Democracy Chronicles

Indiana’s Irrational Ballot Access System

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Indiana's Irrational Ballot Access SystemI ran for Indiana Secretary of State in 2022 seeking office as a Disability Party candidate to help others access the ballot more easily. I received 5 write in votes, mostly in small, red counties that voted for Republican Diego Morales. These counties were White, Brown, Spencer, Warrick, and Vanderburgh.

It is no wonder that I received so few votes. A write in hardly ever wins and when they do, it is because they spent a great deal of money and time. I had a budget of $0 because I have not received Camp LeJeune justice yet. 69 years have expired with no justice and stifling the life opportunities of the victims is one of the damages.

I was living in the Philippines and thus was not present in Indiana at any time during the election from May forwards.

Another fact about this race that is incredible is that the voter turnout is down by 40% compared with 2018. One might say this is a major disappointment for democracy in Indiana, but I say the opposite.

When voters fail to vote for Secretary of State, that impacts the number of signatures a small party must gather to get on the ballot. In 2018, the total vote was 2,246,759. Thus, 2% of that number is how many signatures it has taken for ballot access in a statewide race. For the last 4 years, that number has been 44,935.

2022 saw 1,347,968 votes for Secretary of State (it may be slightly higher in the end, but more or less this amount). 2% of that number is 26,959.

When Democrats go negative, it drives down the vote total and 2022 was no exception to that rule. Destiny Wells started attacking Diego Morales and she not only lost dismally, but she managed to drive down the voter turnout for this race.

It has been estimated that with 44,935 signatures, the cost of such petitioning is $500,000. However, with the lower number being 40% less, that cost should come down to about $300,000. Indiana Green Party v. Sullivan, 1:2022-cv-00518 (S.D. Ind.)

This is good for me if I choose to hire a petition company to get the signatures I need in 2026 for Secretary of State ballot access. It is highly likely that I will have my Camp LeJeune justice payments well before 2026 and I will be able to afford it.

These 5 votes simply demonstrate that I am here, I am “waiting in the wings” for things to change. And when they do change, disabled people will be running for office all over the state without being insulted and excluded by the larger parties.

2022 was a prelude. Even running for office for $0 and achieving 5 votes allowed me to be listed after the election as having run in that election under Disability Party. Free exposure is good. Let’s see how it goes when I have money.

My next step in using democracy as a broom to sweep out the disability discrimination bad blood in Indiana courts is to oppose the retention of the Chief Justice of Indiana Loretta Rush in 2024. I bought a domain name for that political campaign: www.lorettarush.com

I call this the NO RUSH campaign. God willing, I will have Camp LeJeune money for that cause two years from now.

About Andrew Straw

Andrew Straw is a person with disabilities who practiced disability law and engages in disability reform advocacy.    Straw was a Virginia lawyer and has served as corporate counsel for billionaire Alan M. Voorhees, who designed the Interstate Highway System and the Metro in Washington DC.  Straw then worked for the Chief Justice of Indiana and was the assistant dean in charge of the International Programs at Indiana University-Maurer School of Law.

He grew up in Indiana, where his brother, a retired USAF captain and twice a critical care trauma nurse veteran of Afghanistan, ran as a Democratic candidate for sheriff of Hamilton County in 2018.  Jason Straw is head of Indiana NORML and seeks reforms of the state’s marijuana laws like most other states have.  Jason is known as “Captain Cannabis.”

Andrew Straw was born at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, where his father was training as a U.S. Marine for his Vietnam duty.  Straw was thus poisoned on the first days of his life but was denied compensation and health care.  Straw v. Wilkie, 843 F. App’x 263 (Fed. Cir. 1/15/2021); Straw v. United States, 4 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2021).  Straw started a group for people born or poisoned there called Children of Camp LeJeune.  Congress voted to compensate people like Straw and his dead mother from the poisoning (S. 3373, Title VIII, Sec. 804).  This new law has passed the U.S. House by 342-88 and the U.S. Senate by 86-11.  It will likely be signed by President Biden in early August now that it has passed both houses.

Straw has visited 16 countries and has lived in the United States, Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, and the Philippines.  Straw provided services to the Italian Foreign Ministry as a contractor and passed the written U.S. Foreign Service Officer Test in 1998.  For more information, Straw’s CV can be found here.  Straw has lived in the Philippines for over 4 years, from June 2018 – August 2022, studying disability access in that country, but may one day return to the United States when the human rights violations stop.

He is an asylum seeker due to the discrimination and human rights violations of state and federal courts in the USA.  Andrew Straw lives just 1374 km from where his father was stationed in Vietnam. See also. Straw is engaging in pro se law reform from a distance.

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