Ballot access In the 2004 presidential election, Tobin sued Democratic State Chair
Michael Madigan, alleging that he used his full-time state employees to have
Ralph Nader removed from the Illinois ballot. In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader's national ballot access coordinator. 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, broadcaster
Larry King, political commentator
Thom Hartmann, and actor
Ed Asner. In March 2009, Tobin founded Free and Equal, Inc., a ballot access, consulting, and petitioning firm that specializes in independent and third-party candidates.
Other activism In 2011, Tobin served as Vice President of Taxpayers United of America, founded by her father, James Tobin. In 2012, Tobin founded Stop Top Two, 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.
Bali Jewel Inc. lawsuit In 2007, Tobin was president of a jewelry company that filed suit against
John Hardy Limited as part of a dispute over design copyrights. The case was dismissed.
California Secretary of State candidacy In 2010, Tobin ran as the
Libertarian Party candidate for
California Secretary of State. 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. ==References==