John Wallace Withdraws from the Race of Congress

by News Blaze

posted 08/05/08

JOHN WALLACE - a Republican Candidate for Congress in New York's 20th Congressional District is withdrawing from the Congressional Race in NY's 20th CD.

After having his nominating petitions invalidated by the New York State Board of Elections on Monday, John Wallace, a candidate for congress in New York's 20th Congressional District has decided to withdraw from the race. He cited the antiquated process and the use of micro-technical issues to disenfranchise over 1250 registered Republicans that signed his petitions.

For example, some of the errors cited for throwing out the signatures of legitimate voters who signed his petitions were:

1. Registered voters having moved to a new address without notifying the Board of Elections. Even though the voters were found at their current address and this was their valid address, their names were thrown out because they hadn't notified the Board of Elections that they moved.
2. Registered voters that made slight errors in writing down their address, or writing in their mailing address instead of the actual town they resided in, were thrown out.
3. whole pages of signatures of registered Republicans were thrown out because the person collecting the signatures made minor errors at the bottom of the form that did not affect the signatures of the voters in any way.
4. there were also valid reasons for excluding some of the signatures where people said they were Republicans and signed the petitions, but were later found to be registered as Conservatives, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians or not even registered to vote.
5. and, of course, Wallace himself admitted that he failed to catch a lot of these technicalities during the review process and even made some mistakes himself.

"I think the Hearing officers at the New York State Board of Elections were fair and impartial and made their decisions based on their internal procedures in these matters. I acknowledge that some of the signatures we submitted were not valid, but not that many.

I do believe, however, that the issue of using minor technicalities to disenfranchise registered voters must be seriously reviewed. The petition procedure process should be updated and combined with modern techlology to ensure that the votes of legitimate registered voters are counted fairly and equitably in the future." said Wallace.

"The good news is that the system showed that a regular person like myself, with just a little money and some grassroots support, can actually make it onto the ballot in a congressional race, even if only for a short period of time. It clearly shows that there is still hope for making change in America, because the process still works." Wallace said.

"I may be out of this particular race, but I will not be gone from the political scene. I will continue to stand up and speak out in support of protecting America's Freedoms, Liberties and Sovereignty and I am comitted to restoring the American Republic." Wallace added.

As the old song goes, "You have to know when to hold 'em and you have to know when to fold 'em." It is now time for me to "fold 'em" and move on.

You can contact John Wallace at john@grayrider.com or visit the Freedom Movement website at: http://www.FreedomMovementUSA.com