Richard Winger
| Richard Winger | |
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| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Coalition on Free and Open Elections |
| Role: | Founder |
Richard Lee Winger (born August 27, 1943) is an advocate in the United States for minor political parties, in particular for what he considers more equitable laws allowing access to the ballot for minor parties. Winger has testified on behalf of these issues in court cases across the country and has been published in journals ranging from the Journal of Election Law to the Fordham Urban Law Review. In 1985 he began publishing Ballot Access News, a monthly newsletter covering developments in ballot access law and among the minor parties generally.
Winger has been accepted as an expert on election law in federal courts in nine states. He serves on the editorial board of the Election Law Journal.[1]
In 1985, along with several minor party representatives, Winger helped found the Coalition on Free and Open Elections (COFOE). The organization intended to coordinate action and provide mutual support among the various minor parties for efforts he believed would, in his view, liberalize ballot access laws through state legislatures as well as through the courts.[2] COFOE briefly had the backing of the ACLU, and has sponsored various lawsuits and other initiatives through the years with mixed success. It has been concerned with urging enforcement of the Helsinki Accords in America, an international treaty on democratic practices which, according to some activists, America is believed to violate by its perceived restrictions on minor parties. COFOE meets annually with support from various minor parties.[3]
While Winger has supported the ballot access rights of all minor parties, he has been a longtime supporter of the Libertarian Party. In 2014, he was inducted into the Libertarian Party's Hall of Liberty, which recognizes a lifetime of work in the libertarian movement.[4] In 1986, Winger ran for election for the office of California Secretary of State as a Libertarian. As he was running for the office charged with the administration of elections, the campaign was styled as being nonpartisan.[5]
A lifelong Californian, Winger graduated from the University of California, Berkeley as a political science major in 1966 and attended graduate school in political science at UCLA. Since 1970, he has lived in San Francisco with his partner, Jerry Kunz.[6]
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See also
- Coalition on Free and Open Elections
- California Proposition 14, Top-Two Primaries Amendment (June 2010)
- Ballot Access News
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Napa Valley Register, "Maldonado's election reform proposal deeply flawed," February 9, 2010
- ↑ Coalition on Free and Open Elections, "Practice Areas," accessed May 16, 2017
- ↑ Coalition on Free and Open Elections, "Minutes, COFOE Meeting Of March 18, 2017," accessed May 16, 2017
- ↑ YouTube, "Richard Winger - Libertarian Party Hall of Liberty, 2014," July 2, 2014
- ↑ Join California: Election History for the State of California, "November 4, 1986," accessed May 16, 2017
- ↑ Ballot Access News, "Thank you, Readers, and a Special Thanks to Those of You Who Comment," January 1, 2010
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