I believe we have just made history.

Thank you,

1,044 times

I just filed my CAN-19 and CAN-20 paper work with the Hamilton County Voter Registration office.

Thank you to everyone that signed my petition. Thank you to all those people that opened up their door to a complete stranger. Thank you to all those people I met within the many parks in our district that also signed. Thank you to those who signed at the Westfield and Sheridan Farmers Markets. Thank you to those of you at the Gazebo in Carmel, and to those of you I met at the Clay Terrace for also being open to this idea of mine.

And a special thank you to the four local and state election officials that I have spent a little bit of time with here as of late. All extremely knowledgeable and kind. None of us know for sure. But, if we all understood each other correctly. I should be on the ballot come this November.

By the numbers

It’s taken the better part of four months to collect the one thousand and forty four signatures. More often than not I was with one or both of my daughters. During the first three months we would leave our house after work/school and get about ten signatures a day. It usually took an hour and a half. We have knocked on nearly four thousand doors. We walked in the snow, rain, sleet, and now the heat. By doing so I have accomplished a goal of mine to formally declare my own independence from our two party system. What is more American than that? I hope you will all join me, or at least allow your interest to be piqued.

I know not all those signatures will count. Some of you have even worse handwriting than me. Some of you did not want to give your date of birth and/or your address. Some of you didn’t live in Hamilton County. Others of you reversed your signature and print columns. I even I fell victim to omissions. I had to add my address 104 extra times before handing in my petitions this morning. Had I not they all wouldn’t have counted.

During our knocking escapades I met two former precinct chairs and they informed me that I better have more than the “about 900” signatures that those at the Indiana Elections Division quoted me back in January. That is why I have been telling anyone that cared I needed an even one thousand signatures. Come to find out not even the county election board knows how many signatures I need by noon tomorrow. Which makes this entire experiment of mine all that more interesting. Because I’ve done my part. Now the next step has everything to do with our county and state governments.

What could possibly go wrong?

Despite the overwhelming, yet understood, odds placed in front of any person by the state of Indiana, along with the multitude of local ordinances set along my own path I never considered, I believe I have done the impossible by collecting enough signatures to be the first person in the long history of Indiana to petition oneself onto a general election ballot. My own footnote into the history books of my home state.

Now, I wait to see if I have done enough.

Much like the rest of you, I’ve never read Don Quixote.

But, I do relate to it’s central idea that individuals can be right while society is wrong. As well as other threads such as disenchantment, rhetoric, idealism juxtaposed to realism, being viewed as useless or insignificant, and being called insane.

The vast majority of the people I have spoken over the last four months seem just like me. We are tired of the same old same old in terms of politics. We don’t feel like our voices are being heard. We are looking for anyone to do something.

Some of you invited my daughters and I into your homes during the cold, rain, and snow. Rain, and snooooooooooooooowwwwoooohhhhhoohhhhwohoh. Over this last month some even more offered us a cool respite from the heat. Some of you offered a comfortable porch to sit and chat a while. Some of you offered water, but we were always packin. We did however accept a few popsicles.

Most were polite. Sometimes we agreed to disagreed and went on our ways. Most of you were surprised to see me to say the least. A score or so of you set up meetings. A few handfuls of you flagged me down in your neighborhood or the park after educating yourselves. I hope one of you may end up being our much needed baby sitter.

Others of you were not so nice. Three of you welcomed me with firearms. Two of you followed me down your street calling me all sorts of horrible things you feared I was. Others were kind enough to just yell at me from various locations inside your homes. One comically from the toilet. That was still your call. But thanks for signing. At least seven of you claimed to have called the police. Three of you absolutely did.

I stood my ground. I was uncompromisingly me. Because that is all I can be and that is who I hope you’ll vote for.

I didn’t try to convince anyone that they were wrong, or that I was right. We agreed to disagree at times. But, we all agreed we need something different. I give us me. I stood my ground without belittling anyone. I warned two of you to not mistake my kindness as a weakness as you infringed on the rights of my daughters and I. I’m happy to say even at the worst of times during the last four months whether we didn’t hit our signature goals, the weather was not ideal, and the conversations turned strange, bizarre, and/or awkward we remained polite. That has got to be worth something, right?

Everything is impossible,

Until it’s done

Nelson Mandela

I do hope all of you will have the opportunity to vote for me. If not. Then, my friends I honestly can say whatever America was supposed to become it surely is not this.

Ken