 |
|
Greens, Fighting Prohibitive Access Laws and Exclusion of Green Candidates, Win Law Suit in Pennsylvania. |
|
Monday, September 15, 2003 Dramatic court cases in Maryland, Alaska, New York; Green candidates blocked from forums in Mississippi. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pennsylvania Greens won a major battle in the national effort by various Green Parties to overturn prohibitive ballot access rules in their respective states. On September 11, a federal court ruled in favor of Green candidates John Stith (running for state representative from the 77th District) and Thomas Linzey (for state attorney general) in their court challenge against Pennsylvania's fees for candidates to get on the state ballot in 2000. The plaintiffs were represented pro bono by the National Voting Rights Institute. The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals called the fees unconstitutional, declaring that wealth shouldn't be a factor in whether a person can run for public office. "Democrats and Republicans in state office have enacted draconian rules to keep third party and independent candidates off the ballot," said Stith. "In some states, apologists for the two-party dominance are blocking Green and other third party and independent candidates from participating in public debates. Greens are challenging these antidemocratic laws in the courts and in the streets." On July 29, a Maryland Court of Appeals struck down a two-tiered ballot access rule, calling the state's two-step requirement discriminatory against third parties. Maryland had required third parties to collect 10,000 signatures to win recognition and then submit nominating petitions with signatures from 1% of voters. On the same day, the Green Party of Alaska filed a lawsuit in Anchorage Superior Court against a state law requiring a party to draw 3% of the vote in a statewide race and in every gubernatorial race to maintain ballot status. The Green Party of New York State recently won an injunction to continue enrolling members after losing ballot status. The judge hearing the case concluded that New York's voter enrollment scheme "unreasonably discriminate[d] against minor parties and their voters." "Prohibitive ballot access laws have backfired against the two old parties," said Ben Manski, a Wisconsin Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "Many state Green Parties who would prefer tofocus on local races need to run a national candidate in order to achieve or keep official ballot status. But Democrats and Republicans, betraying a stunted sense of democracy and irony, still whine when Green, Libertarian, Reform Party, independent, and other presidential candidates show up on the ballot." In Mississippi, Green gubernatorial candidate Sherman Lee Dillon has been blocked from participation in debates and forums organized by the League of Women Voters and various newspapers and television stations throughout the state. "A local League of Women Voters representative called me names, yelled, and hung up on me when I asked her to provide the Federal Statute number or reference which she insisted they followed in order to exclude Green Party gubernatorial candidate Sherman Lee Dillon from a debate that the League is sponsoring with the local public TV station in Jackson on October 16," said Mississippi Green Party member Mary Jo Brooks. "Our candidate's rights are being violated, and so are the rights of Mississippi voters, who deserve to hear the views and positions of all candidates whose names will be on the ballot." "The Republicrats treat the two-party system like a country club where certain parties, i.e. Greens, need not apply for membership," said Barbara Trypaluk, Green candidate for supervisor of Saratoga Springs, New York. "The Board of Elections in Saratoga county, where I'm running for supervisor, purposely excluded the Greens from a workshop on gathering petition signatures to get on the ballot." MORE INFORMATION The Green Party of the United States http://gpus.org search:
cpr, elws |