The news recently has been prominently featuring a nationwide poll which shows about 50% of American voters don't believe their votes mean anything. Worse, about 75% think the politicians they elect go in different directions from the issues they campaigned on, after they get into office. The longer they stay, the more they drift.

No kidding.

These statistics can pretty well be verified by checking out the number of registered voters that actually vote in general elections. Yep, around half, 50%....and that's the HIGH Years corresponding to presidential elections. The Secretary of State predicted a much higher turnout for the March 2004 Presidential Preference Primary, but only about 20% of active voters showed up. So much for Perdue's "flag mandate." Had that rigged hoax referendum included the REAL Georgia flag, turnout would have been much, much higher. But I digress...

If we dissect the voter apathy problem, we can come up with some pretty obvious conclusions. Right here in Georgia. We need go no further. Here's just one example.

We have just learned that Mike Crane, a gallant crusader for the restoration of our Constitutional Republic and smaller and more responsive government, has been denied a place on the ballot for a state senate race. Mike tried to qualify the old fashioned way, by petition of the voters. He needed around 2600, and he turned in around 3100. 900 were bounced for various reasons by local registrars in the counties involved. When the dust settled, he was about 400 "acceptable signatures" short. [ More Info ]

Before we cast blame on the registrars and the Secretary of State staff, we need to examine the real problem. They followed the law developed more than forty years ago designed to keep anyone who wasn't part of the political party apparatus that controls who can or can't be a candidate.

Accept it or not, but a very few people---operating in the backrooms---determine who you can vote for in the party primary. Worse, they determine the issues to be addressed and the issues to be avoided.

Both parties made overtures to Mike Crane. He not only didn't fit their puppet-stringed profiles, he took delight in telling them so. He determined to go independent, (Southern Party) and the petition route.

I know something about the laws that were created in the sixties to keep opposition off the ballot and protect the incumbents in office. You might say I helped cause it. As chairman of the Georgia Republican campaign and leading Republican spokesman in the state, we organized a statewide campaign on a budget of $18,200. No one expected much since the most votes we had ever gotten was 28% and that was with a national hero, Dwight Eisenhower, leading our ticket.

With the volunteer help of lots of friends from organizations I served with, such as the SCV and the Georgia Jaycees, we determined to make Georgia a competitive political state. In our first campaign, we could only organize ten areas of the state, yet we got nearly 40% of the vote, carrying every county we organized.

This scared the hell out of our opponents who at that time controlled every seat but one in the General Assembly. Since local elections required certain high percentages of the vote in previous elections to qualify candidates, legislation was advanced to stop potential opposition in another way, choking the possibility of successfully filing by petition. That is the archaic law that was used to stifle Mike Crane.

The Republicans went on to develop enough votes to qualify candidates in local elections, without petitioning, by enhancing the base plan and organization we first put in place in 1960. Within four years we won statewide and began to get the numbers required for ballot access throughout the state. The rest is history.

From that beginning that party now controls two [ Governor & Senate ] of the three major elements of the state government and many think the GOP will control the House, too, after the 2004 elections.

Guess what? The Republican attitude today is no different than the Democrat attitude was 44 years ago: Limit any potential opposition on the ballot.

Mike Crane is a fighter. He will not be untracked or intimidated by the bosses in either party. He owes no tributes. He deserves our admiration for standing up and speaking up.

Mike has a good case for a challenge. Not for the 900 good citizens who were discarded from his petitions, although they're important and should be challenged.

Mike has a voting rights case. Consider this: Under the One Man, One Vote mandate of the federal courts, Representative and Senate districts cannot exceed certain variances from one to another---at a maximum----a 10% variance. The petition requirement for third parties, which wasn't changed from the old law, permits much greater disparity. In the current state Senate the petitions required from one district to another may vary as much as 74% or more (that's right, seventy-four percent).

To challenge the status quo in Georgia will not be easy. It probably won't get Mike a Senate ballot for 2004, but it can strike a blow for liberty for Georgia's future. That's the reason it is important for everyone who really, honestly cares, to be part of the Georgia Heritage Coalition Heritage database.

Only by working together with an impressive force can we influence the injustices taking place in Georgia politics. Only by organizing grass roots patriots to join together for activity on both the local and the state level will we ever see more than half our voters have any faith in their elected officials.

If you're as angry as me, you'll fill out the GHC application and strike a blow for liberty. If you don't have the five bucks, I'll loan it to you.