Reporter Bob Mercer looks up crotchetily from his morning coffee and asks just what Americans Elect is trying to achieve with the petitions it submitted this week to the South Dakota Secretary of State's office. Mercer's point has merit:
- The Americans Elect press release refers to the 15,609 signatures it submitted to Pierre Thursday as "nearly double the amount required." The only petition requirement fitting that math is the 7,928 signatures required for a new political party to organize and participate in the primary election.
- Americans Elect says it is "a nonpartisan nomination."
- In direct response to the FAQ, "Is Americans Elect a 3rd Party?"Americans Elect says it is a '2nd way' to nominate a President, not a traditional 3rd party."
- Americans Elect says it is "a neutral, nonprofit organization that is not affiliated with any political party, ideology or candidate."
Americans Elect makes reasonably clear that they are not a political party. This nonpartisanship is problematic, because SDCL 12-6-3.2requires nominees to be registered voters with that party affiliation. But if Americans Elect is simply filing for technicality's sake so its candidates can officially register and appear on the ballot under the "Americans Elect" party label, Americans Elect still has to follow the South Dakota statutory process of submitting slates of delegates and alternates for declared presidential candidates by March 27 (that's Tuesday!) and participating in the statewide primary on June 5. Americans Elect will not participate in South Dakota's June 5 primary. It will select its Presidential ticket through a national online caucus. It will allow members of any party to participate in its nomination process, even if those party members also vote in their own party primaries, and that would probably violate South Dakota election law.
To stay clear of all those primary requirements, Americans Elect likely must avoid party status in South Dakota, conduct its nomination process as it sees fit, then get its candidates on the South Dakota ballot as Independents. As. Mr. Mercer points out, that process requires filing 3,171 signatures by August 7. And if that's the case, what is the point of the 15,609 signatures submitted this week?
Mr. Mercer raises very useful questions. Americans Elect has a bunch of smart people at the helm; let's hope they can answer these questions.
Update 12: 57 MDT: Americans Elect better have their poop in a group: The Displaced Plainsman needs a good Presidential candidate!
My guess is to show that there is interest, get some publicity, show people that AE exists. Seems to be working.
Yeah, but D.E., that's a heck of a lot of wasted effort. Why wear out shoe leather and door knockers on a petition drive that doesn't achieve a single necessary statutory objective? Why not save that shoe leather for the summer campaign to place the nominee on the ballot as an Independent?
[CAH: Wherein a Roemer supporter goes completely off the topic of South Dakota ballot requirements and spams us with his campaign pitch. Read it if you like, but understand that Mr. McMahan needs a scolding for relying on his RSS reader and not paying attention or contributing to the conversation at hand.]
Buddy Roemer is the leading declared candidate at Americans Elect, right now. I recommend you check him out. He man grew up on a cotton farm, then went to Harvard at the age of 16 (!). He was a conservative, "bolweevil" Democrat who voted on Reagan's side alot, so he was a natural to switch over to the Republican party (though, he came from what- at the time- was a HEAVILY Democratic state). Yes, in the "wild 'n wooly world of 1991 Louisiana politics" the voters re-elected nominated David Duke over Roemer (Duke, then lost to former gov. Edwards). Then, Edwards was sent to prison for criminal political activity- I'm guessing the voters statewide wished they still had had Roemer.
The "bought and paid for" Demican and Republocrat parties are SCARED TO DEATH of the American people recognizing them for what they are and LEAVING THEM. Roemer is a 68-year old grandfather, VERY successful businessman ($750 million bank that took NO bailout money and foreclosed on NO ONE), and a retired politician who had NO desire to get into politics, again- but he says the country is on the WRONG TRACK, being steered that way by wealthy elites who are profiting off our "Ponzi-scheme-like, financialized/Wall St. Investment Banker-led, Fed-Treasury-abetted" system and the "Global Economy" (short-term profits feeding off the American people as consumers, rather than producers). These elites (such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, GE, etc..) have made (and are continuing to make- "thanks to the FED loaning them $16.1 TRILLION AND COUNTING of zero-interest loans and the FASB in April of '09 allowing them to MASSIVELY over-value their 'underwater' assets") HUGE profits off this "race to the bottom" which is making the "richest" (elites) get richer while the rest of us get "poorer" ("we'll end up like Mexico", if they continue to have their way).
Buddy Roemer is a former politician AND a successful banker, so he KNOWS the "games" these people use and HOW TO FIX AMERICA ("stop the corruption", "stop the financial greed", "put the banking and finance communities back on a 'short leash' and 'solid ground' " and "put America back to work- get the capital back into production"). Of course, we’ll have to elect a Congress “worth a damn†and “STAY VIGILANT AND INVOLVED†!!!
I advise people that one, street-wise definition of "insanity" is to "keep doing the same thing and expect different results". We have been "bouncing back and forth" between these modern, "Wall Street Investment banker-financed", "free trade" globalist Republocrats and Demicans, now for twenty years (of course, the "mainstream", dinosaur media tells us, "they're the only realistic ones to choose from").
It's time to go "unconventional" and let "We The People" take over this country, again with a candidate like Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt. GO BUDDY !!!!
Buddy Roemer is just another earth hater masquerading as a reformer. Run away.