Editorial Opinion: Why You'll Find Our Names On Nomination Petitions

As election season is heating up this summer, candidates are circulating >Nomination Petitions to appear on the ballot. All petitions must be filed by September 4, 2009 and have the signatures of 100 voters who live within the City limits. You will find my name, along with my address and birthday, on a few. Although these petitions are on public record, I would like to acknowledge my signatures and explain why.

With the election season starting, Brad Rourke and I want to be fair to each candidate and honest with our readers. We’ve been debating whether to sign the petitions, since we do not want to appear to favor candidates.

My signature doesn’t reflect my support or my eventual vote. Since I’ve already signed four, there’s a very good possibility I’ll sign more than four for council and more than one for mayor. When someone asks, I sign the petition because I desire a healthy system with a diversity of candidates representing different viewpoints.

When someone asks me, typically in a public place, I can’t learn enough about the candidate to decide if he or she will get my vote. After the debates, forums, and interviews I’ll have a much better idea, so I want the person to enter the race and have a chance to explain their positions. A healthy democracy depends on people running for political office. I would never want to stop someone from participating and expressing their viewpoints when they desire to contribute to our civic life as an elected official. We need challengers to challenge our beliefs and the status quo. I consider signing petitions a public service that keeps our system strong.

Candidates will often start with friends and family but they need 100 people to sign. The process of obtaining these signatures insures the candidate is serious and has demonstrated a desire to actively participate in a campaign. If there were no such hurdle, we could have idle candidates on the ballot in name only.

After we considered the issue, Brad replied to me:

I was not signing anyone’s petitions so no one would think I was being biased, but you’ve convinced me that it’s also a community benefit to encourage all candidates to run. So I’ll hereby sign anyone’s petition who asks me, as a matter of course.

So when you are collecting signatures, keep us in mind! If you see our names, you’ll understand why.

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