The WSWS continues to print letters sent to the Illinois State Board of Elections protesting Democratic Party efforts to bar Joe Parnarauskis, the SEP candidate for state Senate in the 52nd District, from the November ballot. (See: Election board refuses to certify Illinois SEP candidate for November ballot)
The Socialist Equality Party calls on all its supporters and all those who defend democratic rights to continue to flood the offices of the Illinois State Board of Elections with letters demanding that it immediately certify Joe Parnarauskis’s right to appear on the ballot. Emails can be sent to the Illinois State Board of Elections at webmaster@elections.state.il.us. Please send copies of all messages to the WSWS.
The SEP and the World Socialist Web Site also call on all supporters and readers to donate to the SEP election fund to defray the costs of the fight against this antidemocratic process Make a donation today!
Members of the board,
The world is watching to see whether the ballot of the 52nd District of Illinois will include the name of Joe Parnarauskis, the candidate representing the Socialist Equality Party.
If more than the required number of constituents have petitioned for Parnarauskis to be among their choices for state senator, then the 52nd District should be presented the chance to vote for him. The task is not to devise ways of refuting that number, to discredit the signatories by presuming confusion on their part about what was written in plain view, or to work at barring non-elephants and non-donkeys from the ark of the ship of state. The task is to let the people decide. So let the people decide whom they want to consider for office and what they want debated in the public forum. Let the people decide, including those more than 3,000 people whose petitions you have reviewed.
Please decide to let the people decide, remembering that this is what democracy means.
Thank you for your work,
Jan Seabaugh
Indiana
7 September 2006
* * *Dear Sirs,
Today you will make a decision on whether or not to place Joe Parnarauskis on the ballot as a candidate for state Senate in the 52nd District. There is not one of you or your legal advisors that does not know which way your country’s constitution and the treaties to which it is signed demand that you vote; to place Joe on the ballot.
Both the obstruction of Parnarauskis and the attempt to exhaust the resources of his Party constitute a blatant, all too visible attack on democratic rights. The question is, how, in the “land of the free,” has persecution of a legitimate candidate been allowed to persist, and without penalty to its perpetrator? Does it not serve to illustrate the decay of official US politics from which also flows bipartisan support for unprovoked aggressive wars, torture, a gargantuan programme for state spying on the US’s own citizens, Gulag Gitmo and so much more which is traditionally the preserve of totalitarian dictatorships? With the exclusion of political opposition, all these amount to state policy.
The more official politics diverges from the principles upon which the US was founded, the more the programme of the Socialist Equality Party will resonate with broad layers of voters in the US and the world over. Whichever way your principles or lack of them persuade you to vote, the working class will hold you to account for your actions today.
Yours faithfully,
R. Boulting-Vaughan
United Kingdom
7 September 2006
* * *To: Illinois State Board of Elections
I am writing to your board to vehemently protest the Democratic Party’s attempt to deny the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and their candidate Joe Parnarauskis’s right to appear on the November ballot for state Senate in Illinois’ 52nd Legislative District. It is clear to any honest observer that he has obtained more than enough signatures and must be confirmed for the sake of democracy and equality. Any candidate or voter should have the right to open access to the ballot without unreasonable restrictions. A model to emulate is California’s recall election process, which because of its relatively low signature requirements and fees, does not discriminate against candidates. The two-corporate-party domination of the political system exposes a cynical attitude toward democracy and the American people. It puts roadblocks in the way of alternative candidates and betrays a rigged, antidemocratic election process similar to the fraudulent 2000 election affair, which threw out tens of thousands of votes and imposed G.W. Bush on the majority of the electorate.
Joe Parnarauskis received 3,229 signatures, well over the required 2,985, which itself is too onerous for third parties. The fact that lawyers for the Democratic Party can only protest his certification based on the most minor technical irregularities reveals the bogus, mendacious and illegal nature of their case. If you do not want to be complicit in this political system’s degeneration into a banana “republic” dictatorship, then your election board should quickly uphold Joe Parnarauskis’s right to ballot status.
Sincerely,
Robert Gafford
Santa Cruz, California
8 September 2006