When Reform Party Presidential candidate Roque De La Fuente submitted petitions for ballot access, the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office accepted the submission. It was declared that Roque De La Fuente met the requirements to obtain ballot access. Days later Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin reversed the decision citing “sore loser” laws.
Roque De La Fuente’s campaign replied by showing Lyndon LaRouche was allowed on the ballot in 1992 under the same circumstances, and that sore loser laws did not apply to Presidential candidates. The Arkansas Secretary of States office then stated that Roque De La Fuente did not meet ballot access qualifications because of the 12th amendment. Their argument was that De La Fuente’s Vice-Presidential candidate was from the same state, thus he could not run.
There was much laughter from the Reform Party camp. It was an obvious fact that Mark Martin has never read the Constitution of the United States, for the 12th Amendment says nothing about Presidential and Vice Presidential qualifications that would impact the Arkansas vote. The 12th Amendment restricts the candidates’ home state electors (Florida).
With that argument refuted, Roque De La Fuente has been denied ballot access, because the ballots are already printed. Even though he met every requirement to be on the ballot, his name will not appear. These actions of the Arkansas Secretary of State, to keep a candidate off the ballot, highlight the corruption within his office, or something more.
