• It still wouldn't make it easy being Green

Last week the House voted 220-210 to pass HR 1, the Democratic majority's sweeping electoral reform bill intended to strengthen voting rights, enhance campaign finance reform, and address government ethics and corruption in politics. But the legislation also contains a poison pill designed to reduce political competition and voter choice, entrenching the polarizing duopoly electoral system that made Donald Trump's presidency possible.

The “For the People Act” (H.R.1/S.1) is voting rights legislation now pending in Congress. Civil rights organizations are urgently supporting this bill in order to secure voting rights against over 250 voter suppression bills introduced by Republicans this year in 43 state legislatures.

As a GOP lawyer bluntly told the U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 in an Arizona voting rights case when asked why the Republican Party opposed removing a voting restriction, “Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats.” The voting rights sections of H.R.1 are important federal measures to enact at a time when the Republican Party seeks to restrict voting rights at the state level.

• In a recent Gallup poll, a record 62% of US voters said we need a new major party.

Stop HR-1, the Voting Rights Bill That Restricts Voter Choice

HR-1 is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters, but it contains a poison pill for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party in its campaign finance reform section. HR1 quintuples the amount of money Green presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds: from $5,000 in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state.

The federal HR 1 - For the People Act - is designed to protect and expand voting rights against Republican efforts to curtail at the state level. But the Green Party says that the public campaign finance proposals, rather than reigning in special interest money, will block third parties from participating. Michael O'Neil, Communications Manager for the Green Party of the US discuss this with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Radio Network.

RICHMOND, VA – The Green Party of Virginia condemns multiple provisions of the recently introduced H.R.1, otherwise known as the For the People Act, which undermines third parties. The bill, while purporting to expand democracy, includes changes to rules governing the public financing of campaigns that are aimed squarely at limiting the participation of third parties.

Such provisions include section 5202(1)(a) which quintuples the amount of money that campaigns need to raise in order to qualify for federal matching funds. These funds are an incredibly important source of income for third parties, especially the Green Party which takes no corporate money. Raising the threshold for acquiring these funds does nothing to promote democracy, and by limiting the participation of third parties, does much to harm it.

Little-Known Provision in HR1 Will Quintuple the Amount of Money Presidential Candidates Must Raise to Participate in Public Matching Funds Program

WASHINGTON — The Green Party has gone on the record with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules with a request that HR1 be amended to strike a provision that would quintuple the amount of money presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds. HR1 will raise the qualifying threshold for presidential campaign matching funds from $5,000 raised in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state in 20 states.

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. 

Voter suppression has become a real issue in recent years. Mostly, what we hear on voter suppression are Democrats correctly accusing Republications of disenfranchising people of color and poor and working-class people. I want to call your attention to the voter suppression activity by the Democratic Party in the 2020 election. In a number of states, Democrats actively tried to keep the Green Party off the ballot.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for president, said that while it was essential to ensure that all votes are counted before a winner is declared, it was equally important for people to demand that the next president move quickly on COVID relief, climate change, and health care for all.

Hawkins said that he and the Green Party would help organize protests to demand that every vote is counted and that the next administration take swift action on the COVID, health, and climate crises. Hawkins released a statement outlining key issues for the Green Party moving forward.

We’re furious. Livid. Seething.

The Democrats spent the last four years demonizing the Green Party. They blamed us for their failures.

They told lies about Jill Stein acting like a Russian tool. We saw how they undemocratically kicked us off the ballot in state after state, but continued to cynically whip up hysteria about a vote for Green candidates.