Three Well-Known Election Law Activists Run for California Secretary of State

The election for California Secretary of State has three well-known election law activists this year, although the type of election law activism each has engaged in are very different from each other.

Christina Tobin is the only candidate seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. Here is her web page. She is the founder of Free and Equal, which has become a major source of financial backing for efforts to improve ballot access laws and other election laws. For example, Free and Equal has made important contributions to the Oklahoma lobbying effort for better ballot access. Tobin also has her own paid petitioning company. She served as Ralph Nader’s ballot access petition coordinator in 2008, a year in which every single Nader petition that was attempted, was successful (Nader was on in 45 states in 2008, more than at any other year in which he ran). She was responsible for arranging the only minor party/independent presidential debate in 2008 that was televised. That debate was between Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin and was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. She also sponsored the only vice-presidential debate for minor party and independent candidates of 2008, at which Wayne A. Root, Matt Gonzalez, and Darrell Castle participated, in Las Vegas.

Free and Equal also sponsored two Illinois primary gubernatorial debates in the 2010 campaign season.

The Democratic incumbent, Debra Bowen, is running for re-election. During her first term, she was active in changing California law and policy in regard to electronic vote-counting machines. All California vote-counting machines now have a paper trail. Before she was Secretary of State, she was a state legislator, and she is responsible for making California the first state to have all pending bills in the state legislature on a state web page. Here is her campaign web page.

Another well-known election law activist running for Secretary of State is Orly Taitz, who is running in the Republican primary. Here is her web page. She is the most famous of the various attorneys who have been filing lawsuits ever since 2008, alleging that President Barack Obama does not meet the constitutional qualifications to be President. Taitz lives in Orange County, California.

The only other candidate for Secretary of State who has an active campaign, so far, is Damon Dunn, who is seeking the Republican nomination. He was a football player for Stanford while in college, and he has been active in the real estate business, but he has never engaged in any activity to alter or reform any aspect of election administration or election law. However, he has been endorsed by many California Republican Party office-holders. Here is his web page.