PITTSBORO, NC – As you may know, Greens in North Carolina are in jeopardy of losing our registered Green voter status. That means the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) may have to collect over 14,000 petition signatures in order to regain our legal party status, and with it our ballot access and the ability for people in North Carolina to register as Green voters again.

Regardless of the obstacle, the NCGP will be running several candidates at the local level this year. But right now, we need your support: please contact Governor Cooper and ask for Executive Relief due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is a time-sensitive request and cannot wait—please send your request to Cooper today. See below for a sample message to Cooper for you to copy and paste.

On January 26, the NCGP sent correspondence to the governor's office, asking for Cooper to cancel or reduce the ballot-access petition requirements due to Covid, so that the NCGP can regain its ballot line and legal party status without being forced to petition during a global pandemic. We are asking you to send the following correspondence below too. You may personalize if you wish; however, the most important thing is that you please send it today.

You can copy and paste the correspondence below in the body of the official “Contact Governor Cooper” form. Or you can email the correspondence to [email protected]. Or both. (Note: we cannot verify that the office of the governor will receive an email to that address; so we recommend that you send it via the "Contact Governor Cooper" form, or both.)

SAMPLE MESSAGE TO COOPER:

Governor Cooper,

I am contacting you to request that the Office of the Governor:

• Immediately issue an Emergency Executive Order to the State Board of Elections to keep the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) certified as a legal party and/or to retain all North Carolina voters presently registered as Green as a Green-Inactive status, honoring their wishes to remain Green Party voters, for a period of 18 months. Please honor the democratic wishes of your constituents to remain registered with the party of their choice.
  
  
• Issue a one-time Emergency Executive Order to waive the petition requirement for all parties that had ballot access during the previous election cycle due to the extreme dangers of petitioning during Covid-19. The NCGP does not wish to ask for special treatment; we ask out of legitimate and urgent concern for the safety of our volunteer members and the general public.
  
  
• Issue an Emergency Executive Order to lower by at least 75 percent the petition requirements toward establishing a new political party and to allow provisions for electronic petition signatures toward establishing or re-establishing a political party. If petitioning is to remain a requirement by law, then your allowing for electronic petition signature gathering is the only safe form of petitioning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  

By honoring these reasonable requests in the interest of the safety of our volunteers and the general public, the office of the governor would be sending this message to North Carolina residents:

1. The NCGP and other alternative parties should not have to risk the health of their volunteers and the general public to maintain ballot status and survival as a political party. Instead these parties should follow the guidelines of your Executive Order and not participate in dangerous and socially irresponsible public petitioning.
   
   
2. The state of North Carolina respects the democratic wishes of its constituents to remain registered with their party of choice during the exceptional circumstances of this pandemic.
   

Governor Cooper, we are confident that you will look beyond partisan politics and make the just and ethical decision to ensure the health, safety, and democratic participation of the residents of North Carolina. You have long argued against voter suppression, and we ask that you honor those same intentions and values by fulfilling our request to uphold democratic participation and voter choice.

After emailing the governor, if you wish, you can also send a letter to him via snail mail:

North Carolina Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301

You may read the NCGP's full correspondence that we sent to the governor.

Please help NCGP to regain our ballot status: make a donation, become a dues-paying member, or get NCGP merchandise.

Thanks so much for your support. With your help, we're going to regain our ballot line and ability to register to vote Green, one way or another, and soon!