Wow! Here's something that happened under my radar: Americans Elect announces that it has filed 15,609 signatures with Secretary Gant to land a spot on South Dakota's presidential ballot. That's just about double what they needed to make the ballot.
I remain intrigued by this group's effort to organize a national online primary and run a non-partisan third party candidate for President. If they field a good candidate, their effort could support from both the Romney and Obama camps... unless, of course, Ron Paul's energetic online activists hijack the effort, in which case the movement becomes mostly a convenient refuge for the shibboleth-spouting cranks (yes, I'm talking to you, Aaron) who won't have much impact on the election anyway.
Here's the press release from Americans Elect on their South Dakota efforts:
Today Americans Elect filed signatures with the Secretary of State for a line on the ballot for an alternative ticket in the 2012 presidential election. The ticket will be selected through a national online primary in June at www.AmericansElect.org. Americans Elect collected over 15,000 signatures of South Dakota registered voters, nearly double the amount required.
"I congratulate the 15,609 South Dakotans who signed this petition for another choice on the ballot in November," said Nathan Daschle, founder and CEO of Ruck.us. "Americans Elect is offering the country another way to elect our leaders. A way that includes all voters to participate at one time in one convention to elect a bipartisan ticket. Along with millions of other voters around the country who have signed the Americans Elect petitions demanding a change to our political process, I am hopeful that by creating more inclusion in the political process, we can elect leaders who put country before party with the goal of ending gridlock in Washington today."
Ballot access certification will give South Dakotans the opportunity to participate in the first-ever online national presidential primary this June. At Americans Elect, every voter's voice is heard regardless of party affiliation. Any registered voter can go online and sign up to become a delegate. From there, delegates can debate the issues, develop the Platform of Questions and select a serious third candidate to appear on the ballot in all 50 states this November.
"American's Elect is our opportunity to be more involved in the candidate selection process and to see an additional option on the ballot in South Dakota, and all states," says AE Delegate volunteer Patrick Anderson. "I'm excited that the voters in South Dakota will have this chance to be heard."
Americans Elect has already been certified in 18 states, is awaiting certification in seven states and is conducting ballot access efforts in 12 others. To date, Americans Elect has collected over 80 percent of the 2.9 million signatures required for 50 state ballot access.
When I saw "shibboleth" all I could think of was H P Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" but that will tell you more about my mind than anything else.
And now I have decided I shall not vote for the lesser of two evils - Cthulhu shall be getting my write in this fall.
Both parties have disgruntled voters. The tea party in the Republicans and the occupy wall street in the dems. Both parties are quicker to blame the other than to balance the budget in a meaningful way. So voters are not seeing the solution in a party anymore so technology gave them a forum to use to get the attention of both parties. If both get to work and get the job done this will not succeed in itself but will have made the difference. If both parties are still going to stay partisan and just continue blaming the other, we might get some good(and bad as the parties do also) candidates that might make a difference.
"I remain intrigued by this group’s effort to organize a national online primary and run a non-partisan third party candidate for President. "
This is run by Tom Daschle's son. So "non-partisan" is more than misleading.
All I can say is...............YIIIIPPPPEEEE! It is working!
I registered on Americans Elect several months ago. I've just gone to the site to add my support to Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and Sec of Energy under Clinton. He is a draft candidate.
I see that there are some oddballs who have declared for the race. Always happens everywhere. I also noticed, to my dismay, that Ron Paul has a sizable lead in terms of support. I imagine his fanatics (in a good way) are piling on.
There is an online convention in June, and that is when our candidate will be chosen. AE is contacting the candidates with more support to see if they are willing to participate.
I fully support what AE is doing. I think pretty much everyone participating at AE has a party affiliation, and I'm sure most of them are Dems or Repubs. That doesn't make AE partisan.
I'm eager to see how it works out. I haven't seen anything so far to indicate that AE has a particular liberal or conservative bent. There is a wide variety among the supporters. Could be that it will become moderate overall. Wouldn't that be great!
Registered users can propose questions for the candidates and for the other participants. We are also asked, in various ways, to offer our views on issues.
Oh, I was surprised at how rigorous the registration process is. I had to give my name, address, birth date, last 4 of my SS. Then I was asked a variety of questions, about 6-8. It was things that could have only come from having all my info available.
For instance, I was asked if I had ever been involved in one of the following organizations. They listed 6. There were choices like PTA, AAA, etc. There was a civic organization that I had been on the board of about 15 years ago. Then there was one about previous addresses, stuff like that. AE certainly made sure that I am who I said I was, and that I am a registered voter. I was impressed by that.
AE is not a joke and they are not fooling around.
I don't know, they're looking pretty foolish here:
http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2012/04/09/americans-elect-quietly-upgrades-candidate-status-david-walker-from-outsider-to-insider/