• About Us
  • Write For Us
  • Advertising
  • Support
  • Contact Us
March 21, 2023 12:54 pm CDT
LISTEN LIVE:
No Result
View All Result
Heartland Newsfeed
728x90 Explore Twitch Services
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Illinois
    • Local
      • Capital Area
      • East Central Illinois
      • West Central Illinois
    • Regional
      • Chicagoland
      • Metro-East
      • Northern Illinois
      • Quad Cities
      • Southern Illinois
    • Obits
    • Executive Watch
    • Legislative Watch
    • Road Conditions
      • Illinois
    • Weather Closings
      • Central Illinois
  • Missouri
    • Regional
      • Northeastern Missouri
      • East Central Missouri
      • St. Louis Metro
      • Southeast Missouri
    • Executive Watch
    • Legislative Watch
    • Weather Closings
      • Greater STL Metro (IL/MO)
    • Road Conditions
      • Missouri
  • Weather
  • National
  • World
  • Sports
    • Basketball
      • NBA
    • Bowling
    • Boxing
    • Football
      • Arena Football
      • CFL
      • NFL
      • XFL
      • USFL
    • Golf
      • PGA
    • Hockey
      • NAHL
      • NHL
    • MLB
      • MiLB
    • MMA
      • UFC
    • NCAA
      • Basketball
      • Football
    • Olympics
    • Preps
    • Racing
      • Horse Racing
      • NASCAR
    • Soccer/Futbol
      • Bundesliga
      • Champions League
      • FIFA
      • La Liga
      • MLS
      • NWSL
      • Premier League
      • U.S. National Soccer
      • USL
      • USL Championship
    • Tennis
    • Wrestling
      • AEW
      • Independents
      • MLW
      • NJPW
      • NWA
      • ROH
      • WWE
  • Entertainment
    • Crossword
    • News Quiz
  • Opinion
    • Letters To The Editor
    • Editorial
    • Columnists
  • Radio
    • Affiliates
    • Live Video
      • HLNF Live
      • RTMP Direct
    • Network Schedule
    • Network Streams
    • Podcasts
      • Radio Network
      • Podcast Network
  • Features
    • Classifieds
      • Current Ads
      • Job Board
        • Job Listings
        • J2CTalroo
        • Post a Job
        • Receive Alerts
        • ZipSearch
    • Community Calendar
    • News Feeds
      • Statehouse
      • Legislative
      • Breaking News
  • Store
  • Deals
  • Calendar

No products in the cart.

Heartland Newsfeed
No Result
View All Result

COMMENTARY: Voter choice and candidate suppression needs to become a criminal offense

Jake Leonard by Jake Leonard
July 1, 2018
in Ballot Access News, Capital Area Region, Columnists, Commentary, Decision 2018, Editorial, Illinois, Illinois Executive Watch, Illinois Legislative Watch, Opinion, Opinion-Editorial, Political Party News, Politics, U.S. Legislative Watch
Reading Time: 6 mins read
Donate
0

(Heartland Newsfeed) — Illinois is unfortunately known for political corruption and the suppression of voter and candidate choice. It’s been a common and deceptive practice that has been going on for decades.

2018, unfortunately, is no different.

Whitney Hayward/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

As of several hours ago, a warning was given by the Libertarian Party of Illinois that the Illinois Republican Party is up their usual tricks again trying to throw the party slate off the general election ticket.

PUTTING THE WORD OUT: Republicans are calling people at their homes who signed our petitions, most likely in an effort to convince them something is wrong and they should sign affidavits against our petitions. Check with your friends and families who signed to see if they get contacted”—Brian Scott Lambrecht, #GoldRush2018 Campaign Manager

That’s right — the goons connected to Bruce Rauner and the Illinois GOP are deadset on suppressing voter choice and better-principled candidates. And not just for Rauner’s seat — state and Federal legislative races as well.

One of the Illinois GOP’s goon squad, general counsel John Fogarty, is at the helm of trying to prevent Illinois voters from having a choice compared to two shiny turds with billions of dollars at their disposal and brains smaller than a squirrel.

So the GOP is saying voters made a mistake signing the petition and are harassing people into signing affidavits against the petitions.

This is not the first time Republicans have made desperate acts against alternative candidates.

The Chicago Sun-Times’ Dan Mihalopouls wrote an article in 2014 regarding armed thugs harassing voters regarding the same petitions they signed for the 2014 slate. A portion of this article:

A couple of months after Julieus Hooks signed [the Libertarian Party’s] nominating petitions, a man with a gun walked up to Hooks as he left his home in Oak Park.

The man said he was a private investigator. He told Hooks the petition that he had signed was fraudulent and asked him to sign something. Hooks hastily agreed to sign the paper.

“I did not have time to fully review this document because the man with the gun instructed me to sign it, and I was afraid of him and what he may do to me if I refused,” Hooks says….

Hooks had signed a petition for the Libertarians in May. He recanted his story in the affidavit that the man with the gun got him to sign. But then Hooks swore a second affidavit saying he did not mean what he said in the affidavit for the armed man.

According to the most recent version of his story, Hooks said, “On or about July 20, 2014, I was exiting my house when a tall Caucasian man and a woman approached and startled me. The man had a gun, which was visible. They told me that the woman who had circulated the petition sheet that I had signed had violated the law because she had obtained too many signatures and committed fraud. I was then given a piece of paper and told to sign.”

Sarah Dart, who was paid to circulate petitions for the Libertarians and obtained Hooks’ signature, told me a similar story. Dart says a private investigator named Carlos Rodriguez contacted her, asking about a missing girl who knew someone she supposedly knew.

She believes the story about the missing girl was a ruse. When she met with Rodriguez, Dart says he confronted her with a stack of petitions and asked her to admit that the signatures for the Libertarians were obtained fraudulently. She refused, and the state’s hearing officer later found that her signatures were legitimately gathered.

Dart says Rodriguez displayed a holstered gun when he met her. He gave her a business card showing he works for Morrison Security in Alsip. The company’s owner is the Palos Township Republican leader, Sean Morrison.

The article also adds that Rauner’s campaign spokesman “knew nothing” about the strong-armed tactics being utilized by his allies in an effort that ultimately failed, allowing the Libertarian slate to appear in the 2014 general election ballot.

While criminal complaints were filed by the Libertarian Party of Illinois to Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Cook County state’s attorney, it is highly apparent no action was ever taken on the matter.

The ordeal in 2014 caught the attention of Reason Magazine editor-at-large Nick Gillespie, which was featured on the website’s Hit & Run Blog. (“Did Armed GOP Thugs Try to Keep Libertarian Party off Illinois Ballot?“, Aug. 29, 2014)

And to think they’re up their usual tactics again.

Even the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) are privy and liable for voter choice and candidate suppression.

The primary representative for ISBE, Matt Dietrich, said in an interview with WCIA‘s Mark Maxwell that the current election laws — which are incredibly biased against alternative candidates: 25,000+ petition signatures compared to the 5,000 that Democratic and Republican candidates get to file to statewide office — “keep the general election from having 15 candidates on the ballot.”

Those were his words, not mine. Don’t believe me? Watch the clip:

For one, have we EVER had a general election for statewide office in my lifetime where the ballot for any statewide constitutional office had 15 names on the ballot? NOT ONCE. So Dietrich’s remark is both ill-informed and ignorant.

What is so wrong about having some REAL choice on the ballot for once? Voter turnout is at an all-time low and even despite automatic voter registration going into effect today, that trend is not going to change.

With limitations on voter and candidate choice on the ballot, voters will continue to become disenfranchised with the two major parties, much like the trend from the last six major election cycles. Illinois has nearly 50 percent of voters who identify as independent or non-partisan for this exact reason. While I may be a card-carrying Libertarian, I am registered as unaffiliated.

There are more than enough reasons why we featured the guest editorials from the Northwest Herald and Belleville News-Democrat editorial boards. In an election cycle where alternative candidates like Grayson “Kash” Jackson are getting more press compared to the 2014 cycle, it is past due for the media, namely the Illinois Press Association and the Illinois Newspaper Association, to take notice and expose the corruption surrounding the suppression of voter choice.

The Northwest Herald said it best in their editorial headline: more candidates plus more choices equals more voters. That is what is desperately needed in the November 6 general election: more choice on the ballot that isn’t Bruce Rauner or JB Pritzker.

BND had some good points in their editorial, but the following hits home to anyone who wants to expose and denounce our ridiculous election laws: “Maybe voter suppression isn’t our problem. Maybe it’s candidate suppression.”

Monday is the deadline for petition challenges, but the biggest fight comes afterwards as filing candidates return to Springfield for hearings to defend their signatures in order to survive and earn ballot access.


Thus comes my talking point: Why is this practice legal? Shouldn’t people engaging in these activities like Fogarty and Dietrich, the Illinois Republican Party and the paid armed thugs from the 2014 incident be disbarred and imprisoned for interfering with the election process? For preventing voters from having a legitimate choice compared to two choices who are driving voters to the point of not voting? For tainting the democratic process of electing new leaders by limiting party and candidate choice? By preventing 25 of 26 counties eligible for a Libertarian Party primary to hold a primary election for countywide offices due to the high voter support for former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson in 2016?

Do you think lawyers should be disbarred for interfering in the process? Do you think election officials should be fired for doing the same? Should they face prison time in a Federal penitentiary for their crimes? I want to hear your opinion on Facebook.

Jake Leonard
Website | + posts

Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.

  • Jake Leonard
    https://www.heartlandnewsfeed.com/author/admin/
    ROH TV IS BACK: Spoilers for February 25, 2023 tapings
  • Jake Leonard
    https://www.heartlandnewsfeed.com/author/admin/
    McLean Libertarian Party denounces Normal council's opposition to cannabis dispensary
  • Jake Leonard
    https://www.heartlandnewsfeed.com/author/admin/
    Ryan Willis released by Battlehawks
  • Jake Leonard
    https://www.heartlandnewsfeed.com/author/admin/
    Ameren Illinois seeks new rate hikes

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Telegram
  • Print
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...
Tags: ballot accessBill BradyCaliforniaConservative Partydecision 2018election 2018Green PartyIllinoisillinois newsillinois political newsillinois politicsIllinois politics newsKash JacksonLex GreenLibertarianLibertarian newsLibertarian PartyLibertarian Party newsLibertarian Party of IllinoisLibertarian Party of Illinois newsnewsPat Quinnpolitics'Rich WhitneyRod BlagojevichSam McCannScott Lee CohenSen. Sam McCann
Share196Tweet123Share5Send

Discussion about this post

📻 ON AIR NOW

.
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Five things you should know before purchasing auto insurance

    603 shares
    Share 241 Tweet 151
  • Nokomis council passes dumpster ordinance

    540 shares
    Share 216 Tweet 135
  • Illinois to see two gas hikes in 2023

    535 shares
    Share 214 Tweet 134
  • Viola Armstrong, 92, Pana

    528 shares
    Share 211 Tweet 132
  • Leto Voudrie, 83, Moweaqua

    526 shares
    Share 210 Tweet 132

HOURS AND INFO

800 Capps Ave.
Nokomis, IL 62075-1415
admin@heartlandnewsfeed.com
Online all the time 
Office Hours: 8 AM to 8 PM
Newsroom: (217) 569-4230
Listen Line:
(217) 569-4230 ext. 1
Advertising:
(217) 718-5281
After-Hours:
(217) 565-9709 / (217) 565-9273

Sitemap | Published Press | Privacy Policy
Staff Email | Independent Media

LIVE WEBSITE VIEWERS

.
ADVERTISEMENT

DEADLINES

Daily: 11 p.m. Central
Weekend: 11 p.m. Central
Sports: 11 p.m. Central

Upcoming deadlines
NYE/NYD: December 30, 5 p.m. Central

WEBRINGS

Hotline Webring: Previous — Next

Some rights reserved 2017-2023 by Heartland Newsfeed, a subsidiary partnership by Heartland Internet Media Networks and Heartland Media Group of Central Illinois LLC. Content published by Heartland Newsfeed staff is covered by the BipCot NoGov license. This allows use and re-use by anyone except governments and government agents. License on record. JNews theme designed and developed by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • World
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Fashion
    • Health
    • Travel

Some rights reserved 2017-2023 by Heartland Newsfeed, a subsidiary partnership by Heartland Internet Media Networks and Heartland Media Group of Central Illinois LLC. Content published by Heartland Newsfeed staff is covered by the BipCot NoGov license. This allows use and re-use by anyone except governments and government agents. License on record. JNews theme designed and developed by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

00:00
00:00
WP Radio
WP Radio
OFFLINE LIVE
%d bloggers like this: