Although only a small group of people came to hear former Independent candidate for governor Russ Diamond speak last night, he opened by telling those present that the size of the crowd is not what matters.

"It doesn't always take a huge crowd to get something done," Diamond said. "Remember it only took 56 people to sign the Declaration of Independence, and that severed our ties forever."

Diamond has been involved in politics since 2004. In 2005 Diamond launched the PACleanSweep Web site in response to the pay raise controversy and in 2006 he was named one of three "Citizens of the Year" by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

While Diamond has had many accomplishments, one of the main reasons he decided to run as a third party candidate for governor was to educate people about the required signature numbers for ballot access. The current ballot access system requires an Independent candidate to gather a much larger number of signatures than their Democrat and Republican opponents.

"They use a formula based on the last election held for that office, and you must get two percent of the highest number of votes cast," Diamond said. "For this election I was required to get 67,070 votes, while my opponents were only required to get 2,000 votes, and I ask you is that free and equal? I think not."

Diamond also spoke about the libertarian philosophy and the common misconceptions associated with the party.

"Most Americans will do what they can to help if they are able to, but other parties are more pessimistic and think they need to force people to do responsible things, which just isn't true," he said.

Penn State Libertarians spokesman Alex Weller said Libertarians believe in non-aggressive principles.

"You should not use political means or violent intervention to interfere in anyone else's life as long as they don't affect your life," Weller said.

Diamond said he is not sure there is a future for third party candidates in this state because of the ballot access system.

"There's always the lesser of two evils syndrome which occurs at elections, where people decide to vote for a candidate they don't agree with simply because they dislike the other major candidate more," Diamond said. "People need to look more towards third parties though, because we talk about the issues that Democrats and Republicans won't."