ALBANY. NY – The Green Party of New York and Libertarian Party of New York will hold a joint press conference to discuss their next steps in challenging the unjust ballot access thresholds implemented by the Public Campaign Finance Commission. Green speakers will include Mark Dunlea, former Comptroller candidate, and Peter LaVenia, state party co-chair. Libertarian speakers will include James Rosenbeck, party chair.

To the Editor: The "Democrats' Secret Plan to Kill Third Parties in New York," as the headline on an Oct. 29 New York Times report put it, is no longer secret.

On Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, the Public Campaign Financing Commission voted to raise the vote threshold to secure a party ballot line from 50,000 to the higher of 130,000 or 2% every two years in gubernatorial and presidential years, instead of every four years in gubernatorial elections. They also tripled the petition signatures required to put an independent candidate for statewide office to 45,000.

ALBANY, NY – 11/26/19 - Green Party of New York leaders said Gov. Cuomo's comments at a press conference today, in which he stated third parties needed to prove their viability before receiving public funding, are not just wrongheaded, but dangerously undemocratic. Officers said that the exact opposite should be true: public campaign financing should aid third parties and candidates in becoming viable. By placing nearly insurmountable barriers to entry to the ballot and public campaign financing Cuomo and the Commissioners expect third parties to run a marathon with a weight attached to their legs, while Democrats and Republicans are driven to the finish line in limos.

ALBANY, NY 11/25/2019 — Green Party of New York officials said today the Public Campaign Finance Commission's decision to raise ballot access thresholds to 2% of the vote or 130,000 votes (whichever is greater) for presidential and gubernatorial elections was an anti-democratic decision that would limit voter choice in New York.

ALBANY, NY 11/20/2019 — Green Party of New York (GPNY) officers said today the Public Campaign Finance Commission is making a mockery of democracy, and it appears their secret plan all along has been a bipartisan effort to eliminate third parties and real competition from New York State politics.

The creation of the Public Campaign Financing Commission has been a rare chance for New Yorkers to have a robust discussion on how to eliminate very wealthy people’s disproportionate influence on politics and expand democratic choice. Unfortunately, recent statements by Gov. Cuomo, his appointee Jay Jacobs and former Gov. David Paterson show the commission has perversely become a cudgel with which to attack smaller parties while defending major parties and incumbents.

The concerns raised by all three men are broadly similar: Public financing is expensive, fusion will increase the expense, it is too easy to become a ballot-status party and more groups will aim to do so in order to receive public campaign funds; thus, the threshold for access to funds must be high and requirements to become a party must be raised in order to weed out most third parties.

ALBANY, NY, October 29, 2019 — Green Party of New York officers said that the plan floated by Campaign Finance Commission co-chair Jay Jacobs to raise the minimum vote total for ballot access to roughly 250,000 votes was an unacceptable attack on real third parties in New York. Party officers said the Commission should instead ban fusion and make ballot access for third parties easier, including allowing any statewide office vote totals to qualify a party. (See NY Times article.)

ALBANY, NY, October 24, 2019 — Green Party officers said the Campaign Finance Commission's latest about-face on whether to allow out-of-district donations to count towards a proposed public matching funds system highlights the flawed nature of public matching funds.

The party instead proposed the Commission enact the "Clean Money, Clean Elections" grants-based system that exists in Arizona and Maine. Party leaders said the system was easier and fairer, and would solve the debate over in-district or out-of-district matches.

NEW YORK, Aug 21, 2019 — The Green Party of New York (GPNY) said today's meeting of the Public Campaign Financing Commission, empaneled by the Governor and Legislature, has the opportunity to propose urgently-needed reforms to broaden and strengthen democracy in New York. GPNY officers stated they "support a system of full public campaign financing, broader than had been proposed by the Governor," and the "banning of fusion." Party officers also promised their members will express support of these reforms to the commission.