[GPSCC-chat] Fw: Fwd: RELEASE North Carolina Green & Libertarian Parties file lawsuit for equitable ballot access

Wed Sep 8 11:45:18 PDT 2010

  Hi, Caroline:


       Do we have serious grounds for a legal challenge to Prop. 14?  
I'm not an attorney, so I can't speak on the legal issues.  However, it 
takes time and money to fight something in court, and we might be better 
off spending that time and money on other things.


       Besides, we may not experience in California what the Green 
parties elsewhere experienced from similar legislation.


        In 1993, the ruling party in Canada was almost completely wiped 
out in one single election:  Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's policies 
became so massively unpopular that he gave his seat to Canada's first 
(and so far only) female prime minister, Kim Campbell, who then led her 
party not to defeat but virtual extinction in the slightly over 4 months 
later (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_Prime_Ministers; 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_federal_parliaments).


       The election of 1828 made Andrew Jackson President and marked the 
extinction of the Federalist party of Andrew Jackson (and George 
Washington).  The Federalists were replaced by the Whigs, who became 
extinct a few years later, to be replaced by the modern Republican 
party.  If I'm not mistaken, a substantial contributor to both 
extinctions was their pandering too openly after the ultra wealthy.


       My point here is that we shouldn't be excessively pessimistic:  
If the US economy continues to decline, almost anything could happen.  
Either or both of our major parties could become extinct and replaced 
either by Libertarians or Greens.


       To strengthen our ability to influence events, I think we need to 
find new ways to reach potential voters.  Obama got the Democratic 
nomination last year by using the Internet better than his competition.  
I think we can reach young people with energy by learning and using the 
new web tools they use:  Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, Wikipedia, etc.  I 
think we can reach millions with pithy messages relevant to current 
affairs on You Tube.  We can influence the face of international 
politics via quiet contributions to Wikipedia.  For example, the 
Wikipedia entry on "media bias" 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias) is the only thing I know 
that's easily accessible and cites serious research, not just the rabid 
rants of Right or Left.  I've already cited that to some of my arch 
right wing relatives.


       Comments?
       Spencer


On 9/7/2010 2:11 PM, Caroline Yacoub wrote:
> Why are we not mounting a legal challenge to Prop.14? It disenfranchises us.
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> From: shane que hee<squehee at ucla.edu>
> Sent: Tue, August 31, 2010 10:35:45 AM
> Subject: Fwd: RELEASE North Carolina Green&  Libertarian Parties file lawsuite
> for equitable ballot access
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:02:57 -0400
>> Subject: RELEASE North Carolina Green&  Libertarian Parties file lawsuite for
>>    equitable ballot access
>> From: Green News - DC<dcsgpnews10 at gmail.com>
>>
>> (Distributed by the Green Party of the United States, http://www.gp.org)
>>
>> North Carolina Green Party
>>
>> For immediate release
>> Tuesday, August 31, 2010
>>
>> Contact: Theresa El-Amin
>> Phone Number: 919-824-0659
>> E-mail: teagreenparty at aol.com
>> Web site: http://www.ncgreenparty.org
>>
>>
>> Green and Libertarian Parties File Lawsuit for Equitable Ballot Access
>> in North Carolina
>>
>> • Press conference, 9 am in front of the courthouse in Raleigh on Sept. 9
>>
>>
>> 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 9:30 am, 2 East Morgan Street, Raleigh
>> 27601.
>>
>> The action was filed by the Libertarian Party in 2005 and joined later
>> by the North Carolina Green Party (http://www.ncgreenparty.org). Both
>> parties will argue that current ballot access laws deny third parties
>> full rights guaranteed by the state constitution. Members and
>> supporters of both parties will gather at 9 am in front of the court
>> for a press conference.
>>
>> North Carolina Green Party members are active in the national Green
>> Party (http://www.gp.org) 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 an historically black college
>> or university (HBCU).
>>
>> "The Green Party has 27 ballot lines throughout the US and continues
>> to grow in spite of attempts to suppress voter access to choices other
>> than the two major parties," said Theresa El-Amin, North Carolina
>> Green Party activist and recently elected co-chair of the Green Party
>> of the United States. "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."
>>
>> "It's a matter of giving voters alternative choices at election
>> times," said Alan Burns, Green Party member and environmental activist
>> of Charlotte, NC. "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."
>>
>> According to Richard Winger, the country's foremost expert on ballot
>> access laws, "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 nominated Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia
>> Congresswoman, for President of the United States. The North Carolina
>> Green Party ran a write-in campaign for McKinney. Given the low number
>> of write-in votes reported, NC Greens questioned whether all the votes
>> were actually counted.  Greens assert that ballot access is the only
>> way to know for certain whether one's vote will be counted.
>>
>>
>> #######
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
>> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss

-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Operating Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567

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