FREE & EQUAL, INC TO DEFEND NOMINATING PETITIONS IN ILLINOIS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christina Tobin
Phone: (312) 320-4101
Email: Christina@freeandequalinc.com
FREE & EQUAL, INC TO DEFEND NOMINATING PETITIONS IN ILLINOIS
Free & Equal, Inc. announced today that they will be defending the nominating petitions of at least two candidates in Illinois.
Debra Leticia Gordils is running in the Republican primary for the 11th State House district. Gordils submitted well over 600 signatures.
Anita Forte-Scott is running in the Republican primary for the 56th State House district. Forte-Scott submitted over 900 signatures; 600 of them collected by herself, with the rest collected by volunteers. All were collected by going door-to-door with voter rolls.
Republican Renaissance PAC has hired Free and Equal to defend the signatures from Gordils and Scott. The requirement for both candidates is 500 valid signatures each.
“The voters of Illinois deserve the chance to vote for whomever they please,” said Free & Equal, Inc. CEO Christina Tobin.
“It is essential to the health of our democracy that the selection of elected representatives take place at the ballot box and not in the halls of a Board of Elections riddled with corruption. We look forward to defending the signatures of these candidates, and anticipate seeing them on the primary ballot.”
Earlier this week, an army of petition checkers descended upon boards of elections across the state, seeking to limit voter choice in the 2010 elections by invalidating signatures collected by candidates.
Operating under a veil of secrecy, the petition checkers at the Chicago Board of Elections were quite standoffish when quizzed recently by an ABC7 Chicago reporter. Few were willing to give their names or the names of their employers.
The original ABC7 report can be found at http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/politics&id=7105170.
After he was pressed by the reporter, one man did in fact identify his employer as Cook County Clerk of Court Dorothy Brown.
Also according to ABC7 Chicago, a veritable army of workers alleged to be employed by State Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan were on hand to scour over petitions looking for the minutest mistakes possible when the reporter from ABC7 Chicago was present at the Board of Elections. Those who were interviewed refused to give their names or employers.
This raises significant questions about the use of government employees in campaign capacities.
Such activity is blatantly illegal.
Intrigue also surrounds the challenges of candidates Gordils and Scott.
Copies of both petitions were requested by Kevin Artl, a former Political Director for the Rudy Giuliani Presidential campaign.
Artl is the Chief of Staff for Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross.
Artl has denied that Cross has anything to do with the challenges.
Still, questions about the use of government employees in campaign capacities remain.
“The only reason the current Illinois GOP power base would pay money to selectively copy petitions of the principled, conservative candidates is to see if they could knock these honorable people off the ballot,” said Jim Edwards, Executive Director of the Republican Renaissance PAC.
“This unethical behavior is one of the many reasons why the Republican Renaissance PAC of Illinois is rapidly attracting attention to its mission of ethics, accountability and integrity,” said Edwards.
Free & Equal, Inc. is headed by ballot access crusader Christina M. Tobin. Tobin has helped secure ballot lines for numerous independent candidates and alternative political parties including the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican and Socialist Equality parties. As Ralph Nader’s National Ballot Access Coordinator in 2008, she helped collect more than 500,000 signatures to put Nader on 45 state Presidential ballots and the District of Columbia, more than any other third party or independent candidate.
In 2004, Tobin sued Democratic Party State Chair Michael Madigan for allegedly using full-time state employees to knock Ralph Nader off of the Presidential ballot. A Freedom of Information Act request was submitted for the payroll in question. The FOIA request was denied in court because it was “confidential information.” A complaint filed by Ralph Nader was submitted to attorney general Lisa Madigan, daughter of Michael Madigan. As of yet, five years later, no action on the complaint has been taken.
Free & Equal, Inc. is a full-service ballot access consulting and petitioning firm. Free & Equal, Inc. is a non-partisan firm that works with candidates from across the political spectrum. Free & Equal, Inc. does not endorse any candidates for office.
FREE & EQUAL, INC. SPECIALIZES IN DEFENDING NOMINATING PETITIONS AGAINST CHALLENGES.
TOBIN AND THE STAFF OF FREE & EQUAL, INC ARE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY TO DEFEND SIGNATURES IN ILLINOIS
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Free & Equal, Inc. is a full-service ballot access consulting and petitioning firm specializing in ballot access for independent and third party candidates.
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