Christina Tobin

In 2002, she gathered over 5,000 signatures and defended 55,000 signatures for Cal Skinner^{[citation needed]}, who was running for governor, and her father, who was running for lieutenant governor representing the Libertarian Party.^{[5][failed verification]}

In the 2004 presidential election, Tobin defended 29,000 signatures in Illinois, for Ralph Nader when he ran as an independent.^{[6][better source needed]} She also sued Democratic State Chair Michael Madigan alleging that he used his full-time state employees to have Nader removed from the Illinois ballot.^[7]

For the November 2006 election, she successfully defended 39,000 signatures for Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor.^{[8][failed verification]}

In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader's national ballot access coordinator.^[9]

In 2008, Tobin founded the Free & Equal Elections Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Free & Equal hosts open gubernatorial, presidential, and senatorial debates, including 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Presidential debates. Presidential debate moderators have included journalist Chris Hedges,^[10] broadcaster Larry King,^[11] political commentator Thom Hartmann,^[12] and actor Ed Asner.^[13]

In March 2009, Tobin founded Free and Equal, Inc., a ballot access, consulting, and petitioning firm that specializes in independent and third-party candidates.^{[14][failed verification][15]}

In 2011, Tobin served as Vice President of Taxpayers United of America, founded by her father James Tobin.^[16]

In 2012, Tobin founded Stop Top Two,^[17] an organization opposed to top two primary systems, in which a nonpartisan primary is held, and the two candidates with the highest vote totals are then entered into a runoff election.

In 2007, Tobin was president of a jewelry company that filed suited against John Hardy Limited as part of a dispute over design copyrights.^[18] The case was dismissed.^[19]

In 2010, Tobin ran as a Libertarian Party candidate for California Secretary of State.^[20] She was the only candidate seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. Richard Winger, editor and publisher of Ballot Access News, was her campaign manager. In the general election, Tobin came in fourth with 214,347 votes, or 2.3 percent of the total votes cast.^[21]

• Christina Tobin for CA Secretary of State
• The Free and Equal Elections Foundation Archived 2017-11-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Free and Equal Inc.