Inside and outside of Oakland

Tea party movement protests ballot status today

  The Lakes Area Tea Party, one of the tea party movements in Oakland County, planned to attend a hearing in Lansing at 10 a.m. today, Aug. 23, to oppose efforts by a group called Tea Party to gain political party status on the November ballot.
  Republicans have called the Tea Party group a front for Democrats looking to split the Republican vote in the November election. Tea party movements have said they don't want status on the ballot as a political party.

  The Michigan Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to meet to determine if the Tea Party group gathered enough signatures to gain ballot status.
  "The signatures have been checked and our input has been collected, now the board must vote on whether to allow access or not," Deb O'Hagan wrote in an e-mail to Lakes Area Tea Party members Sunday afternoon. "We need as many folks as possible to attend the meeting."
   The Tea Party group elected its slate of candidates at a July 24 convention in Saginaw, according to documents filed with the state, and they included 10 names for offices within Oakland County.
  Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson on Friday said the Tea Party group appears to be "deceptive" and that some of the candidate filings appear to be fraudulent.
   The Tea Party group elected its slate of candidates at a July 24 convention in Saginaw, according to documents filed with the state.
  Besides the Democratic and Republican parties, the only other parties certified to list candidates on the November ballot are the Libertarian Party, the Natural Law Party, the Green Party and the U.S. Taxpayers Party.
  Independent candidates will also appear on the ballot in November.
  Contact staff writer Charles Crumm at 248-745-4649, charlie.crumm@oakpress.com or follow him on Twitter @crummc.

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