PA: Duopolist Double Standard, Democratic-Republican Hypocrisy Fuels Outrage

A letter to the editor of the Centre Daily Times:

I am outraged about the Sept. 9 Associated Press article “Nominating papers rules under review.”

Why should independent and third-party nominees have to follow rules that aren’t applicable to Democrats and Republicans? Bravo to the federal judge who ruled against the requirement that only residents can circulate petitions for candidates in their legislative districts in Pennsylvania.

As it is, the two-party system already plays dirty tricks to prevent other candidates from running for office. For example, other voices for change must gather an enormous number of signatures (about 20,000 versus 2,000 for major-party candidates), and usually need to double that number because the other two parties will use every legal trick to invalidate the signatures.

Mel Packer, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, withdrew from the race last month, shortly after filing petitions with more than 20,000 signatures, because he didn’t have enough surplus signatures to survive a Democratic challenge.

In Arizona, Republicans are funding 11 “sham candidates” they recruited on the Green Party ticket, even though officials in the state Green Party have condemned this cynical ploy. This effort is designed to confuse the electorate and siphon votes from Democrats.

A couple of years ago, Republicans made relatively large contributions to a legitimate Green candidate running for statewide office in Pennsylvania.

In America, we are supposed to have the right to free speech and free association. It should sadden everyone that the two major parties seem to disagree in order to tighten their hold on the reins of power.

Douglas M. Mason State College