Federal court orders that NC Greens be included in the November election, press rally moved to Monday, August 8th

Federal District Judge Rules In Favor of NC Green Party; Issues strong Rebuking of SBE, DSCC and Democrats

Press Contact: NCGP Cochair Tony Ndege, [ ,] and Secretary Michael Trudeau [  ] Ndege quote: "NC Green Party applauds this afternoon's court order which comprehensively vindicates our party who have only functioned transparently and in full accordance within the statutes of NC law. This important legal victory comes on the heels of unprecedented voter intimidation, harassment and fraud perpetrated by well financed partisan operatives to keep us off the ballot. There is a reason why unaffiliated voters have become the largest voting block in our state. People are dissatisfied with the non-solutions of the politics of fear and division. They are hungry for new ideas and solutions. We are tired of being corralled into the dead-end politics of fear and cynicism that marks political parties beholden to Wall Street money and corporate interests. We are trying to fundamentally redefine what an American party is and move beyond the era of Coke vs Pepsi politics where voters are presented two unlikable options without much input and then fear-mongered into believing these candidates are owed our vote. The N.C. Green Party and it dedicated supporters went through extraordinary efforts to collect well over the required signatures for party recognition because we speak to the concerns of millions of voters and our independent voice must be allowed on the ballot this November and beyond."   Eastern NC Federal District Court Judge Dever has ruled in favor of the North Carolina Green Party and ordered the NCSBE to place its candidates on the ballot this November.  Link to ruling document  [The ruling is posted as a pdf here.] U.S. District Court EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA Notice of Electronic Filing The following transaction was entered on 8/5/2022 at 5:40 PM EDT and filed on 8/5/2022 Case Name: North Carolina Green Party et al v. North Carolina State Board of Elections Case Number: 5:22-cv-00276-D-BM Filer:   Document Number: 64     Docket Text: ORDER - The court CANCELS the hearing scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on August 8, 2022. The court GRANTS the intervenors' motion to intervene [D.E. 15] and DENIES as moot the intervenors' motion to expedite [D.E. 21]. The court GRANTS the NRSC's motion for leave to file as amicus curiae [D.E. 42]. Finally, the court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction [D.E. 28]. Counsel is reminded to read the order in its entirety for critical deadlines and information. Signed by District Judge James C. Dever III on 8/5/2022. (Edwards, S.) NC Democratic Party Lawsuit Against Democracy: NC Green Party to Hold Press Rally for Voter Choice WHAT  Emergency Press Conference for Democracy and Voter Choice WHERE: In front of Terry Sanford Federal Courthouse [in Raleigh] WHEN: 11:30AM-12:10AM [Monday, August 8th; the event Friday was cancelled; I apologize if there was any confusion.] CONTACT: [ ] EMAIL: [cochair [ncgreenparty]; secretary[ncgreenparty]] North Carolina Green Party Blasts NC State Board of Elections: Justice Is Not Fully Served by NCSBE's Aug. 1, 2022, Ballot Access Certification Decision PITTSBORO, NC – The North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) sees the August 1 certification of our party by the North Carolina State Board of Elections as vindication for our organization and for the over 22,000 residents who signed our petition for more voter choice in this state. The decision is a reversal of the June 30, 2022, decision by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) in a party-line vote of 3-2 to reject the NCGP’s petition for “new party status” and with it the ballot access required to run Green candidates. North Carolina Green Party www.ncgreenparty.org For Immediate Release August 2, 2022 Contact: Tony Ndege, Cochair, [ ] Michael Trudeau, Secretary, [ ] However, NCGP cochair Tony Ndege stated, "This ruling is only the first step toward justice, democracy, and transparency for the people of North Carolina." According to Ndege, "The decision by the NCSBE to certify our party two months after our application deadline and one month after our nominee deadline does not surprise us. The NCSBE’s behavior has been observed nationwide, and this has significantly tarnished the board's public standing. At this juncture, justice has not been fully served to the NCGP, which is why we are seeking to have our Green nominees rightfully placed on the North Carolina ballot for November 2022." Some of the damage NCGP believes the State Board has caused include the following: By refusing to certify the NCGP in a timely manner in accordance with state statute, the NCSBE has caused serious damage to our party as well as to all independent parties and future unaffiliated candidates. By refusing to certify the NCGP in a timely manner in accordance with state statute, the State Board of Elections has irreparably damaged current and future petitioning endeavors in North Carolina.  The actions of the NCSBE have left the door open for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, other dark-money super PACs, and other partisan operatives to engage in harassment, voter intimidation, and even fraud toward thousands of people who signed the NCGP petition, and this has caused lasting damage not only to the party but also to the entire electoral process. The actions of the State Board of Elections have defamed the NCGP, unconstitutionally casting “a cloud” – as the NCSBE director Karen herself has publicly stated – over the NCGP's petition signatures and with them the party, its candidates, and its volunteer supporters, all while the NCSBE has failed to officially produce a shred of evidence to the NCGP to support its false and, the NCGP believes, willfully misleading allegations against the party and specifically against the party's working-class volunteers. By forcing county boards of election staff to verify the handwriting of the signatures against voters’ signatures on voter registration forms, the State Board of Elections has engaged in what the NCGP believes is disingenuous, blatant partisan hypocrisy, in that on July 15 of 2022, two weeks after the NCSBE voted 3-2 along party lines to deny the NCGP’s petition, the NCSBE again voted 3-2 along partisan lines that county elections officials shall not crosscheck voter signatures on absentee ballots against the respective signature on voter registration forms. Further, it is NCGP's belief that the actions of the State Board of Elections have appeared to be partisan in favor of the Democratic Party, and these actions have resulted in serious injury to the democratic process in our state: for one, the NCSBE has undermined and tarnished the reputation and standing of the NCSBE’s own county boards of election, casting "a cloud" over the directors and staff of the county boards and forcing these workers to engage in many hours of forensics signature-checking (for which they are not qualified), as well as tedious paperwork.  If the NCSBE’s intentions to ensure democracy were sincere, then instead of the recommendations it has come up with to make petitioning even more difficult in the wake of the NCGP's petitioning effort, the board would be arguing for commonsense remedies to this state’s onerous petitioning requirements, such as passing an official rule allowing or recommending that the General Assembly allow electronic petition signatures and that the GA also reduce the number of required signatures from 13,865 to a more reasonable number (for example, the ballot access petition requirement in New Jersey is just 800 signatures). The NCGP’s attempts to ask for Covid-19 emergency petition relief from the office of the governor also went unanswered. (Notably, the governor’s office's legal intern wrote a public records request to the NCSBE to obtain the NCGP's petition signatures, the language of which, in some places, matches verbatim the language that the Democratic Party’s Elias Law Group used in its subsequent requests for public records.) Collecting over 22,500 signatures during the height of a global pandemic put at risk not only NCGP's petitioner volunteers but also tens of thousands of North Carolinians – that is, the State Board of Elections and NC Democratic Party have put unprecedented time and resources into "verifying" NCGP's petition signatures while they spent no or negligible effort attempting to make petitioning safer, fairer, and more democratic to new parties and unaffiliated candidates during a global pandemic. For these reasons and more, the NCGP is confident that in the near future it will legally prevail and that the party's 2022 candidates will be placed on the ballot. However, true vindication for the North Carolina Green Party will ultimately involve lasting remedies for the damages inflicted upon it and the democratic processes in our state. For a Green, ecosocialist future, Tony Ndege, cochair Michael Trudeau, secretary North Carolina Green Party