State, City Board of Elections Clash Over Removal of Thompson, Hunter and Keyes From Ballot
Republican commissioners on the state Board of Elections in Albany voted to remove Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, and Alan Keyes from the Republican presidential primary ballot on February 5. However, the Democratic commissioners did not vote.
When the city Board of Elections voted today, they were split. A source there told me, “The commissioners voted to act on this directive from the state board, and they split four to four, on party lines, with a question about the validity of this so-called directive." (The question of validity stems from the fact that the state Democratic commissioners did not weigh in--"There's not general, universal agreement on that," said Bob Bhrem, the Democratic spokesman for the State Board of Elections).
A spokesperson for the city’s Board of Elections could not immediately be reached. The real question is, what happens now?
“I don’t know,” Bhrem said. “There’s probably 68,000 voting machines and it takes a certain amount of time to make changes on those machines.”
He said it would take about 2,300 person hours to make the changes in New York City, and that's just for the voting machines at polling places. “There’s another question about emergency ballots, absentee ballots,” Bhrem added.
Makes no difference..if Fred's name is not on there..I will just pen it in!!!suit yourself...he's the one I will vote for and the only one!
The State GOP has no shame.
First, they rig the party rules and make it impossible for anyone but Rudy to compete in New York.
Rudy manages to screw it up anyway, and is in danger of losing the New York Primary on February 5th.
So the State GOP reshuffles the deck, hoping that by removing Thompson's name from the ballot, a few more votes will go to Rudy.
By what reasoning are they removing Alan Keyes? Thompson and Hunter dropped out -- but Keyes is still running! What's up with that?
Alan Keyes is still in the race. How can they remove his name once that he has met the qualifications to be on the ballot?
Keyes is focusing his campaign on Texas until their March 4th election, attending events in other states, then returning to Texas.
The campaign is now based in Texas.
Saturday, 1/26/08 he will speak at the Austin Walk for Life, in Texas. In the evening, he will speak at the Ronald Reagan Day Dinner, in Illinois.
Keyes is an active candidate for president! He belongs on the ballot.
I was wondering the same thing, next they will remove Ron Paul and we'll again be stuck with loser liberals. Pat
The Republican Party has no shame. They blackballed Keys from the beginning of the race. They didn't count his votes in Iowa. At every turn they have removed him from the ballot and excluded him from the debate. I for one will not vote for the hand selected candidate that the Rockefeller republican leadership chooses. I will go third party in this election. Better to let a Democrat destroy this country then have a Republican do so.
Well I guess if you care as little about the USA as Republicc Might as well move to some other place were there are no rights or maybe worse. As for me I think if Hillery would get in God better help us all, might as well say goodbye to the USA as you have known it for the past couple of centuries.
Why? What are you afraid of ? Because you think registered voters will waste their vote on these men? It's their voice and it should be heard by voting for them if that is their choice. Removing them sounds pretty liberal not indifferent like you so often claim to be.Again Why???
If his name is still on the ballot I will vote for duncan Hunter. His core principals are the closest to mine of any candidate. He never got national attention because he didn't have the "big bucks" for his campaign. It is really sad that a good candidate cannot get equal attention.
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RON PAUL LEADS THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REFORMATION
I. Some Reasonable Negative Changes
1. No to the Un-Constitutional Wars
2. No to the Imperialistic Foreign Entanglements
3. No to the Domestic and Foreign Lobbies
4. No to the McCain-Feingold Suppression of Free Speech
5. No to the Patriot Act Spying on Citizens
6. No to the Human Sacrifice by Abortion
7. No to the Illegal Immigrant Amnesty
8. No to the Suppression of Christian Culture
9. No to the Alien Birthright Citizenship
10. No to the Abolition of the Death Penalty
11. No to the Burdensome Taxes
12. No to the Burdensome Government Spending
13. No the Burdensome Government Regulations
14. No to the Stealing from Social Security
15. No to the Expensive Technical and College Educations
16. No to the Expensive Medical Care
17. No to the Expensive Medicaid
18. No to the Expensive Litigation
II. Some Reasonable Positive Changes
1. Yes to Solar Energy Dependence
2. Yes to Scientific Research and Development
3. Yes to Highly Selective Proactive Recruitment of Immigrants
4. Yes to Government Support for Religious Schools
5. Yes to Impenetrable Military Defenses
6. Yes to Environmental Restoration and Protection
7. Yes to Tax Exemptions for Motherhood Contributions
8. Yes to Proactive Foreign Diplomacy
9. Yes to Comprehensive Immigration Reforms
10. Yes to the Mexican Border Fence
11. Yes to Illegal Alien Deportation
12. Yes to Citizenship Revocation for Violation of the Oath of Allegiance
13. Yes to Loss of Assets for Lying Under Oath
14. Yes to Seasonal Agricultural Guest Work Contracts for Poor Nations
15. Yes to Normalization of Relations with Cuba
16. Yes to Bin Laden Dead or Alive
If the Republican State Committee is now on McCain's side, heck Senator Al jumped aboard last week, then they're going to want Rudy off the ballot also! Problem is that on a state wide basis the outside New York City Boards all have electronic machines, but New York City only has the ancient Shoup lever machines which are prone to high failure and manipulation. Sure everyone just has to change the computer screens that the voters see outside of New York City, but here the machines have to go back to the warehouse, be opened, have the old cards blocked over with cherry color stickers (the NYS Republican Party's official BOE assigned ballot and petition color) and the lever removed and the hole plugged. You cannot vote an absentee ballot in the Presidential primary because of the way the rules and enabling legislation works where you vote not for the candidate but for his delegates who you won't know their names this year. In other words don't waste your vote Fredheads, of which I am one, by writting in Fred's name or anyone elses. Vote for Romney, Huckabee, or Paul if you don't want McCain! I intend to vote for Romney. If Giuliani's name remains on the ballot then he may win New York's primary posthuminously because of the large number of Italian-Americans who are registered Republicans in New York. Ofcourse, if this heads to court it may delay New York's primary, after all they did stop the Primary Election in the midst of its occurence during 9-11! So it can be done.
Ron Paul can't be removed he is certified to be on the ballot and he has announced that he dropped out. Alan Keyes was removed because he didn't supply the necessary delegate names in New York, from each of the Congressional Districts. Keyes doesn't have any support up here so he can't get on. Paul has support, he supplied the names to the BoE, and so his name shall appear. The others complied with the ballot statute, but have dropped out. Can they be removed? I don't see provissions for that in the law so the Republicans on the BoE are trying an end run, which the Dems won't allow and courts won't either. As for getting Libs again...that may very well happen even if Ron Paul's name appears on the ballot. In fact, the Libs probably will win in the Republican Party for the first time in thirty years because of Ron Paul who is taking conservative votes from Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee the only two candidates which can stop McCain. Oh well...get ready for Madame Hillary as President thanks to you psychopaths in the Ron Paul movement. However, I suspect most of you along with the fanatics in the Huckabee campaign will all get together following the Republican convention, and when it becomes McCain v. Hillary you'll all mix up the Kool-aid and off yourselves! Reach out for help...any twelve step program can save you. You don't have to die.