Maryland Green Party Loses Ballot Access, Joins
Libertarian Party in Lawsuit Against Verification Process
April 12, 2011
The Maryland Green Party has joined the Libertarian Party of Maryland in filing a lawsuit in response to the results of its ballot
access petition for the 2012-2014 election cycle. The party submitted
14,886 signatures and was advised by the Maryland State Board of
Elections (SBE) that its submission was insufficient to meet the
requirement of 10,000 valid signatures.
The suit was filed in the Circuit Court for Anne
Arundel County on Monday, April 11th, and names the State Board of
Elections and Linda Lamone - as Administrator of the State Board of
Elections - as defendants.
The text of the lawsuit is available
here.
"We disagree with the way the SBE was directed to proceed with
signature verification and will continue to use all available venues
to win a more democratic process for signature verification" said
Brian Bittner, co-chair of the state party. "We will continue to exist
as a political organization seeking to regain ballot access and
nominate candidates as soon as possible."
The party is also entitled to regain ballot access by submitting the
outstanding 4,095 signatures in the future.
The SBE confirmed the validity of 5,905 of the 14,886 signatures
submitted by the Green Party. 1,977 of these signatures had been
initially rejected by the SBE because of issues with the legibility or
readability of the signers' signature, but were reconsidered after the
Court of Appeals released its opinion in Montgomery County
Volunteer Fire Rescue Ass'n v. Montgomery County Board of Elections
on March 22nd.
The Court's opinion partially resolved the issue raised by the
decision in Doe v. Montgomery County Board of Elections (2008),
which specified that a valid signature must match exactly a signers'
record in SBE files - including middle initials and the exact form of
a signer's first name in the state's voter records.
The Green Party believes this standard is excessively strict and has
called on the Maryland General Assembly to resolve this issue
legislatively by codifying the reasonable standards used by the SBE in
the Green Party's successful 2002 and 2006 petition drives.
2,164 of the Green Party's signatures were rejected by the SBE for
various technical reasons, and 6,817 signatures were rejected because
differences between a signer's registration record and name printed on
the petition.
"We met thousands of Maryland voters who support the Green Party's
right to run candidates and organize as a political party," notes
Karen Jennings, co-chair of the state party. "They spoke their mind
freely by signing our petition, and now almost seven thousand of their
signatures have been rejected because they forgot to include their
middle initial or wrote their name 'Bill' instead of 'William'. We
feel this is a violation of basic democratic principles."
For more information, contact
info@mdgreens.org or 443-449-4159.
Click
here For Our March 2011 Newsletter
An Update on Our 2012-2014 Petition Drive
March 9, 2010
To fulfill state law, in 2010 the MGP collected 14,871
signatures to
maintain our status as a political party for the 2012 and 2014
election
cycles. At least 10,000 signatures must be verified by the
State Board of Elections (SBE). In our previous drives in 2002 and
2006 this number of signatures would have easily allowed us to
maintain our party status based on the signature verification
standards in use by the SBE for the last decade. However, an ongoing
court dispute over the definition of a valid signature has made our
success this year questionable. We will know by the end of March which
legal definition will be used and whether we have maintained our party
status or will have to work to regain it.
If the SBE rules that our petition does not include enough signatures,
the party will lose its legal status as a political committee, along
with the ability to place candidates on Maryland ballots.
In addition, all currently registered members of the Green Party will
be forced to either select a new party affiliation or become
"Unaffiliated" voters. Clearly, we consider this most undemocratic and
hope this scenario doesn't come true.
The Maryland Green Party will continue on even if this decertification
takes place. We will explore our legal options and work in court to
have these restrictive ballot access laws overturned. We will continue
to petition to regain our ballot status as quickly as possible. But we
will need your help.
We will need financial support for any legal action we may have to
take.
Please
consider making a contribution to help us mount a legal defense.
We will still be able to turn in more signatures to reach the 10,000
signature requirement. Prepare for a spring and summer of working to
get the Green Party back on the ballot!
Stay in touch with the party as news about our petition effort
unfolds.
Update your contact information here so we can let you know
as soon as we learn about our ballot status.
And, if we are forced to change your party affiliation on your voter
card, stay "Unaffiliated" while we work to get back on the ballot and
make Green an option again!
Click
here For Our February 2011 Newsletter
Green Party calls on Maryland General Assembly to
support petitioning rights, access to elections
February 2, 2011
The Green Party calls on legislators to support the right of all
Marylanders to participate in the political process - particularly in
the petition process required for political party organization under
state law.
“We ask the Maryland General Assembly to pass legislation in this
year's session to guarantee democratic access to elections for all
candidates and political parties,” said Maria Allwine, the Green
Party's 2010 nominee for Governor.
The Maryland Green Party, which ran candidates for United State Senate
and Governor in the 2010 election cycle, will be forbidden by state
law from running candidates in future elections unless its
state-issued
petition is approved by the Board of Elections. The Libertarian Party
and the Constitution Party also face decertification by state
authorities.
“We turned in nearly fifteen thousand signatures to satisfy a
requirement of ten thousand,” said Brian Bittner, co-chair of the
Green Party. “Because of ongoing court cases, we still don't know
which parts of state law apply to our petition. We have to wait for
approval from the Court of Appeals and the State Board of Elections
before we can even plan 2011 and 2012 campaigns. The General Assembly
can resolve the process by clarifying state law.”
The Maryland Green Party calls for the following legislative fixes to
state election law:
-Codify the reasonable signature verification standards the State
Board of Elections has used to verify petitions for the last decade.
-Reduce the number of signatures required to form a new political
party by half. This bill has been previously introduced as SB710
(2010) and HB1562 (2009).
-Lower the threshold for maintaining status as a political party from
registering 1% of Maryland registered voters (approximately 30,000
voters) to 10,000 registered members.
The Green Party also calls on General Assembly members to affirm
public support for democratic activities including petition
circulating. The
Baltimore Sun
reported that Andrew Jacobs, an independent signature
gatherer working on behalf of the Maryland Green and Libertarian
Parties, was arrested while collecting signatures at Ellicott City's
Charles E. Miller branch library on December 18, 2010.
“While state law requires non-principal political parties to collect
thousands of signatures to continue running candidates and our
Constitution defends Marylanders' rights to free speech and
representation, the public space available for us to engage Maryland
voters is in a stranglehold,” Bittner said. “Every party organizer I
know has been asked to leave a public space for attempting to
circulate petitions issued by the state itself. We call on our elected
officials to defend the public they represent.”
For more information, contact info@mdgreens.org or
443-449-4159.
