Yeah... I know... I hate politics too, but when I read this on a blog, I felt a bit uneasy and more than angry at our current two party system and felt I had to share this. Supposedly, we live in a country where anyone can be heard, or run for political office based on what they believe and by issues they support.
In this case, a third party candidate is being forced to defend its compliance with the law in Pennsylvania as one of the major parties tries to prevent him from being on the state ballot in November. Not only does this go against the very core of which our Republic was founded; it sends a clear signal to anyone, or group that you are NOT welcome to participate in the electoral process in America; a basic right anyone should have. We the people have the right to have a choice and not have our choices controlled and selected by the powerful two party system and the media.
Portion of a letter from the Libertarian party:
"20,601 Pennsylvania registered voter signatures are required to put Gary Johnson on the ballotOn August 1st, the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania filed nearly 50,000 petition signatures to put Libertarian Presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson on the ballot. On August 8th, Republicans filed legal challenges against our petition signatures, despite the fact that that the challenge doesn’t pass the laugh test and is designed to cost us time and money. The Libertarian Party clearly has way more than enough valid signatures to qualify our Presidential ticket for the 2012 ballot.But now we’re in a nasty legal and administrative fight to keep what we earned: ballot status in Pennsylvania for our Libertarian Presidential ticket. The Commonwealth Court ordered us to provide 20 libertarian volunteers each weekday, starting a few days ago, on Mon. August 20th to match up/verify ballot petition signatures with the PA voter registration roll database.Further, we have legal fees and court costs. To defend the Libertarian Party’s ballot status. To defend Pennsylvania’s voter’s right to vote Libertarian.In 1996, Harry Browne garnered 28,000 votes in Pennsylvania."
I don't care what party affiliation you subscribe to. This is pure and simply wrong and an affront to freedom of choice in our electoral system. Shame on the Pennsylvania Republicans!  At least Maine got it right and let Johnson be on the ballot.