This Opinion first appeared on California Globe

By Sen. John M.W. Moorlach and Craig Keshishian

Maybe Benjamin Franklin was right.  In a 1755 letter to the Pennsylvania Assembly, he said, “Those who give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

This article was first published on The Fulcrum

While $400 million in federal funds has been allocated to make voting safer during the coronavirus pandemic, local election officials and good-government groups say that's not nearly sufficient. In fact, spending all the money in just five bigger states would not even cover their necessary expenses.

It came as no surprise that not long after US Rep. Justin Amash announced his Libertarian bid for president, both major parties took aim at him. 

Amash points out that there are “[millions] of Americans who aren't represented by either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, who aren't represented by the Republicans or the Democrats.”

Originally published on The Fulcrum.

All Kentuckians will get the chance to vote by mail in the June 23 primary under a deal worked out between Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, and Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican.

The switch is an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Kentucky is now the 10th state that normally strictly limits mail-in voting, but will make it nearly universal during the pandemic.

The Honorable David M. Walker joins T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus.


Mr. Walker served as the former Comptroller General of the United States and the former CEO of the United States Government Accountability Office under Presidents William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush. He currently serves as the Admiral William Crowe Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor in Economics of the Defense Industrial Base at the United States Naval Academy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on the US electoral process. However, the candidates hit hardest are third party and independent presidential and statewide candidates who face increasingly insurmountable signature gathering requirements to make the November ballot. 

However, a federal judge in Illinois has ruled that since the pandemic poses a  “nearly insurmountable hurdle” for third party candidates, the Libertarian and Green nominees for president and US Senate will automatically be added to the 2020 Illinois ballot.