Libertarian challenger says students losing civil liberties

Libertarian candidate Mike Kole is hoping to take his party to the next level.\nAn Ohio native, Kole said the Libertarian Party was kept off the ballot in Ohio for years, but he worked to get it back on. \n"I decided I wanted to run to keep that position and to keep the Libertarian Party on the ballot and hopefully take it to the next level," Kole said. "We saw this year what a struggle it can be."\nLibertarian thinking, Kole said, takes the idea that you own yourself and applies it to all areas of one's life. Libertarians believe in limited government, "so long as you don't initiate force or fraud against another human being," he said.\nBefore coming to Indiana, Kole used a Libertarian perspective in commentaries at a community radio station in Cleveland, he said. \nHe became involved in Indiana Libertarian Andy Horning's campaign for Congress in 2002 and served as chair of Indiana's Hamilton County party from 2003 to 2005 and as state secretary of the Libertarian Party in Indiana from 2004 to 2005. \nKole said college students' liberties are slowly being taken away. He said, in reference to college students, if "you believe you have the right to make decisions that affect your life, the erosion of liberties has to frighten you."\nAs secretary of state, Kole said he will reverse what he calls a trend toward limiting civil liberties. \n"The Libertarian Party wants to bring things back toward greater individual liberty," he said. "It's manifested in so many little ways what you can or cannot do with your life, even though it's your life."\nWhile other candidates are content with the voting system, Kole said he believes voter-verified paper trails can ensure faith in the voting system. Nevada and North Carolina are using such ballots and are content with the results, he said. \n"To me, I think the secretary of state should be proactive and lobby the various county clerks who ultimately make the decision on these machines to get the (voter-verified) paper trails because we saw in Florida just how disastrous a recount situation can be if you cannot determine voter intent," he said.\nDistrict gerrymandering is another concern for Kole.\nBasing voting districts on geographic divisions, instead of artificial lines drawn to give a certain political party an advantage, is a fairer system, he said.\n"The practice of gerrymandering of districts rips off our people, and it creates a bad situation in a democratically elected government," he said.\nKole said he doesn't care who resolves his concerns, as long as it gets done.\n"If policy is going in my direction, then I have been an effective candidate, win or lose," he said.