‘Rent is Too Damn High’ candidate faces ballot challenge

Jimmy Vielkind

ALBANY—Saying his monthly rent is “actually pretty reasonable,” a Schenectady man is trying to knock perennial “Rent is Too Damn High” candidate Jimmy McMillan off this year's gubernatorial ballot.

The state Board of Elections received specific objections to McMillan's candidate filing last week and could act on them during a meeting Thursday. Michael Welch, who rents an apartment near Union College in Schenectady, claimed in his filing that only 88 of the 17,827 nominating signatures McMillan filed are valid. Under state election law, petitions are presumed to be valid unless otherwise challenged. In 2010, no one challenged McMillan, and he won 41,129 votes on the Rent is Too Damn High line.

“The motivation for me to challenge came from the fact that McMillan submitted an illegitimate petition in 2010 (not nearly enough pages), but nobody bothered to challenge him,” Welch wrote in an e-mail. “It didn't seem right at the time, and I didn't want that to happen again.”

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/09/8551860/rent-too-damn-high-candidate-faces-ballot-challenge?top-featured-3