If you do not have a voter registration card in your possession, request one to be mailed to you. The card shows your precinct number and representative district numbers for use in your political participation. This is an important, necessary first step in proactive citizenship. You must be registered to vote to sign or circulate ballot access petitions, or to vote. We can have a better, more democratic republic. Carry your voter registration card next to your money and your driver's license.

The Ohio Secretary of State publishes a Candidate Qualifications Guide annually. The guide includes information on local, state, and national offices. Filing fees, election dates, candidate requirements, and candidate deadlines are provided. To get information on local office requirements not in the guide, contact the local government the office serves. (Warning: The bipartisan Ohio Legislature can and will change the requirements at any time.)

The Secretary of State web site had many other relevant subjects on my last visit. You may want to write to the SOS to insist on information on candidate qualifications for the next election year. The next year information is necessary for populist nonpartisan and minor party candidates to plan ballot access petition efforts to obtain ballot access in a very short period of time. The bipartisan monopoly parties have insider knowledge of any changes in candidate requirements. The bipartisan monopoly plans changes to disrupt ballot access efforts by populist nonpartisans and minor parties. The bipartisan monopoly writes the rules to favor the monopoly bipartisan "two-party system," the dictatorship.

Speaking of more information, the Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, had his statement on "Empowering Voters" published on the SOS web site. (Sorry the page is no longer there. Ken Blackwell no longer wants to convince us he cares about voters.) He did not mention anything about having election days on weekends or making election days legal holidays. These are Reform ideas that he naturally opposes as a member of the Republican Party, one of the bipartisan monopoly parties. If he wants to empower voters let him run for public office as a populist nonpartisan or under the banner of a minor party, or show us the legislation that is passed and in law which improves voter empowerment. Words are meaningless unless followed by accomplishment. There can be no voter empowerment without populist nonpartisan or minor party empowerment. The Democratic and Republican party history of corrupt undemocratic practices as the bipartisan monopoly "two-party system" is long and clear.

Nonpartisan Cooperative Minor Party Ballot Access (OH): The number of votes cast in the last Gubernatorial election year determines the number of signatures required for minor parties and on independent candidate petitions until the following Gubernatorial election year. For example, valid signatures equal to 1% of the vote cast in 2010 will be required for 2011 thru 2014. For instance, 1000s of valid signatures are needed for each nonpartisan candidate for U.S. Congress.

With "minor party" ballot access 25 valid signatures are needed for the same public office, U.S. Congress. Obviously, minor party candidates need far fewer valid signatures for ballot access than independent candidates. Also, independent candidates can not be on the ballot listed as a candidate of a minor party of their choice. That right was overturned in an appeals court immediately after the right was won in a lower court case brought by the Libertarian Party in 1998. Constant legal questions and legal battles make it difficult to effectively establish an opposition minor party with continuous ballot access to compete against the monopoly bipartisan Democrats and Republicans who dominate the Ohio State legislature. Not impossible, but very difficult over time. We know how to keep continuous minor party ballot access. However, we are an unorganized nonpartisan cooperative majority. We need to work together.

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Minimum Ohio Cooperative Party Ballot Access Numbers: Twenty signatures with over 50% valid from 4400 reliable petition circulators will give us the 44,000 valid signatures needed. With 4400 IVA certified petition circulators we will have enough participants to get the signatures in a reasonable time with a little effort from each participant. (Note: 4400 x 20 equals 88,000 total signatures to submit.)

To have a workable minimum base of 4400 petition circulators, each of the 88 Ohio counties can average 50 petition circulators in each county, or each of the 16 U.S. Congressional Districts can average 275 petition circulators in each district.

Continuous Cooperative Ballot Access: Twenty signatures every two years from 4,400+ OHIVA petition circulators (88,000+ signatures) from friends, neighbors, and family will certify OHIVA ballot access for all future elections. Every legislative candidate using OHIVA ballot access will need just 25 valid signatures, not 1000s, for ballot access. Statewide candidates will need just 1000, not 5000 valid signatures. With ballot access assured, nonpartisan candidates can successfully compete with the bipartisan monopoly. (Top of Page)

Sharing cooperative "IVA Party" ballot access with all qualified populist nonpartisan and minor party candidates could help put many more nonpartisan "minor" candidates on the ballot to win public offices against the bipartisan monopoly two-party system. 74% to 94% of all possible voters are populist nonpartisans who do not actively support any political party of any kind. We can win. (Your Voice)

There is no surprise in the fact that information on public office qualifications is not aggressively made available to the general public, who are generally not members of the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Registered voters are generally populist nonpartisans, over 84% in Hamilton County. Unregistered non-voters, nearly equal in number, are 100% nonpartisan independent. The bipartisan two-party monopoly minority is hard at work avoiding opposition.

Party "bosses" choose the candidates who appear on primary ballots in the Spring, not voters. The candidates chosen by the "bosses" are elected in November. We have no choice in the matter. We do not support the two bipartisan parties who run our lives.

The IVA plans to provide more opposition than the bipartisan monopoly can handle. Real solutions to old problems will be heard. (Your Voice)

End Sample Page Valid for Ohio Counties.

Ballot access petitions will be available on IVA web pages and other web pages for use by nonpartisan independent citizens. Freedom is participation in power.

Be a proactive petition circulator and Election Day participant.

Be a proactive citizen in your voting precinct.