Let's make the release of a presidential candidate's tax returns a REQUIREMENT for being on the ballot in WV.

Please do share this idea widely, but sign THIS particular petition ONLY if you are a voter in the state of West Virginia. If you vote in another state, please seek out and support (or initiate!) a similar petition directed to YOUR state's lawmakers. Thank you.

In New York, for instance, State Senator Hoylman’s T.R.U.M.P. (Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public) Act, would keep a candidate off the ballot for U.S. president for failing to disclose tax returns.

In California, two state senators have announced a similar bill with the goal to “help make transparency great again.” YES!

The purpose of THIS petition is to ask West Virginia's lawmakers to require disclosure of a presidential candidate's tax returns in order to get that person's name on the ballot in our state, too!  Your signature will help only if you are a West Virginia voter.

TEXT OF PETITION:

"Voters have legitimate concerns regarding a U.S. president’s financial entanglements with foreign governments and businesses, as well as his or her tax rate, income, deductions, and charitable donations. Since the 1970s, publicly released tax returns have given voters a window into the financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest of presidential candidates. We deserve such reassurance that personal priorities are not likely to take precedence over the national interest. Transparency should be a non-partisan issue.

In order to preclude candidates for president and vice president from dodging financial disclosure, we, the undersigned, encourage the West Virginia legislature to enact a bill to ‘Raise the B.A.R.' (Ballot Access Requirement) for all future candidates.
Such a bill would require candidates for president and vice president to release ten years of tax returns to the West Virginia State Election Commission, no later than 50 days before the general election. With personal information redacted, the returns would then be made public within 10 days. A candidate’s failure to comply would prohibit the state’s electors from voting for that candidate and the candidate’s name would not appear on the West Virginia state ballot.”