Sorry "Mr. Pro-Life", you're just another Marvin Richardson on the ballot

[marmar]

Is this the natural consequence of Reagan closing the mental hospitals? :crazy:



from ThirdPartyWatch:



‘Pro-Life’ Not Allowed on Idaho Ballot


It appears that the State of Idaho will not let Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Marvin Pro-Life Richardson (that’s his real name) use his legal middle name on the ballot this fall. He will appear simply as Marvin Richardson.

The Idaho Press-Tribune has the story…

Gem County gubernatorial candidate Marvin Pro-Life Richardson will be just plain Marvin Richardson on the election ballot in November. And the organic strawberry grower and Constitution Party member is not happy about it.

The Idaho Secretary of State Office says a ballot is for identifying candidates and not for political slogans. So Richardson, who legally changed his middle name to Pro-Life two years ago, will not be able to use his full name. Richardson, 64, said he’s thinking about taking the state of Idaho to court over the matter. And he said he may even legally drop the Marvin and Richardson from his name just to see what the Secretary of State’s Office, which is responsible for creating voting ballots, would do.

“I don’t know why they’re being so ridiculous,” Richardson said. “Maybe they think I’ll get a certain amount of votes and it would cause the election to go some way or another. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The decision not to allow Richardson’s middle name on the ballot is based on an Idaho Supreme Court ruling in 2000, Secretary of State Chief Deputy Tim Hurst said. That ruling struck down a law calling for ballots to include whether or not candidates supported term limits.

“Our stand is that the names on the ballot are to identify the candidates, not to give them the opportunity to put a policy message on the ballot,” Hurst said. “And that basically was the (Supreme Court) decision.”

Richardson said the two issues are not the same.

“This is a whole different thing,” Richardson said. “This is a person’s name.”

Richardson, who ran for the state Legislature and lost in 2004, said his Pro-Life middle name may actually cause him to lose votes because even some of the members of his own party think the name change is too extreme.

“They look at me as being ridiculous for doing that,” Richardson said.

Richardson admitted he knew he would probably have his new name on a ballot when he changed it. But he says that’s not the point.

“If I never run for office again, if I move to another country, I’m still going to continue to use my name of Pro-Life,” Richardson said.

Richardson and Constitution Party Lieutenant Governor candidate William Charles Wellisch of Dingle will conduct a press conference at noon today on the second floor rotunda of the Statehouse. The two candidates will address Richardson’s ballot question and other issues.

http://thirdpartywatch.com/2006/04/06/645 /

[ProfessorGAC]

1. “They look at me as being ridiculous for doing that,”

Then get the message, you dolt!
The Professor