Ballot Applications Show More FEC Deception From McCain Campaign

Under Ohio state law, there are three ways a candidate can get on the primary. Under two options, he or she is required to collect signatures either state-wide or in each of Ohio's 18 congressional districts -- a time-consuming and potentially costly process. The other option permits them to bypass the signature collection process and demonstrate to the Secretary of State that he or she has qualified for public financing under the FEC's matching funds program. As McCain's application for the ballot shows, he chose to forego the signature collection option in favor of the matching funds option. Not only did he submit his certification letter from the FEC as evidence that he had qualified for matching funds, but all of McCain's application forms make clear that they are "only to be used by candidates for president who are eligible to receive federal matching payments under 88 Stat. 1297 (1974)."

Similarly, in Delaware, state law requires a candidate to gain access to the ballot by either 1) collecting 500 signatures from registered Republicans or 2) demonstrating that he or she has qualified for matching funds. McCain chose the second option and submitted to Delaware election officials the FEC press release announcing that he had qualified for public financing as evidence.

This comes as the DNC released an FEC letter proving that unlike McCain, the Dean campaign followed the law and received written permission from the FEC to withdraw from the public financing system. Additionally, the FEC approved the Dean campaign's request to withdraw because Dean had not yet received any public funds and had not used matching funds as collateral to secure a private loan, a condition the McCain campaign has already violated.

"John McCain's willingness to use matching funds when it helps his campaign and to break the law when it hurts him is exactly the sort of cynical politics and sheer hypocrisy the American people are already sick of," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "John McCain should either obey the law by getting the FEC's approval to withdraw from the public financing system they signed on to, or stop distorting the truth and admit that they're wrong."

The McCain campaign's application for the Ohio ballot, which relies on his qualification for matching funds to get on the Ohio ballot, is available on the DNC website at:

http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20071002_mccain_ltr.pdf

http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20080104_mccainfiling.pdf

http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/mccaindistdelatlargeexample.pdf

To view McCain's application for the Delaware ballot, click here:

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This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

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