Announcement: I’m a write-in candidate for Congress from the sixteenth district!

Top line: Can I run – and win -- as a write-in?

I might as well row a boat to Mars.

We all know this.

And yet. And yet.

There is only one candidate on the ballot this year: the incumbent, Republican Darin LaHood.

The Democrats wouldn’t -- or couldn’t -- field a candidate.

Note the irony. The Democratic Party abandoned the democratic process.

Pathetic.

As described in another post, Illinois election laws (put into place by Democrats and Republicans, of course) make it exceedingly difficult for minor parties and independents to get onto a ballot. Any ballot.

They choke off voter choice. It’s them – or nothing.

I believe that voters deserve a choice.

When it became clear to me that Mr. LaHood would have absolutely no competition, I resolved to run as a write-in.

Ah. Resolving to run as a write-in was easy. Actually running as a write-in is very difficult.

Unsurprisingly, Illinois election laws also impose daunting requirements on write-in candidates.

Rather than file with the Illinois State Board of Elections (as all other Congressional candidates do), I needed to file notarized "Declarations of Intent" with the clerks of all of the counties that make up the 16th district.

Fully twenty counties are in or partially in the sixteenth.

Twenty.

In late June, I spent three days filing those twenty Declarations – in person. I traveled to every county seat in the district. (A few photos are attached.)

The weather was good. The people were nice. And this year’s corn crop is coming up beautifully.

By the way – the opportunity to write in “Mickey Mouse” on election day long has passed.

Write-in candidates now must formally file with officials no later than sixty-one days before an election. (This cuts off late groundswells of public support.) And if you vote for anyone other than a declared write-in, it doesn’t count.

So here I go.

Ummmmm – where did I put my oars?