Linda Jenness

Linda Jenness (born 1941^[1]) was a Socialist Workers Party candidate for president of the United States in the 1972 election. She received 83,380 votes (vs. 47,169,911 for Richard Nixon).^{[note 1]}

Biography

In 1972, Jenness ran for President of the United States under the Socialist Workers Party.

Jenness was the party's candidate for Governor of Georgia in 1970. She did not get on the ballot, because to get on, she would have had to collect 88,175 signatures, and the Socialist Workers Party didn't have enough members to collect that many signatures. Jenness, the SWP and two congressional candidates of the party brought a lawsuit, Jenness v. Fortson 403 U.S. 431 (1971), regarding Georgia's ballot access standards, a case about which a supporter of the SWP has rather grandly said that it "continues to haunt the jurisprudence of ballot access law" (Raskin 2003, page 103).

She was also involved in the case 26 F.C.C.2d 485 (1970), regarding media coverage of third-party candidates.

In 1972, Jenness, Vice Presidential candidate Andrew Pulley, and People's Party candidates Benjamin Spock and Julius Hobson wrote to Major General Bert A. David, commanding officer of Fort Dix in New Jersey asking for permission to distribute campaign literature and to hold an election-related campaign meeting. Based on Fort Dix regulations 210-26 and 210-27, General David refused the request. Ultimately the case made its way to the United States Supreme Court (424 U.S. 828—Greer, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, et al., v. Spock et al., which ruled against the plaintiffs).

Aged 31 at time of the election, she did not meet the Constitutional age requirement to hold the office of President, but the SWP was on the ballot in 25 states—six more than in 1968. She qualified for the Ohio ballot but was removed when she could not prove she was 35.^[2]

As of September 2010, Linda Jenness was still an active supporter of the SWP.^[3]

Books

Linda Jenness has authored several books and pamphlets, or provided introductions. Some of these are as follows:

• Jenness, Linda, and Fidel Castro (1970). Woman & The Cuban Revolution New York: Pathfinder Press.
• Jenness, Linda (1972). Socialism and democracy; a speech by Linda Jenness, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president, 1972. New York: Pathfinder Press ISBN 0-87348-280-8
• Jenness, Linda (1973). Feminism and Socialism. New York: Pathfinder Press ISBN 1-199-12398-6
• Jenness, Linda, and Andrew Pulley (1973). Introduction to Watergate: The View from the Left - Unpublicized Facts About Government Attacks on Dissenters and the Socialists; Strategy for Fighting Back New York: Pathfinder Press
• Jenness, Linda (1975). Last Hired, First Fired: Affirmative Action VS. Seniority

See also

• List of female United States presidential and vice-presidential candidates

Notes

1. ↑ In Arizona, Pima and Yavapai counties had a ballot malfunction that counted many votes for both a major party candidate and Linda Jenness. A court ordered that the ballots be counted for both. As a consequence, Jenness received 16% and 8% of the vote in Pima and Yavapai, respectively. 30,579 of her 30,945 Arizona votes are from those two counties. Some sources don't count these votes for Jenness.

References

• Raskin, Jamin (2003). Overruling Democracy; The Supreme Court Versus the American People
• 424 U.S. 828 -- Greer, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, et al., v. Spock et al.
• Results, 1972 American Presidential Election

External links

• Interview in The Libertarian Forum 4, no. 12 (December 1972; mislabelled no. 10) (.pdf)