic election laws here in Illinois and call for equal ballot access for everyone. I await with eager, if somewhat skeptical, anticipation  Kenneth Prazak is
a co-founder
of the Fox Valley Libertarian Party,
newsletter editor for the Libertarian Party of Illinois, and weekly radio
talk show host for a live call-in show called “Freedom Rings”
streamed-live every Monday mornings, 9:00-10:00 AM at
www.freedomrings.net. Email
ken@fvlp.org |
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