PSL on the ballot in 13 states nationwide

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is proud to announce that our presidential campaign has achieved ballot access in 13 states. In six of these states, the PSL candidates will be the only socialists on the ballot.

In each one of these states, supporters of the Lindsay/Osorio campaign volunteered their spare time to do the work required to gain ballot access. We collected almost 45,000 petition signatures and met 125 people willing to be electors for the PSL in a period of six months.

The PSL will be on the ballot in every region of the country: the West – Colorado, Utah, Washington; the South – Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana; the Midwest – Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin; and the Northeast – New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont.

About 85 million people live in these states, which include the third and fourth most populous states: New York and Florida. Almost 40 million registered voters — representing more than one-quarter of those registered in the country, and more than one-quarter of electoral votes — will have the option to vote for the PSL.

It’s not too late to be a part of this exciting campaign:

Get involved with the Lindsay/Osorio 2012 Presidential Campaign today!

Request Peta Lindsay or Yari Osorio as a speaker for an event in your area.

Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation!

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Below is a report published following the completion of ballot access efforts in New York State in August.

On Aug. 14 at 9:03 a.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation filed an Independent Nominating Petition with the New York State Board of Elections in Albany to place Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio on the ballot. PSL volunteers arrived at the BOE early in the morning before they opened to ensure that we could file at the very first opportunity when the filing period opened.

We met all of the requirements to be on the ballot for the 2012 presidential elections, including submitting nearly 30,000 signatures – almost double the required number. We are proud to say that millions of working-class people will be able to vote for a socialist alternative in New York State. Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio will be the only socialists on the ballot in New York for the office of president and vice president.

An army of volunteers is working hard to get a socialist campaign on the ballot in as many states as we can — but your help is needed. Please make an urgently needed donation toward travel and accomodations for volunteers, filing fees and other costs of obtaining ballot status.

PSL campaign volunteers wait to file petitions for ballot access in New York State.

The requirements to be listed on the ballot include submitting 15,000 valid signatures of registered voters, with at least 100 valid signatures from each of half of the state’s 27 congressional districts. These signatures could not be collected prior to July 10, and were due on Aug. 21 – but the PSL filed a full week early because of an extraordinary all-volunteer effort carried out around the state.

The first phase of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Presidential Campaign has been a great success. Through a tremendous amount of hard work, we have succeeded in meeting the requirements for ballot status in nine states and are in the process of achieving status in several more.

New York State was our biggest challenge. For 35 consecutive days, volunteers worked tirelessly in New York City’s five boroughs, and cities in Upstate and Long Island to collect the necessary signatures and prepare the filing. The army of volunteers sacrificed vacation time, days off, and time with their families to make sure that a powerful voice of socialism and struggle would be on the ballot in November in this key state.

PSL on the ballot nationwide

We are very excited at the prospect of being able to reach millions of people across the country with the Peta Lindsay/Yari Osorio campaign.

The PSL has now gained ballot status in every major region of the country. We are already on the ballot in New York, New Jersey and Vermont in the Northeast; Arkansas in the South; Iowa and Wisconsin in the Midwest; and Colorado, Utah and Washington in the West – and we are still working on several additional states in these regions.

Since we began the petitioning effort in March, we have collected more than 40,000 petition signatures, recruited more than 100 electors, held conventions and paid filing fees. Hundreds of volunteers are working around the clock in cities and towns throughout the country.

The capitalist elections impose burdensome and costly ballot access requirements designed to exclude third parties – but we are meeting this challenge with a massive nationwide mobilization to give voters a socialist option in as many states as possible. Be a part of this effort by making a generous donation now.

Join our campaign of struggle

The PSL’s Lindsay/Osorio Campaign is one of struggle. We will carry forward the message that the key to bringing about real progressive change is building a powerful people’s movement that stands together with our sisters and brothers around the world who are resisting imperialism and exploitation.

As capitalism sinks further into crisis, it is more important than ever that we explain that there are really only two choices for the future: Continue with a system based on maximizing profits for a tiny elite regardless of destruction to people or the planet, or create a new, sustainable system based on meeting people’s needs – socialism.

How many cities, towns and campuses we can travel to, how many people we can reach and bring into the struggle – in short, how successful we can be with the precious few weeks we have until election day – depends largely on you.

There are many ways you can help:

• Become a campaign volunteer.
• Contact us to help bring our campaign to your area or organization.
• Organize a speaking engagement or house meeting for our candidates.
• Make a generous contribution to the campaign. We can’t move forward without your help.