A Colorado woman listed on the Minnesota presidential primary ballot as a third-party candidate is fighting to have her name removed as she says she didn’t agree to run.
“I did not give consent to be on the Minnesota ballot for this race,” Krystal Gabel shared in an email to the Star Tribune. “I was neither approached to run for office by anyone in the LMN Minnesota Party nor was this candidacy validated by the State of Minnesota.”
After being notified by a Google alert earlier this month, Gabel discovered that her name was on the March 5 ballot as a candidate under the Legal Marijuana Now Party, the Tribune reported.
The Tribune reached out to the political party, which shared that members had been talking in its “leadership group on Facebook,” which Gabel is a part of, and that “all indications were that she was ready to be in the MN primary.”
After realizing she was not on board with the decision, the party told the Tribune they withdrew her as a candidate.
However, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office says she is still on the ballot, and early voting for the primary day has begun.
Now, Gabel is switching tactics, telling people not to vote for her.
“People have a common-law right not to be forced to be candidates,” Gabel said. “These actions are absolutely anti-democratic.”