DES MOINES, Iowa — A Des Moines woman is one of nine presidential candidates on Iowa ballots this election season.
Ricki Sue King is running for president under the Genealogy Know Your Family History party.
"We’re doing this to make people more aware of just how important it is to vote," King said. "And we want to get more kids involved. And we’re thinking, you can see, we got our names on the ballot by just hard work."
King wants to be the first Black person from Iowa to appear on a presidential ballot. George Edwin Taylor would have been the first when he ran in 1904. But, he dropped out before officially appearing on the ballot that year.
"I know that because I went to Secretary of State’s office, checked with them. The record’s not there," King said. "I had to go to the state historical building and saw the actual ballots."
So, King set out to collect the 1500 signatures needed to appear on the Iowa ballot.
"We went out there for seven months knocked on doors," King said. "We hustled. With no money."
That hustle was needed again, after King came up 9 signatures short because of some disqualifications based upon which county those who signed said they resided.
King said she received signatures from people in at least 20 different Iowa counties. She was only required to provide signatures from 10 counties, she said.
But there was also a catch. King does not want your vote come election day.
"We always stressed, vote, vote, vote. Just not for us," she said. "We don’t care what party you vote for. We just want you to look at all the parties, not just the democrat and republican and vote from your heart."
That's because King and her running mate, her cousin, Dayna Chandler, have a more important message.
"If you believe in yourself you can do it," King said. "You don’t have to win to succeed. You succeed just by trying."
And because of her efforts, King hopes she empowers others to use their voice.
"I’d be happy to have just one vote, just my own, no others. I’d be ecstatic actually, because then people have listened to me," King said.
King said she will offer copies of the signatures she used to qualify for the election to the state historical society after election day.