Political Realities For Minor Party and Independent Candidates.

Several days ago Doug Kenline suggested that I blog daily updates about my experiences while participating in the democratic process for the Pennsylvania District 10, Congressional seat. I made this decision when I realized that Congressman Sherwood, a Republican and member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania, was running un-opposed in the primaries.

The weekend before the Tuesday primary I asked friends, relatives and acquaintances who are registered Democrats to write me in. I sent e-mails and randomly passed out about 100 computer generated business cards that had the correct spelling of my name. After the primary I checked with the county Bureau of Elections for the results from my local area. I was told the total was 2 short of what I knew for sure should have been the total. In checking the envelope from that precint, it was clear that the paper from the back of the voting machine was not included. An investigation of the machine was requested by the county Bureau and it was found that there was, indeed, two additional write ins bearing my name. If I were to request an investigation of the machines in other precints in the 10th Congressional District I would have to pay $50 per machine for the investigation.

Additionally, "Nomination Papers" are used to collect a predetermined amount of signatures from registered "electors" (who have not signed someone else's Nomination Papers). The signatures are needed to petition the Bureau of Elections for ballot access for nominees. I requested the papers by fax on May 5th and began to follow up about the papers on the 11th. According to the receptionist at the Department of State in Harrisburg, there is only one person, Adam, who handles the requests for Nomination Papers at the Bureau of Elections.

Adam told me on the 11th that "seventeen" papers were sent to me on the 7th. On the 13th I called Adam and left a message advising him that I had not yet received the papers.

On the 14th I spoke with Adam and he said he had sent another seventeen, that day, by way of regular mail.

On the 17th Adam was not in the office and I left a message for him with Jonathan.

On the 18th I obtained a form from the Post Office to initiate a lost mail tracer on the 34 papers and called Adam to assist me in filling out the information required by "sender". Adam seemed reluctant. When I asked to speak to someone in his building's mail room, Adam told me he would have to check to see whether that was something he was allowed to do.

Hhmmmmm!

After ending my call with Adam, I called the main number for the Capitol Comples and had no problem obtaining the number for the mail room in the building that houses the Bureau of Elections. From the mail room person who answered, I received the information I needed and submitted the form to the USPS this morning.

Fortunately I do have some Nomination Papers (Petitions) that were hand delivered to me from party headquarters. These papers are started for Lackawanna, Wayne, Wyoming, Bradford, Pike, Susquehanna and Monroe Counties. There is room for 110 signatures on each paper and although the total I need is about 1,050, my goal is to obtain in excess of 2,000. As the simple math will show, neither of these totals will be met without the Nomination Papers that Adam said he sent.

By the way; the phone number for the Constitution Party is 1-800-2-VETO-IRS. For "politically incorrect" buttons and T-Shirts check out Live Free or Die.