a major obstacle to most citizen suits has been lack of standing. in the initial wave of lawsuits challenging the validity of the 2008 presidential election, the only plaintiff who was a presidential candidate or presidential elector was alan keyes. the importance of the doctrine of standing was explained by judge r. barclay surrick of the united states district court for the eastern district of pennsylvania in dismissing one suit. he noted that one of the principal aims of the doctrine is to prevent courts from deciding questions "where the harm is too vague." this was especially true for a presidential election, where a disgruntled voter who suffered no individual harm "would have us derail the democratic process by invalidating a candidate for whom millions of people voted and who underwent excessive vetting during what was one of the most hotly contested presidential primary in living memory."