Republican Use Dirty Tricks, Crack Down on Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in State Courts

The Republican Party is running scared. Either that or they think the country is better served by restricting voter choice to only those candidates they want to appear on the ballot. Could this be the same party that is supposed to totally support the Constitution and personal freedoms?

In Iowa, the Republican Secretary of State is attempting to remove Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson from the presidential ballot because leaving Johnson on the ballot “will cause “irreparable harm to other candidates and political parties who must compete against him.” In Virginia, Gary Johnson was successful in fighting a GOP attempt to remove him from the ballot.

In Oklahoma, the Republican Attorney General is attempting to remove Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party candidate for President from the ballot tying him to Americans Elect. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Johnson has to sue the Republican Secretary of State because she says he missed the filing deadline by three minutes.

In Pennsylvania, the state Republican Party is challenging validity of signatures even though more than double the required number were turned in. As for Ohio, the GOP is suing to remove Libertarian Gary Johnson from the presidential ballot.

Washington State's turn-a-bout is fair play. The Libertarian Party is suing the GOP that is a minority party under state law, and therefore the party’s presidential candidate does not qualify for the ballot.

In Nevada, the GOP is worried about “None of the Above” because the state Republican Party “fears “none” could siphon votes from the Republican candidates.” “None of the Above” has appeared as a choice on all Nevada ballots since 1976 as a mean for Nevadans to express dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates. “None” cannot be declared the winner even if it receives the highest number of votes.

Why is the Republican Party doing this? Do they believe they fielded weak candidates who cannot stand on their own in close races? Do they not truly believe in freedom of choice and want to restrict, through any means necessary, voter choice? Have they forgotten what freedom really means? Or maybe they’ve gone off the deep end and don’t know how to get back on solid ground.