| Christina Tobin | |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1981[1] |
| Birth Place: | Pasadena, Texas, U.S.[2] |
| Party: | Independent |
| Occupation: | Founder and Chair of The Free & Equal Elections Foundation |
| Alma Mater: | Saint Mary's University of Minnesota |
Christina Tobin (born June 17, 1981) is an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters' rights movements. She is the founder and chair of The Free & Equal Elections Foundation,[3] and president and chief executive officer of Free and Equal, Inc.[4]
Tobin was born in Pasadena, Texas, in 1981. She grew up in Texas and Illinois and graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. She attended Saint Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota where she served as varsity tennis captain and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. In 2004, she earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design with a minor in business marketing.
Tobin started her career as a non-partisan ballot access coordinator. An expert in defending signatures and coordinating petition drives, Tobin has helped gather and defend over one million signatures for independents, the Green Party,[5] the Constitution Party, the Republican Party,[6] the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party[7] and the Socialist Equality Party.
In 2008, Tobin founded the Free & Equal Elections Foundation,[8] a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization, whose mission is to empower American voters through education.
Free & Equal hosts open gubernatorial, Presidential and senatorial debates, including the 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Presidential debates moderated by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges,[9] broadcast legend Larry King,[10] Thom Hartmann of Free Speech TV,[11] and Emmy Award winning actor Ed Asner.[12]
In the 1998 election for governor of Illinois, Tobin helped defend over 60,000 signatures for her father, Libertarian candidate James Tobin. In 2002, she personally gathered over 5,000 signatures and successfully defended 55,000 signatures for Cal Skinner, who was running for governor, and her father, who was running for lieutenant governor representing the Libertarian Party.[13]
In the 2004 presidential election, Tobin defended 29,000 signatures in Illinois for Ralph Nader when he ran as an independent.[14] 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.[15]
For the November 2006 election, she successfully defended 39,000 signatures for Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor.[16]
In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader's national ballot access coordinator.[17] She helped collect more than 500,000 signatures to put Ralph Nader on the District of Columbia ballot and 45 state presidential ballots,[18] more than any other third party or independent candidate. While coordinating the national ballot drive in 50 states, Tobin organized a successful petition drive in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York.
In 2008, Tobin filed a lawsuit against John Hardy Limited, alleging harassment of jewelry designers in Bali and improper copyrighting of a Balinese folk motif.[19]
In March 2009, Tobin founded Free and Equal, Inc., a non-partisan, full-service ballot access consulting and petitioning firm that specializes in independent and third-party candidates. Tobin has helped gather and defend over one million signatures for independents, the Green Party,[5] the Constitution Party, the Republican Party,[6] the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party[7] and the Socialist Equality Party. Free and Equal, Inc. does not endorse any candidates for office. She serves as president and chief executive officer.
In 2011, Tobin served as Vice President of Taxpayers United of America, founded by her father James Tobin. Her work exposed big pension payouts in Illinois and other states.[20]
Tobin is a passionate activist against the top two primary systems. In 2012, she founded Stop Top Two,[21] a movement designed to educate voters of the machinations behind the relatively new electoral trend. Louisiana, Washington and California elections are now controlled via top two primary systems. Arizona's version of a top two primary system, Proposition 121, was defeated by Arizona voters November 2012. The main objective of Tobin's Stop Top Two movement was to defeat the proposition through education, media outreach and panel discussions, including the "Problems with Arizona's Top Two Primary System – Proposition 121" panel presented by the Free & Equal Elections Foundation at the Goldwater Institute on October 9, 2012.[22]
In 2010, Tobin ran as a Libertarian Party candidate for the California Secretary of State election.[23] [24] She formally announced her candidacy for Secretary of State on February 23, 2010.[25] 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, 2.3 percent of the total votes cast.[26]