Editorial: The Supreme Court's last-minute delay in distribution of absentee ballots must be resolved immediately

The Wisconsin Supreme Court's conservative majority has a record of intervening in the political process in the wrong way and at the wrong time. Its decision to force the April 7 spring election to go forward at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic — when states across the country had wisely delayed voting until a safe and healthy process could be established — was nightmarishly wrongheaded. Now, the court has intervened again. And it could cause even greater headaches. Continue reading

Green presidential candidate makes Albany stop

Hawkins says it is critical for party to reach vote threshold in NY ALBANY, NY – Howie Hawkins, the Green Party's presidential candidate, rallied supporters at Townsend Park to get people to vote for him Nov. 3 so the party can meet the new state requirements to maintain its place on the state ballot. The Greens need at least 135,000 votes or 2 percent of ballots cast, whichever is greater, this fall in the presidential electron to keep their ballot line instead of the traditional 50,000 votes which was done away when Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the law making the change. Continue reading

The People’s Choice

Perhaps no place in Maine epitomizes the state’s schizophrenic political character more than the Somerset County town of Solon (pop. just north of 1,000, about an hour’s drive west from Bangor). Somerset County is Trump Country. Barely a third of its voters chose Hillary Clinton in 2016, and though Clinton narrowly won statewide, Trump swept the wilderness of northern and western Maine, earning the only electoral vote he got in New England.* Yet Solon is an outlier. Since the late 1960s it’s been home to an eccentric collective of politically radical, back-to-the-lander artists, most notably the painter Abby Shahn. Every Fourth of July, in addition to fireworks and a patriotic parade, the community improv-theater group In Spite of Life Players stages a leftist protest play against war and greed, using gigantic, brightly painted sets and props, a la Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater. Continue reading

COVID-19 afecta de forma desproporcionada el empleo de latinas y latinos de EE. UU.

Como candidata a vicepresidenta del Partido Verde quiero expresar mi solidaridad con la comunidad latina que está siendo afectada de una forma especialmente dura por la pandemia del COVID-19. Es necesario exigir al gobierno de Donald Trump poner en práctica medidas urgentes para apoyar a las minorías del país Como candidata a vicepresidenta del Partido Verde quiero expresar mi solidaridad con la comunidad latina que está siendo afectada de una forma especialmente dura por la pandemia del COVID-19. Es necesario exigir al gobierno de Donald Trump poner en práctica medidas urgentes para apoyar a las minorías del país.   Continue reading

Green Party to sue to make Wisconsin ballot

Wisconsin’s latest Election 2020 lawsuit could be the most impactful. The Green Party on Tuesday announced plans to sue to make the November ballot in Wisconsin.  Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins and vice presidential candidate Angela Walker have hired an attorney and plan to take the Wisconsin Election Commission to court.  Continue reading

Responding to voter suppression: understanding manipulated elections

Voter suppression in the 2020 election has become a topic of great concern. In reality, voter suppression has been part of US politics since the founding of the country. The oligarchs who wrote the US Constitution enabled voter suppression by not including the right to vote in it and only allowing white male property owners to vote, suppressing the votes of 94 percent of the population. Five of 16 states had white-only voting in 1800 and after 1802, every new state, free or slave, except for Maine banned Black people from voting. In 1807, New Jersey, which originally gave voting rights to “all inhabitants,” excluded women and Black men from voting. Maryland banned Jewish people from its polls until 1828. After the Civil War expanded voting rights to Black men, the Black vote was suppressed through intimidation campaigns and Jim Crow laws. After decades of protests, the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and voting by Black people increased, but in recent years suppression tactics are reducing that vote. Continue reading

Montana secretary of state asks Supreme Court to intervene in Green Party ballot fight

(CNN) – The Montana secretary of state is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a fight over whether the Green Party can be on the state ballot this fall -- a decision that could have a major impact on a key US Senate race between Republican incumbent Sen. Steve Daines and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. Secretary of State Cory Stapleton, a Republican, filed an emergency request Monday urging the high court to place a hold on proceedings pending further legal action after lower courts had approved the Green Party absence from the ballot. Continue reading

Letter to the Editor: Do Democrats believe in democracy?

As Ronald Reagan famously said in 1980, "There you go again." This time the Pennsylvania Democratic Party reacts in fear and trembling to the big bad Pennsylvania Green Party by once again taking them to court to keep them off the Novemember ballot, as though Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is afraid of Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins. I doubt that, and I doubt he even knows about the Pennsylvania ballot access situation. It would be interesting to get his reaction to this, but I'd be willing to bet we'll never get that. Continue reading

Ballot victory in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Oh - Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose today announced that Mr. Richard Duncan and Mr. Rodney E. Garrett Jr. met the requirements necessary to appear together on the presidential ballot in Ohio for the November 3, 2020 General Election. At the request of Mr. Duncan, and as allowed under Ohio law, Mr. Howie Hawkins and Ms. Angela Walker will appear on the ballot together as independent candidates for president and vice president in place of Mr. Duncan and Mr. Garrett. Continue reading

Minnesota activists hold Juneteenth rally for reparations

Green Party Steering Committee member Trahern Crews holding sign in front of the Minnesota state Capitol to mark Juneteenth by demanding reparations and police reform legislation from state lawmakers. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota's Black Lives Matter chapter took to the state Capitol on Friday to mark Juneteenth with a demand for reparations and real police reform in a continued push for racial justice following the death of George Floyd. Juneteenth, the traditional commemoration date of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, has taken on new resonance this year. There have been protests around the U.S. and beyond stemming from Floyd's death after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. Continue reading