The Raleigh News & Observer recently reported: “Green Party sues NC elections board for keeping its candidates off the ballot.”
OLIVER HALL, oliverhall@competitivedemocracy.org, @voterchoiceHall is legal counsel for the Center for Competitive Democracy and just filed a memorandum for an emergency motion in the case. The motion states: “This case arises from an extraordinary set of facts. At all times relevant to this matter, there has been no genuine dispute between the parties that Plaintiff North Carolina Green Party (‘NCGP’) has timely complied with all applicable state law requirements to qualify as a new political party.
“Defendant North Carolina State Board of Elections (‘NCSBE’) nonetheless declined to certify NCGP as a new political party ‘forthwith’ as it is required to do under” the law.
Hall continues: “NCSBE has cited no legal authority for its failure to certify NCGP as a new political party. NCSBE has cited no applicable statutory provision, regulation or other legal requirement with which NCGP failed to comply. On the contrary, NCSBE concedes that when it voted not to certify NCGP, county boards of elections had validated 15,953 signatures on NCGP’s petitions — 2,088 more than the 13,865 valid signatures required under state law.
“Thus far, the only explanation NCSBE has given for its failure to certify NCGP comes from its chair, Defendant Circosta, who stated that he had too many ‘questions’ to vote in favor of certification, because NCSBE staff claim to be investigating ‘irregularities’ in the NCGP petitions.
“NCSBE has never produced evidence of any ‘irregularities’ in NCGP’s petitions. … Yet NCSBE appears to have undertaken a wide-ranging investigation into NCGP’s petitions, pursuant to which a team of NCSBE investigators has contacted NCGP’s petition circulators by telephone and email to request information about virtually every aspect of their petitioning efforts.”
The Democratic Party has texted people who signed the Green Party petition asking them to withdraw their names — even the Green Party candidate for Senator, Matthew Hoh; see his tweet. Disclosure: Hoh is a board member of the Institute for Public Accuracy. See the piece “The Democrats’ Third-Party Massacres” on Counterpunch.
