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Supreme Court to Hear Green
Party Ballot Access Case
On Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 9:30 AM, the Supreme Court of the
State of North Carolina heard oral arguments in the case Libertarian Party (and Green Party,
intervenors) V State of North Carolina. This suit, brought as a
result of years of the major parties legislating political competition
out of existence, addresses the clear violation of the North Carolina
Constitution that the existing legislation presents. This view is
supported by numerous organizations that have filed amicus briefs on
behalf of the plaintiffs. Those briefs can be read at the North
Carolina Supreme Court website. Go here and
search "Libertarian Party" or "Green Party" for results.
A history of NC ballot access law can be found here.
NCGP Press Release
Green and Libertarian Parties
File Lawsuit for Equitable Ballot Access
On September 9,
2010, the North Carolina Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments from the North Carolina Green Party and the Libertarian
Party of North Carolina at 9:30am, 2 E. Morgan Street, Raleigh 27601.
Both parties will make the argument that current ballot access laws
deny third parties full rights guaranteed to them by the state
constitution. The action was filed by the Libertarian Party in
2005 and joined later intervened by the North Carolina Green Party.
Members and supporters of both parties will gather at 9am in front of
the court for a press conference.
North
Carolina Green Party members are active in the national Green Party and
hosted the Annual National Meeting of the Green Party in 2009 in Durham
at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). The Durham meeting
was the first time an annual national meeting of the Green Party was
held at a historically black college or university (HBCU).
Theresa El-Amin,
North Carolina Green Party activist and recently elected as a co-chair
of the Green Party of the United States noted, “The Green Party has 27
ballot lines and continues to grow in spite of attempts to suppress
voter access to choices other than the two major parties. There are 321
Greens running in 2010 for local, statewide and Congressional seats.
All fair-minded people support ballot access laws that do not require
unreasonable use of time and financial resources. We will continue to
fight for justice in North Carolina.”
Alan Burns, Green
Party member and environmental activist of Charlotte, NC, stated “It's
a matter of giving voters alternative choices at election times. Every
two years in North Carolina, over 50% of House and Senate seats have
only one name on the ballot, and more than 85% of results are
predictable for the two major parties before polls open. It's far cry
from democratic rights for voters."
Richard Winger, the country's foremost expert on ballot access laws
stated, “North Carolina requires 2% of voters in the most recent
statewide election to sign petitions for a political party to be listed
with candidates on the ballot. The massive turnout of over 4 million
voters in 2008 in North Carolina set the requirement for ballot access
at 85,379 valid signatures of registered voters.”
In 2008, the Green Party ran Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia
Congresswoman, as their presidential candidate. The North Carolina
Green Party ran a write-in campaign for McKinney in 2008. Given the low
number of write-in votes reported, NC Greens questioned whether all the
votes were actually counted. Ballot access is the only way to know for
sure your vote will be counted.
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