Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Crystal Jurczynski

Libertarian Party of Illinois Campaigns Chair

07/08/2010

The fight to keep our state-wide Libertarian candidates on the ballot is underway. There are two fronts: the blanket objections against our petitioners and the line-by-line objections. You can help us win on both fronts.

The blanket objections are attempts to knock out many thousands of signatures by discrediting our hard-working petitioners. The idea is to claim a petitioner is not valid, so every signature he or she brought to the drive is not valid. Our challengers selected for this attack every petitioner who collected over 2500 signatures plus a few others, 11 in total. Our legal team is focused on beating these objections down.

The line-by-line objections will be fought by volunteers at the State Board of Elections in Springfield. Each defender will be assigned to a computer with a representative from the challengers and a neutral person from the State Board of Elections (SBE). The SBE will look at each signature line that was objected to and attempt to find that person in the list of registered voters. If found, the signatures will be compared to see if there is a match.

As a defender, you can provide suggestions to the SBE that would help them find the correct address and see similarities in signatures. You would also track the lines we win and lose, so we can watch our total number of valid signatures climb.

We expect to be assigned 15-20 terminals per day for 3-5 business days. The most likely start day is Monday, July 19, although this date could shift by a day or two based on the speed of the challenges before ours. If you believe you can make yourself available for one or more of these days, please email PDM@LPIllinois. org with your name, phone, and number of days (1-3) you can contribute. If you have a room to share or would like to share a room with someone staying multiple days in Springfield, note that as well.

To prepare for the line-by-line challenge, we are assembling a spreadsheet listing each signature line and the basis for each objection. If you can donate a few hours of data entry time within the next several days to type this information, please email PDM@LPIllinois.org and we will email you the files needed and instructions.

Last, but certainly not least, attorneys with election law expertise do not come cheap. I ask that you donate to our legal defense fund so we can win this round of Liberty vs. Tyranny with a knock out. Please send your most generous contribution to Libertarian Party of Illinois, PO Box 6, Bloomington, IL 61702-0006 or donate online at LPIllinois.org.

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." –Thomas Paine

If you have any questions, contact Petition Drive Manager Crystal Jurczynski at 630-854-4110 or PDM@LPIllinois.org.

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