2012-02 "Secretary of State list of presidential candidates called unlawful" by C.T. Weber of the Peace and Freedom Party California State Central Committee
[http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/index.php?view=article&id=979]
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has given no explanation to the party's state chair for omitting two of the four presidential candidates in the Peace and Freedom Party from the primary ballot. Peace and Freedom Party State Chair C.T. Weber of Sacramento calls the omission "unlawful," and the omitted candidates are protesting the decision.
 In a statement issued today, party chair Weber cites Elections Code sections that specify how presidential primary candidates are supposed to be selected by the Secretary of State, and suggests that code sections covering other parties may have improperly been applied to the Peace and Freedom Party candidates. He also cites a failure by the Secretary of State to consult party county chairs, as specifically required in the Elections Code, and accuses Bowen of failing to consider as required by law the letter submitted to her by C.T. Weber on behalf of the Peace and Freedom Party State Executive Committee that listed all four candidates for inclusion. "No Secretary of State has ever overruled our party's report listing our primary candidates," says Weber, "until this mistaken decision by Secretary Bowen."
 In the list announced Monday night, Bowen included Stewart Alexander and Rocky Anderson on the ballot, but omitted Peta Lindsay and Stephen Durham. Weber was unable to get an explanation when he went to the Secretary of State's Sacramento office the next morning, and reports that officials in the office refused to divulge what criteria Bowen used to make her choices, who was present at the meeting where the criteria were developed, and whether Bowen herself was present at the meeting.
 Richard Becker of San Francisco, a spokesman for the Peta Lindsay campaign, calls the omission of her name "absolutely unjustifiable under the law." Candidate Stephen Durham of New York City says "I strongly object to the attempt by the California Secretary of State to steal away the rights of those who want to vote for a bona fide socialist feminist candidate for president."
 The Secretary of State may add to her list after its announcement, and Weber urges her to do so. "Our voters are seriously considering four candidates, and they deserve to have the Secretary of State follow the law and list all four on the primary ballot," he says.


2012-02-08 "Freedom Socialist Party urges protest calls to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen" by Mary Ann Curtis and Toni Mendicino
[http://socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/1857]
Below is a media release from the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) State Central Committee about the unilateral and illegal omission of two PFP candidates for president, out of four contenders, from the state's primary ballot. One of the two is Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) candidate Stephen Durham, an FSP local organizer first in Los Angeles and currently in New York City.
 "In the absence of an explanation from Secretary of State Debra Bowen, FSP believes this undemocratic exclusion is an act of blatant political discrimination," said Doug Barnes, Campaign Manager.
 FSP asks supporters of ballot access and open elections to call the state elections division at 916-657-2166 and demand that the two omitted PFP candidates be added to the state's published list of PFP candidates. In addition, please sign this online petition started by United Left!, a group in New York which has endorsed the FSP campaign.
 For more information about Stephen Durham and the FSP's 2012 campaign for president and vice president, visit www.socialism.com or call campaign manager Doug Barnes at 206-985-4621.


February 27, 2012-02-27 "Socialists protest exclusion from California primary" by Doug Barnes from "2012 Freedom Socialist Presidential"
When California Secretary of State Debra Bowen released the names of presidential candidates to be listed on the ballot for the June 5 state primary, she omitted two of four candidates submitted by the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) electoral coalition: Stephen Durham of the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) and Peta Lindsay of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).
The decision met with immediate objections from all three parties, who demanded that Bowen reverse course and add the names to the list, as she is legally required to do. Thus far she has refused and the Freedom Socialist Party is pursuing a legal challenge. Durham, who is running for president on a Freedom Socialist Party ticket with Christina López for vice president, called Bowen's decision "an act of political censorship."  Durham mused, "It makes you wonder if the Democrats are afraid of real socialists taking on Obama." Bowen is a Democrat.
Durham, 64, who has previously run for New York state office, is on the FSP National Committee and serves as the party's organizer in New York City in addition to representing the party in Latin America and the Caribbean. In an unsigned Feb. 17 reply to a letter of protest by the San Francisco Durham/López campaign coordinator, Bowen's office listed a series of requirements as an apparent explanation for Durham's exclusion. The criteria included "having a campaign office, a campaign website, making Federal Election Commission filings, participating in debates, and being referred to in the news media."
Kevin Akin of the PFP California executive committee answered this argument in a comprehensive response to the anonymous official in the Secretary of State's office. Akin pointed out that, first of all, the state's criteria for each party are different and specific. The state elections code only requires a PFP candidate to be "generally advocated for or recognized throughout the United States or California as actively seeking the presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party." This, wrote Akin, is verifiably true for both Stephen Durham and Peta Lindsay. As Aiken explained, the Durham candidacy meets most of the stipulations the anonymous official outlined, even though they were designed for other parties. While the campaign for Durham/López will be primarily a write-in effort outside of California, it has offices around the country, including two in California. It filed with the FEC shortly before Bowen's announcement and will be participating in upcoming debates. Since the campaign's launch in mid-January, it has already received significant coverage online and in independent media.
López linked Bowen's stand to the larger issue of new restrictive voter ID laws. She pointed out that "Bowen is not only violating the rights of the three parties involved, she is denying California voters the right to choose their representatives.  Across the country, people are being required to produce birth certificates and even proof of residency to vote. It points to the fact that this is not what a democracy looks like when minor parties are excluded from the ballot and laws are passed targeting groups that are already underrepresented at the polls: the poor and homeless, immigrants, people of color and prisoners."  López, 43, is president of Seattle Radical Women and a leader in a three-year grass-roots campaign against budget cuts in Washington state.
Among those who agree with Durham and López is Unite Left! of New York. This group has initiated an on-line petition demanding that Bowen conform with the law. Doug Barnes, Durham/López national campaign manager, is asking those who support greater political diversity on the ballot to sign the petition. It can be found at www.socialism.com.  Additionally, he would like to see Bowen deluged with letters, phone calls, emails and tweets. Her office can be reached at http://www.sos.ca.gov/.