Christina Tobin

Christina Tobin is an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters’ rights movements. She is the founder and chair of The Free and Equal Elections Foundation,^[1] president and chief executive officer of Free and Equal Inc,^[2] and vice president of Taxpayers United of America.^[3] Tobin serves on the boards of Californians for Electoral Reform (CfER)^[4] and the Coalition for Free and Open Elections.^[5]

Early life

Tobin was born in Pasadena, Texas, in 1981. She grew up in Texas and Illinois and graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. She attended Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota where she served as varsity tennis captain and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. In 2004, she earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design with a minor in business marketing.

Career

Tobin started her career as a non-partisan ballot access coordinator. An expert in defending signatures and coordinating petition drives, Tobin has helped gather and defend over 1 million signatures for Independents, the Green Party,^[6] the Constitution Party, the Republican Party,^[7] the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party^[8] and the Socialist Equality Party.

Illinois campaigns

In the 1998 election for governor of Illinois, Tobin helped defend over 60,000 signatures for Libertarian candidate Jim Tobin. In 2002, she personally gathered over 5,000 signatures and successfully defended 55,000 signatures for Cal Skinner, who was running for governor, and Jim Tobin, who was running for lieutenant governor representing the Libertarian Party.^[9]

In the 2004 presidential election, Tobin defended 29,000 signatures in Illinois for Ralph Nader when he ran as an Independent.^[10] She also sued Democratic State Chair Michael Madigan for using his full-time state employees to knock Ralph Nader off the Illinois ballot.^[11]

For the November 2006 election, she successfully defended 39,000 signatures for Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor.^[12] The Green Party is now an established party for the first time in Illinois history.

The requirement for Republicans and Democrats to get on the ballot in Illinois is 5,000 signatures, while the requirement for third party and independent candidates is 25,000 signatures.

Ralph Nader’s 2008 presidential campaign

In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader’s national ballot access coordinator.^[13] She helped collect more than 500,000 signatures to put Ralph Nader on the District of Columbia ballot and 45 state presidential ballots,^[14] more than any other third party or independent candidate. While coordinating the national ballot drive in 50 states, Tobin organized a successful petition drive in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York.

Free and Equal, Inc.

In March 2009, Tobin founded Free and Equal, Inc., a non-partisan, full-service ballot access consulting and petitioning firm that specializes in independent and third party candidates. Free and Equal, Inc. does not endorse any candidates for office. She serves as president and chief executive officer.

The Free and Equal Elections Foundation

In April 2009, Tobin founded the Free & Equal Elections Foundation, a coalition of political parties, independent citizens and civic organizations that promote free and equal elections in the United States. The foundation’s services include legal assistance to defeat the difficult ballot access laws created by the two-party system and coordinating nationwide ballot initiatives, referendums and recall efforts. It has become a major source of financial backing for efforts to improve ballot access and other election laws. Tobin serves as founder and chairman of the board.

Under Tobin’s leadership, the Free and Equal Elections Foundation organized the only minor party/independent 2008 presidential debate that was televised.^[15] The debate was between Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC and was broadcast live nationwide on C-SPAN. The foundation also sponsored the only 2008 vice-presidential debate for minor party / independent candidates in Las Vegas, where Wayne Allyn Root, Matt Gonzalez and Darrell Castle participated.^[16]

In Fall 2009, Free and Equal began organizing all-inclusive debates to give all candidates a chance to share their ideas with voters. Free and Equal held three gubernatorial debates in Illinois.^{[17][18][19][20]} Debates in Connecticut and California have also been organized for October 2010.

Electoral Reform and Voters' Rights Initiatives

Tobin supports proportional representation, which is used at a national level in 81 other countries. She plans to launch statewide proportional representation initiatives in 2012, first in California then nationwide. Tobin also supports instant-runoff voting, the organization Fair Vote, Ballot Access News, and Ballotpedia.

In 2010, Tobin led a statewide, all-partisan effort to defeat California's Proposition 14. The measure passed in June 2010 by a small margin. The anti-Proposition 14 coalition was out-funded 250 to 1, due to numerous sizable contributions made by insurance companies, banks, the California Chamber of Commerce, and Governor Schwarzenegger's California Dream Team.^[21] Tobin manages StopTopTwo.Org, a website originally dedicated to defeat Proposition 14; however, the site is transitioning to a national site to prevent Top Two from spreading nationwide.

California Secretary of State Election

Tobin ran as the Libertarian Party candidate for the 2010 California Secretary of State election.^[22][23] She formally announced her candidacy for California Secretary of State on February 23, 2010.^[24] She was the only candidate seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. Richard Winger of Ballot Access News was her campaign manager.

The democratic incumbent, Debra Bowen, ran for re-election. Damon Dunn, a former Stanford football player who works in the real estate business, was the Republican Party candidate. Community volunteer Marylou Cabral^[25] was the candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party, civil rights attorney Ann Menasche^[26] was the Green Party candidate, and aviator Merton Short represented the Constitution Party. Orly Taitz, an Orange County attorney known for filing lawsuits alleging that President Barack Obama does not meet the constitutional qualifications to be president, lost to Dunn in the June primary. Incumbent Bowen won the race in November 2010.

While Tobin's primary focus is electoral reform and voters' rights, she is an outspoken supporter of the anti-war and marijuana legalization movements and is involved with Antiwar.com, Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Americans for Safe Access, Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), and Students for Liberty.

References

1. ^ "About « Free And Equal". Freeandequal.org. http://www.freeandequal.org/about/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
2. ^ "Free & Equal Inc. - Full-Service Ballot Access Consulting and Petitioning Firm". Freeandequalinc.com. http://www.freeandequalinc.com/about/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
3. ^ "About « Taxpayers United of America". TaxpayersUnitedofAmerican.org. http://www.taxpayersunitedofamerica.org/about/. Retrieved 2011-09-21. 
4. ^ "Californians for Electoral Reform". Cfer.org. 2010-10-03. http://www.cfer.org/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
5. ^ "Coalition For Free and Open Elections". Cofoe.org. http://www.cofoe.org/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
6. ^ http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=338675
7. ^ "Blogger: Aanmelden om te lezen". Chicagoray.blogspot.com. http://chicagoray.blogspot.com/2009/02/will-5th-district-republican-candidate.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
8. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Huntley School Supt. Burkey Says He Used Vacation Days to Go to China". McHenry County Blog. 2010-03-13. http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2010/03/13/12391/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
10. ^ "Nader collects enough signatures for Illinois ballot spot - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star". Rrstar.com. 2008-06-24. http://www.rrstar.com/news/x822807107/Nader-collects-enough-signatures-for-Illinois-ballot-spot. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
11. ^ Mullman, Jeremy (2004-09-27). "Nader aide sues Madigan | Law | Crain's Chicago Business". Chicagobusiness.com. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=14051. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
12. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
13. ^ "Nader/Gonzalez Submit Signatures for Illinois Ballot Line - Ralph Nader for President in 2008". Votenader.org. 2008-06-20. http://www.votenader.org/media/2008/06/20/Illinois/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
14. ^ "Ballot Access News » Blog Archive » Ralph Nader’s Ballot Labels". Ballot-access.org. http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/08/25/ralph-naders-ballot-labels/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
15. ^ "C-SPAN TO AIR PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE LIVE « Allison Kilkenny: Unreported". Allisonkilkenny.wordpress.com. 2008-10-22. http://allisonkilkenny.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/c-span-to-air-presidential-debate-live/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
16. ^ "Vice Presidential Debate To Be Held In Las Vegas - vice presidential debate, election 2008, third party candidates". Free-press-release.com. http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200810/1225485252.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
17. ^ Rodriguez, Codell (2009-10-10). "Gubernatorial candidates debate in Du Quoin". Thesouthern.com. http://www.thesouthern.com/news/article_9bb08140-b557-11de-a160-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
18. ^ Stillmaker, Sean (2010-07-11). "First Gubernatorial Debate Lacks Big Two". Chicagoist. http://chicagoist.com/2010/07/11/1st_gubernatorial_debate.php. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
19. ^ "Bill Brady, Pat Quinn Skip Illinois Governor's Debate". Huffingtonpost.com. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/bill-brady-pat-quinn-skip_n_639589.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
20. ^ Name (2010-07-09). "Quinn and Brady Ducking Black Grassroots Gubernatorial Debate Is No Surprise - And The Ordinary People Said". Chicagonow.com. http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/and-the-ordinary-people-said/2010/07/quinn-and-brady-ducking-black-grassroots-gubernatorial-debate-is-no-surprise.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
21. ^ http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1322507&session=2009&view=late1
22. ^ "Christina Tobin | Libertarian Party". Lp.org. http://www.lp.org/candidates/liberty-candidates-10/christina-tobin. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
23. ^ "Ballot Access News » Blog Archive » Three Well-Known Election Law Activists Run for California Secretary of State". Ballot-access.org. http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/03/06/two-well-known-election-law-activists-run-for-california-secretary-of-state/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
24. ^ http://www.tobinforca.org/campaign-kickoff/
25. ^ http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13437
26. ^ http://www.voteann.org/

External links

• Christina Tobin for CA Secretary of State
• The Free and Equal Elections Foundation
• Free and Equal Inc.

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