NC Green Party News

New locals form, old ones reunite (6/05)

A group of potential Greens met for the second time in Wilmington this month. The Wilmington area has seen Green parties in the past, and Denny Best, a veteran of several of those attempts, hopes to establish a more durable local there in the near future. State chair Elena Everett and co-chair Hart Matthews also attended the meeting to chat with potential Greens about the party.

This weekend, June 18 & 19, will see the newly formed Mountain Greens meeting on Saturday and the Triangle Greens getting together Sunday after a three-month hiatus.

The party's new secretary, Joseph Waters, is also considering starting a local in eastern North Carolina. Joseph is based in Greenville.

If you'd like more information about local Greens, clicking on the links above will put you in touch with organizers in those areas.

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Officer slate filled with election of new Secretary (6/05)

The North Carolina Green Party unanimously elected Joseph Waters of Greenville as its new Secretary this month, filling out the state executive committee. The Assistant Treasurer position was filled last month by Charlotte-Area Green Nick Triplett, who was also confirmed by unanimous vote.

The new executive committee consists of the following positions:

Chair: Elena Everett
Co-Chair: Hart Matthews
Vice-Chair: Alan Burns
Treasurer: Kathryn Kuppers
Asst. Treasurer: Nick Triplett
Secretary: Joseph Waters
Asst. Secretary: Scott Gillentine

The new executive committee will have its first meeting this summer, probably in July. Once set, the date and location of the meeting will be posted to the statewide email lists.

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Former Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb speaks on the constitution, democracy and corporations at NC State University in Raleigh, April 15: "We're really talking about the fabric of American democracy. Today, corporations are ruling us as surely as kings ruled their subjects in another day."

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NC House committee approves Electoral Fairness Act!

Ballot access laws on their way to reform (3/05)

The North Carolina House Election Law and Campaign Finance Committee gave a favorable report to HB 88, The Electoral Fairness Act, on Wednesday, March 23.

After the report from the bill sponsor, Representative Paul Miller (R-Durham) and testimony from Barbara Howe, Chair of the NC Libertarian Party, Elena Everett, Chair of the North Carolina Green Party, and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate, members of the committee debated the bill and gave it a favorable report, with two amendments, which the bill sponsor approved.

Currently, North Carolina is ranked as the third worst state in terms of ballot access requirements for new parties and independent candidates. For a new party to gain ballot access it must, in effect, gather in excess of 69,000 verified signatures of registered North Carolina voters. This bill would cut that number by three-quarters, or down to approximately 17,500 signatures. In the last election cycle it took the Libertarian Party $100,000 and nine months to regain their NC ballot access, hardly an accessible threshold.

Until 1981, the threshold for third party ballot access was 10,000 signatures. That year the North Carolina legislature changed the laws in reaction to the Socialist Workers Party gaining ballot access, in effect making it nearly impossible for nearly any third party to participate in the electoral process. As the NC Republican Party Platform states, "Current ballot-access laws in North Carolina are meant to limit debate." It then goes on to say, "These laws must be eased to ensure greater citizen participation and influence." The Republican Party is not afraid of the people's voice.

Today both Republicans and Democrats from the Election Law and Campaign Finance Committee embraced that sentiment as they gave favorable report to HB88, which has bipartisan support amongst its co-sponsors. The only vote in the negative was by Representative Edgar Starnes (R-Caldwell).

Other organizations that support HB88 include Democracy North Carolina and the League of Women Voters of Mecklenburg County.

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David Cobb a Write-In Candidate in 2004! (9/04)

If you want to vote for a Green presidential candidate this fall, good news! The state of North Carolina will actually count that vote. Thanks mostly to the signature-gathering efforts of the Charlotte Area Greens, the presidential nominee of the U.S. Green Party has been approved as a write-in candidate.

In the roughly five weeks between the USGP convention in Milwaukee and the North Carolina write-in deadline, the state party collected more than 760 signatures in 12 counties. The various county boards-of-election confirmed 617 of those signatures (state requirement: 500). That means that any write-in votes cast for the Green presidential ticket of David Cobb and Pat LaMarche will be counted by election officials.

Mecklenburg County led the signature total with a whopping 357 approved signatures. Buncombe yielded 81, Chatham, 71, and Orange, 53.

Cobb will share write-in status with two other candidates, Ralph Nader and Walter Brown of the Socialist Party. In other third-party news, the Libertarian candidate, Michael Badnarik, will appear on the ballot this year with Bush and Kerry.

Cobb, who fought off Nader for the nomination in June, won that nomination pledging to run what he terms a "Smart States" campaign, meaning that he probably won't actively campaign in states where balloting is likely to be close between the major-party candidates. His stated goal for 2004 is to help expand the Green Party. The "smart states" approach, of course, is the source of much contention among Greens nationwide. Many feel it is tantamount to campaigning for John Kerry, and Cobb himself seems to be backing away from it somewhat.

Regardless of your feelings on this issue, in North Carolina you'll have the choice of voting for a Green or voting against a Bush.

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Ballot signature requirements fall (8/04)

This is all very exciting, but by far the most interesting ballot-access news this summer is Paul Delaney's success in the courts. Delaney, a former member of the NCGP, was an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in 2002. Since his campaign was not affiliated with a recognized state party, Delaney would have needed 100,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot in North Carolina (that's right, one hundred thousand signatures).

The eventual result of Delaney's suit for ballot access was the overturning of North Carolina's signature requirement. The court struck down a portion of the ballot access law and effectively nullified all signature requirements, including the more recent 59,000-signature requirement.

In North Carolina, according to Alan Burns, "No laws exist on ballot access at the moment."

And since the state legislature is done with its 2004 session, no new ballot access laws will be passed before the election (unless a special session is convened). What does this mean for this fall? If certain candidates can convince the courts that they have "a modicum of support" (according to a 1976 legal precedent), they may be able to get on the real ballot with the major-party candidates.

For North Carolina Greens, this means waiting to see if the Nader or Cobb campaigns will sue to get their candidates on the ballot here. If one candidate sues successfully, it may be open season for North Carolina Green candidates.

"It would surprise me if Ralph Nader is not pursuing ballot access in North Carolina at this point," says Burns. "If Nader gets his name on the ballot, David Cobb should be on as well."

Certainly NCGP member Gray Newman could demonstrate a "modicum of support," since he already holds public office in Mecklenburg County (Water and Soil Conservation supervisor, a nonpartisan elected position). In the long term, the Delaney case means the Greens and Libertarians will be seeking to introduce a new ballot-access bill in the state legislature next session, one with a much-reduced signature requirement.

This, of course, carries with it lots of hope for Green candidates in years to come.

More about Cobb

The NCGP has asked Cobb to visit the Triangle area for a forum with the Libertarian candidate two weeks before the November election. No word yet on whether Cobb will visit or whether he will pursue a spot on the North Carolina ballot. For more information about David Cobb, visit: http://www.votecobb.org/.

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Previous Update, Ballot Access (5/04)

Our goal for the NCGP to get on the ballot for the 2004 elections fell short. In the spring of 2003, House Bill 867 was passed unanimously in committee which generally ensures a vote on the floor. This would have reduced the required number of signatures needed from 60,000 to 15,000. The bill would also have assisted us keeping ballot access by lowering the votes needed (for presidential candidate or governor). However the two leaders of the House refused to bring the bill to a vote for 5 consecutive days, ensuring its failure. Our final tally fell just below 10,000 signatures.

The ACLU has named the NCGP as plaintiff against the State of NC to amend the discriminatory wording on the petition form, and this looks like it should succeed in the spring 2004 session of the House. Whether this affords an opportunity to re-introduce House Bill 867 back onto the floor and make ballot access much more feasible after the November elections is still being pursued.

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Write-in Green Presidential Candidate (5/04)

The probability is that Ralph Nader will be a write-in candidate only this November as an independent. The same will apply to the presidential nominee selected by the Green Party of the US (GPUS) at their Milwaukee Convention in June. As of June 26, North Carolina Greens will have 3 weeks to collect 500 signatures to ensure this happens, and we are committed to achieving this. Soon after June 26 the necessary petition form will appear on our website. We will have until July 18th to submit petitions to county boards of election offices, and August 4 to submit to the SBoE in Raleigh.

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Ballot Access in South Carolina (5/04)

South Carolina and Idaho acquired ballot access earlier this year from The Natural Law Party, which decided against running a presidential candidate in 2004. With the filing deadline past, SCGP are running several candidates for office, including the Senatorial seat being vacated by Fritz Hollings.