Many are outraged at recent Republican laws enacted in many states that affect voting rights. But we all should be outraged at Democrats in New York who have enacted laws to undermine voting rights in our state.

These new rules ensure that only the elites in New York can run for office, that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers will be prevented from voting for whom they truly support, limiting our choice and therefore silencing our voice. Over 250,000 New Yorkers voted for alternatives parties in 2018. Ending achievable candidate access to the ballot, as well as voter access to the election process disenfranchises voters for alternative parties like those we represent, the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.

• A critical step in establishing democracy in our country is to "stop the suppression of alternative parties and other independent voices"

ALBANY, NY 2/4/22 - The Green Party of New York announced today that they plan to run candidates for state and federal offices in 2022, starting with Governor.

The party is looking for candidates who embrace the Green Party agenda including strong climate action, ending mass incarceration, economic democracy, single-payer health care, and social justice.

ALBANY, NY  12/2/21 – Green Party of New York leaders today called on the Legislature and Gov. Hochul to enact a "Gold Standard" ballot access bill that would expand voter choice in New York State.

While Green officials said they supported the Legislature's renewed push to expand absentee ballot access and a voter registration deadline closer to Election Day, they also said that strengthening democracy requires Democrat Party lawmakers to reverse their recent efforts to kill the independent third parties in New York. Many political scientists point out that the United States' unique lack of robust third parties among the world's so-called democracies is a major cause of the present toxic politics in the country.

ALBANY, NY – You've seen the headlines: The Republicans are stripping away voters' rights, state by state. The Democrats lack the political will to change the filibuster rule in order to pass legislation to protect voters' rights. Right here in our state, now-disgraced-and-resigned Cuomo and the State Legislature took away your right to vote your values when they changed the election law to radically increase New York's ballot access requirements.

The Green Party of New York (GPNY) has never stopped fighting back — in the courts, speaking with legislators and engaging the public. It's an expensive fight: attorney fees, paid petitioners and well-resourced candidates for 2022 are needed. Can you help by giving $22 today, to the Green Party in New York?

• By Howie Hawkins

The Freedom to Vote Act, the pared down voting rights legislation that Democratic Senators unveiled on September 14, must be supported to preempt GOP state laws for partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression, election subversion, and intimidation of voters and election administrators.

Yet this bill also deserves vigorous protest from the Left for its public campaign financing provisions, which are effectively for the two big capitalist parties only.

In an open letter to Governor Kathy Hochul, the co-chairs of the Green and Libertarian Parties of New York ask her to overturn undemocratic ballot access laws put in place by her predecessor and to restore democracy in New York State.
Link to PDF. Link to GPNY Release.

September 8, 2021

To the Honorable Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul:

We, the co-chairs of the Green and Libertarian Parties of New York, write to you on the occasion of your assuming the office of Governor with a matter decisive for the future of democratic government in New York State. It is within your power to overturn actions made by your predecessor that were made to aggrandize himself and hinder his opponents. These actions have crippled the possibility of democratic competition and good governance in New York. By moving swiftly you can wipe away his tarnished legacy and renew democracy in New York State.

On May 13, U.S. District Court Judge John Koeltl, a Clinton appointee, refused to enjoin the New York ballot access changes made in 2020. Libertarian Party of NY v New York State Board of Elections, s.d., 1:20cv-5820. The opinion says the 2% vote test for president/governor, and the new number of signatures for a statewide office (45,000), are not severe.

The decision cites only precedents that upheld state ballot access laws, and doesn’t mention any precedents that struck them down. It does not mention the March 29, 2021 decision of the Sixth Circuit that struck down Michigan’s 30,000-signature requirement for statewide independent candidates.

This will be the first of several articles that delve into the onslaught against a true democracy's ability to represent the best interests of the people. With these efforts to suppress individual and party participation, we are doomed to governance committed only to policies promoted by the self interests of a very small, unrepresentative elite power structure.

Many of us have recently received a letter from the Monroe County Board of Elections.  This is a misleading letter to trick people to change their registration.

You are still a Green!

Greens knew from the start that 2020 would be a tough year for their presidential ticket. The election would be a referendum on Trump. For most progressives, Anybody But Trump would do.

Our campaign believed that an ecosocialist program is needed for real solutions to the life-or-death issues of climate, inequality, racism, and war. We believed that the way to defeat the Trump Republicans was for the left to put forward its own program and not rely on the Democrats’ pallid centrism, which would not speak to the economic and social anxieties that the Trump far-right has been mobilizing around with racist and conspiracy scapegoating.