To the Governor:

I just wanted to let you know that my family and I had plans to visit
Oklahoma during an upcoming trip to the southwest (Oklahoma, Texas and New
Mexico). We have changed those plans and canceled the appropriate
reservations. As chief executive of the state, whose responsibilities
include promoting business growth in your state, I thought you should know
the reason.

My wife and I are bigger believers in true and open democracy. We recently
discovered that the State of Oklahoma will be the only state in America
without a third party or independent Presidential Candidate on the November
Ballot. To make matters worse, it appears that Oklahoma law doesn't even
allow for write-in votes, in conflict with every reasonable tradition I've
ever heard of in American Politics. (Yes, I know that there are other
states that do not allow write-in votes, but in those states, ballot access
is obtained through a reasonable and obtainable petitioning process.
Oklahoma, as I know you are aware, has the most draconian ballot access
requirements in America.) My wife and I have decide that we can not support
the economy of a state that would run what amounts to a "show" election,
more appropriate to the old Soviet Union than the America we know and love.

We will closely monitor election law news in the future and should these
circumstances change, we will look forward to visiting a truly free
Oklahoma. In the meantime, $7,000 in budgeted vacation spending will now go
to your competitors in Texas and New Mexico. Additionally, I have
instructed my business managers to review our vendor accounts list and find
alternative suppliers for those goods and services we purchase from
Oklahoma (there appears to be at least two). I have also ordered my
financial advisors to sell all stock in Oklahoma based companies.

Charles Jacques

Mr. Jacques is active in the Libertarian Party of Maine and a member of the Town Of Monmouth Economic Development Commission.