Two Reasons for Evan
By: Kenneth Hunter
Tags: 2016 Election, Politics

I cannot stress how important it is to vote for somebody for President. If you are not satisfied that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are suitable individuals to be our next President, there are at least four other candidates to consider, and you can always choose to vote for yourself, a friend or favorite cartoon character.

Since I’m neither a socialist or communist, I have no interest in Jill Stein. I might have gone Libertarian, had Gary Johnson proven to actually take the position of President seriously in all facets, especially foreign affairs. Therefore, I focused my attention on Conservative Party candidate Darrell Castle and conservative independent Evan McMullin.

I do believe both of these men are consistent in their views and support of restoring limited national government more in line with an original intent interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. I do believe both men are honorable, decent human beings. I do believe both can rise to be strong leaders.

I choose Evan McMullin because of his experience in government, the considerably strong effort and positive results he’s achieve in a short campaign of limited resources and his continued personal improvement through the electoral process. His running mate, Mindy Finn, is a solid future leader and conservative advocate who will continue to enable better engagement across generations.

Both of them are young and understand the inter-generational challenges facing our society and culture in the present and near future. They managed to piece together a peaceful, constructive, insurgent campaign that might claim an actual victory on Election Night in Utah.

In other words, the first reason I will vote Evan McMullin for President is that he is the best candidate of those I evaluated who is actually running this November 8th for President.

The second reason, however, has nothing to do with McMullin, or the other candidates for that matter.

In all honestly, as a resident of North Carolina, my vote will not count for McMullin. It likely won’t count at all.

North Carolina possesses some of the most archaic, and restrictive, ballot access laws in the country.

So, yes, by writing-in a name the State of North Carolina will not even recognize as a written-in name, I might as well not be voting at all, as far as the law knows.

This is wrong. I am not a fan of nationalized voting laws (the Constitution directly delegated elections to the States). Still, I do believe in what is right.

Most, if not all ballot access laws are unnecessary. As much as we debate access to voting, we should not ignore the inappropriate, anti-freedom limits our political institutions place on who can and cannot participate as candidates in the process.

When compared to other states, North Carolina’s ballot access requirements are among the toughest. In my home state of Tennessee, only 275 signatures are required on a petition for an independent or 3rd party Presidential candidate to gain statewide ballot access. For Tar Heels, it’s 2% of the total cast in the last Gubernatorial election (nearly 90,000 signatures).

What about write-ins? Well, in Tennessee, all you have to do is fill out paperwork and turn it in with the State no less than 50 days before the election date.

In North Carolina, the same paperwork needs to be turned into the State no less than 90 days before the election date, and include 500 signatures.

Yes, you can’t even be a write-in candidate in North Carolina without a petition.

I am firm believer that elections laws should remain the domain the States, the our United States Constitution demands. If more mindful and knowledgeable Americans (especially in North Carolina) would focus on voting FOR someone they can respect and agree with (as opposed to choose between Trump and Hillary because they are AGAINST the other), significant attention would be drawn to this serious deficiency in our State’s practice of representative democracy.

North Carolina needs dramatic ballot access reform to increase the potential for independent-minded individuals, not choosing to affiliate with either of the State’s antiquated political parties, to stand up and take part in active leadership of our communities, counties, state and nation. I will write more on this later.

For now, I’ve found many reasons to vote for Evan McMullin. I am satisfied with my choice.