Free & Equal: News & Notes

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Free & Equal Starts Meet-up Tour, Expands Board of Directors, Prepares Legislative Action

Here’s a look at what’s happening with Free & Equal:

It has been a busy three weeks for the Free and Equal Elections Foundation since the announcement of a major campaign to place Independent and Third Party candidates on the ballot.

Here’s a look at what’s happening with Free & Equal:

• West Coast Meet-ups

Free & Equal will hold two separate ”meet-ups” in the Northwest this week. The first will be held in Seattle, WA on Wednesday. The topic of discussion will be the Washington State Top-Two Primary, and the devastating effect the law has on independent and third party candidates. Free & Equal has identified reforming this particularly egregious Washington law as a top priority.

For More Information:

Free & Equal Elections Seattle Meet-up

The second meet-up will take place in Portland, OR on Thursday.

Dan Meek, a champion of Oregon ballot access, will be the special guest speaker. Dan will be discussing the hurdles to ballot access in Oregon, and how to combat them.

For More Information:

Free & Equal Elections Portland Meet-up

Next up: San Francisco and Chicago! Stay tuned for more meet-ups to come, especially on the east coast!

• New Board of Directors Member to be Announced

Free & Equal is also pleased to be announcing a new member of the Board of Directors at the Oregon meet-up. The new Board member is well-known in third party circles, and will help further Free & Equal’s mission to reform restrictive ballot access laws across the nation. Stay tuned for the announcement.

• Ballot Access Legislation to be Introduced in Illinois

Later this afternoon, Free & Equal will deliver a bill lowering the signature requirements for Independent and Third Party candidates in Illinois, to a state senator who has pledged to introduce the legislation. Free & Equal is working with noted election lawyer Andrew Spiegel on this bill. The bill identifies several other shortcomings in the Illinois election code, and proposes significant changes. More to come in a press conference to be held next week.

• New York 20^th Congressional District Special Election
  

In the special election to replace newly appointed senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Eric Sundwall, Chairman of the New York State Libertarian Party, has announced that he will run.

According to New York election law, Sundwall will have to collect 3,500 signatures within a period of 12 days following the announcement of the election by Governor David Paterson. The Free & Equal Elections Foundation wishes him the best of luck in this endeavor.

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In other news, Founder & Chairman of the Board Christina Tobin, with the aide of election attorney Andrew Spiegel, successfully defended the signatures of Illinois 5^th district Republican Rosanna Pulido against a challenge through her personal enterprise Free & Equal, Inc. Tobin will also be working with NY 20^th district candidate Eric Sundwall to secure his place on the ballot.

That’s all for now. Much more to come in the next few weeks!

Be sure to sign up for e-mail updates on our website!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pm. It is filed under Free & Equal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.