Indiana Secretary of State/Congressional Candidate Todd Rokita Denies Petition of Independent Congressional Candidate Mike Hight
On Aug. 3, 2010 I received from the State of Indiana a Certification of Denial of Petition of Nomination to run for the Congress from the Indiana 4th District.
As luck would have it the Denial is signed by Sec. of State, Todd Rokita, the same Todd Rokita I would have been running against if I had been allowed on the Ballot in November.
I should like to explain how this system works, and more importantly how it works in favor of Republican and Democrat Candidates to exclude Candidates other than those of the Republican or Democratic Party.
This is all legal by the way. The laws are written by those very same Republicans and Democrats already in office and they do not want anyone else in their game.
When I entered this election process I knew it would be difficult, I had no idea how difficult. The system was designed by those already in the system to keep out anyone else is what I have learned. I would like to pass on that information. People need to know how little say they have in the election process.
It is a totally corrupt system and Candidates are bought and paid for by special interest and political bosses.
How it works. I will use the 4th District as an example because that is the one I was to run in.
According to State law a person who wants to run for Congress must submit a Petition of signatures of certified registered voters of the district in which they wish to run. The number of signatures required must by law be ascertained by the Candidate himself. The State will not release that “magic” number to the Candidate until AFTER the deadline for submitting the signatures. That magic number is to be greater than 2% of the voters who voted in a previous election for the Secretary of State in that Candidates District. In this case the Sec. of State election was 2006 and the winner of that contest was Todd Rokita.
The Secretary of State office is responsible for the Election Process in Indiana. When I contacted that office I was referred to one of the State Attorneys, Mr. Simmons, who gave me the process. He pointed out that according to State Statute the State is NOT required to provide the “magic” number needed, he even provided the State Statue* that says this. He was helpful and did tell me how I can calculate the number myself. *[see IC3-14-3-3 and IC 3-8-6-12 (d) and (e)]
The process is this: You must get the voting records from each County in your district. In this case that includes 12 Counties. Of those 12 Counties, 7 are completely in the 4th District. You get the records from the Clerk and count the votes cast for Sec. of State. Not just the winner but the total votes cast in the race. That is fairly easy in Counties that are completely in the District. But, in the 5 County’s that are only partially in the District it is much more difficult. You must look up each Precinct in each County, if that Precinct is in your District and count those votes. In this case it includes Marion, Johnson, Fountain, Monroe and White Counties. Do you have any idea how many different Precincts there are in those Counties? Mr. Simmons, at the Election Commission, did provide me with the figures for the whole counties but admitted that they did not even know the figures for the partial counties as they do not keep records by District Precincts. That is why I must calculate that number myself. After I submit a Petition they then will calculate a number. If our numbers differ, again my tough luck.
After calculating the number needed you must gather Certified Signatures of Registered Voters. You have a very short time period to do this. The signatures must be submitted to the County Clerk in which the voter resides so that they can be certified. You must have those signatures in the County Clerks Office by Noon of June 30. They must be certified by the Clerk and then be submitted to the State Election Commission by July 15. That is only 15 days from the deadline for submission to the Clerk. You can submit them earlier but that shortens the time you have to gather the signatures. The problem now is that if you submit hundreds or a thousand signatures to the Clerk they may not have the physical time to do the certification in time for the State Deadline. It is just 9 working days to do this. In addition the Attorney told me that if any or all of the 12 County Clerks fails to get this done for any reason or no reason at all I am out of luck. There is no extension or appeal available. Since to my knowledge all Clerks in this district are either Republicans or Democrats they really have no special interest in certifying a person who is not of their Party. I will not say any would intentionally do this but lets face it stuff gets thrown to the bottom of the pile for lots of reasons.
I did all of the above, did the research and calculated what I thought to be the correct number of signatures. Oh, by the way, if my figures and the States don’t match, tough luck for me. In this case that happened. My calculation of 3362 needed signatures did not match the eventual State calculation and since I am not allowed to know this until after the deadline to submit those signatures well, just my bad luck.
The Official “Magic” number was 3,547, a difference of 185 needed. I was notified on Aug. 3rd that I did not reach the 3,547 signatures needed to have my Petition accepted.
Now if you think I can just use that number in the next election, you are mistaken. The number changes with each election and you are again not allowed to know it in advance. Additionally in 2012 there will most likely be a re-districting due to the Census and the district will undoubtedly be GERRYMANDERED to reflect the Party in Power’s best interests. The longer they drag that process out the less likely anyone will be able to gather the required signatures since they will not know the boundaries of their District.
But is my intention to make the effort and I will be asking for your help in defeating this convoluted and corrupt process. I will be working on the process after the 2010 elections. Some have already offered their help for the next election. I intend to start much of this in the fall of 2011.
This is only one small part of the difficulty in running against the established Two Party System, I have not touched upon the financial, fund raising and other restrictions, there simply was not the room on here, but I believe you get the idea.
I intend to continue my fight to bring true representation to the people of my District, State and Country. I now have a base of people who have indicated a desire to help me and I will be contacting them in the future for a run in 2012. We can do this and I believe we must if we are to continue as a United States of America.
Most Sincerely,
Mike Hight,
Independent Candidate for Congress in 2012