Soldier's Letter to the Editor

I fought for my country during Operation Iraqi Freedom in order to free the Iraqi people and to allow them to have democracy, including free and fair elections. Isn't it ironic that what I fought to give the Iraqi people is not available to Ohioans?

   In 2003, the Libertarian Party of Ohio collected 57,150 signatures on a petition to receive party status. Party status means that when Libertarian candidates are on the ballot, the party's name, "Libertarian", appears next to the candidate's name, rather than the generic term "Independent", or "other party candidate". During our collection effort, the law concerning the penalties for falsifying a petition signature changed. We were not notified of this change. When we turned in the petitions, Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell invalidated all of the signatures because of a change of wording on the petition which our petition did not have. In other words, the state changed the rules in the middle of the game. They didn't inform us of the change, and then held us accountable for the change - something I think everyone would agree is completely unfair.

   The real reason the Secretary of State kept the Libertarian Party off the ballot is that Ohio is a must-win state for the Republicans. According to the Weekly Standard, "No Republican ever has been elected president without capturing the Buckeye State, which Bush won in 2000 by just 166,735 votes (3.57 percent)." Any votes that go to a Libertarian candidate are ones that can't go to the Bush/Cheney ticket or other Republicans running for federal or state office in 2004. A second reason is that Blackwell, who has some libertarian ideas, wants to run for Governor in the state of Ohio in 2006. Blackwell, will arbitrarily keep us off the ballot in 2006 to help himself directly, just as he is doing to help Bush win in Ohio in 2004. It is blatantly unfair that he has the power to keep us off the ballot so he can further his political career at the expense of fair elections. As a result of this only a few Libertarian candidates have qualified as independents or other party candidates, thus keeping many Libertarians off the ballot due to the increased number of signatures required to be on the ballot as an independent candidate.

   Secretary of State Blackwell's decision to deny the Libertarian Party of Ohio a place on the ballot deprives the people of Ohio a real choice in the elections. One reason for low voter turnout is that people know there is no difference between the two major parties. A vote for either party means higher taxes, bigger government and less individual freedom. If the Libertarian Party is on the ballot,people have a real choice. They can cast a vote for lower taxes, less government, and more personal freedom. Is it any wonder that the Republicans want to keep us off the ballot?