That’s essentially what Portland lawyer Tiffany Bond said she must do to finish the required paperwork to earn a spot on the general election ballot as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Tiffany Bond
It’s not easy in the best of times, she said, but try getting all those forms done in the middle of a pandemic with the state refusing to bend on even its most arcane rules.
Bond, 43, said she has to track down voters willing to sign her petitions, ensure each signature is witnessed, arrange for notaries to check each piece of paper in person, get municipalities to certify the names when many of their offices are closed and, finally, submit them all to the secretary of state by the end of June.
Through it all, there has to be a verifiable chain of custody for every single piece of paper.
“All of it is unsafe” in the era of COVID-19, Bond said, but she’s pressing forward with as much care as possible.
She said her backers are setting up one-on-one sessions in unlikely spots, like a porch or a park bench, to get another signature or two.
It probably looks like a drug deal going down, Bond said.
“The lengths that I have to go to get a signature are insane,” she said.
Bond, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in 2018, plans to go head-to-head with four-term Republican Susan Collins in a contest that will also include the winner of the July 14 Democratic as well as independents Lisa Savage of Solon and, it appears, Max Linn of Bar Harbor.
Before she can get on the ballot, though, she has to gather 4,000 notarized signatures from Maine voters, a tough task in any year but one that’s particularly fraught with complications during a pandemic.
“We should always protect democracy,” Bond said, “and we’re not doing that.”
Bond, who doesn’t take campaign contributions and urges supporters to give their money to charities and small businesses in Maine instead, collected about 2,500 of the necessary signatures before the new coronavirus struck the state in mid-March.
She said she had always planned to get the rest in the spring once the weather turned nicer.
But once the pandemic hit and Gov. Janet Mills told people to stay home unless they were out on essential business, Bond said she could no longer do anything to gather signatures safely or ethically.
A table is set up in front a Portland market to solicit signatures to get independent U.S. Senate candidate Tiffany Bond on the general election ballot. Tiffany Bond photo
Now that things are loosening up a bit, she’s taking a stab at hauling in the rest of the signatures she needs, but it’s nothing like the normal process of years past.
It’s still not possible to go door-to-door or do anything that would bring signers within 6 feet of witnesses, Bond said. Even sharing a pen is a no-no.
Bond said she’s repeatedly sought guidance from the state but heard nothing but “crickets” from authorities.
Even in the best of times, Bond said, “the rules for ballot access are bull.”
Secretary of State Matt Dunlap provided the only new help given to potential candidates this year when he gave contenders an extra month to collect signatures, pushing back the June 1 deadline at the same time he shifted a scheduled primary from June 9 to July 14.
Bond said she’s fortunate because she has 2,500 signatures in hand.
That leaves her “within striking distance” of the total she needs, she said, but it’s still “completely unreasonable” to need so many signers during a public health emergency.
Savage and Linn collected more than 4,000 signatures early in the year, reaching the necessary tally before Mills shut down much of the state to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Getting signatures is much harder now, Bond said.
Instead of handing over forms for people to sign, or take around to their friends and neighbors, Bond has to mail them to supporters.
She can’t even send them as electronic attachments that can be printed out, Bond said, because the state mandates the use of 11- by 17-inch forms that few printers can handle.
Once somebody gets a form, they can sign it – and have voters they are in close contact with sign – but they also have to figure out how to get it notarized in-person.
Mills eased notary rules for most business-related needs as an emergency step to deal with the pandemic, but did not revise the requirements for election-related notarizations, a step that Bond said was surely aimed at least in part in keeping her off the ballot.
Bond said the state is “limiting access to democracy” by mandating that independents get twice as many signatures as party-sponsored candidates and refusing to give them a break during a dangerous time.
Some other states have lowered the number of signatures required this year.
Among those making changes were New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who sliced the mandatory number by 70% for state races this year, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which cut in half the signatures candidates had to round up.
Bonds said Maine should follow suit.
She said the state has a responsibility “to provide a safe, ethical and attainable path to ballot access.”
At the least, Bond said, it ought to cut the number of required signatures to 2,000, to match what Democrats and Republicans need, and offer a way for paperwork to be notarized and certified without putting people at risk.
“It’s ridiculous that we’re in this position,” Bond said. “I’m a real candidate. I’m not an eccentric kook.”
Two years ago, Bond gathered a couple thousand signatures from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District voters and secured a spot on the general election ballot for herself as an independent candidate for the U.S. Congress.
She wound up collecting 16,552 votes on Election Day, the first choice of 5.7% of those who headed to the polls.
As it turned out, those who voted for her and independent Will Hoar handed victory to Democrat Jared Golden of Lewiston when ranked-choice voting moved on to determine that the independent supporters preferred Golden over incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin by a wide margin.
Bond, who has a website, said that a political hopeful who makes a good faith effort, matches the numbers that party candidates need and tries to work within the rules ought to be able to make the ballot.
If she can’t pull it off, she said, it would be a clear indication that state leaders didn’t want her to make it.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
