According to the Associated Press, David Strange, a DNC staffer located in Milwaukee filed a complaint Wednesday alleging that our presidential candidate will not have any electors, and therefore cannot be on the ballot this fall. He also filed a complaint against the West Campaign regarding some issue pertaining to proper notarization. Clearly, the Democrats are up to their old tricks without any self-awareness regarding their “democratic” branding. The Democrats are probably the least democratic of any party considering the amount of energy they spend ensuring the public has no decision-making power whatsoever.
As we watch the coronation of Kamala Harris, who has not received a single vote this year, it is clear the DNC does not even trust their own deep blue supporters with democratically electing a nominee. Of course, this was a lesson since the 2016 DNC fraud lawsuit exposed that the DNC need not consider voters at all in its candidate selection process, that they did not have to follow their own charter, or that any monies given to a candidate would necessarily go to support the candidate. Bernie Sanders supporters found out their $220 million dollars was squandered in the DNC scam. One main argument from the DNC lawyer, Bruce Spiva, which the court agreed with, is that “No one has any right to an expectation of a fair election.” (10:35).
The Democrats have been complaining, as they did in 2020 and 2016, that this is the most important election of our lifetimes, and we must all vote for their candidate “to save democracy.” And yet, their vision of America features a ballot without options, or no ballot at all for the American people. In 2020, they challenged Howie Hawkins’ petitions on the basis that Angela Walker’s address had changed. While the party’s candidate could have been swapped out completely due to the timing of the national conventions, the implication of their allegation was that the thousands of signatures Wisconsinites put forth were given on false pretenses based on the change of address for a candidate who did not have to live in any specific district to run. Of course, since the Wisconsin Election Commission is bipartisan, rather than the previous non-partisan commission prior to the Walker administration, the three Democrats on the WEC were in the position to keep the Green Party off the ballot leaving our all volunteer organization to look for an attorney in a sea of high-dollar bi-partisan attorneys to take the case.
The Democrats are desperate to keep Greens off of the ballot because they know their candidates cannot win on merit. Of course, this complaint is similarly free of merit. Strange was likely referring to 8.18 which is the process for the electoral college, the undemocratic holdover of our founding fathers who distrusted the general public to elect their president. Oddly enough, the electoral college, rather than the popular vote, has been how Presidents G.W. Bush and Trump were elected. It has been more of an obstacle to Democrat candidates than anyone. And yet, the DNC would rather keep this undemocratic structure and use it to refuse other parties access to the ballot.
They argue that since the Green Party has nobody they feel meet the qualifications under point 1 of 8.18, that we ought not have a presidential candidate on the ballot. Except, they are wrong on several counts.
- Chester Todd is a candidate who would qualify under the most narrow reading of that passage.
- Precedent is very important in election law, and precedent is on the Wisconsin Green Party’s side. The Wisconsin Green Party has mostly been established since the 1996 Nader election garnered more than 1% of the statewide vote for the Green Party. So since 2000, the Wisconsin Green Party has used the same process for each election we’ve had established status. While we lost that status in 2018, Sharyl McFarland, a leader for human rights and our Secretary of State candidate, won it back in 2022.
- The process is outlined in that same section 8.18 in which the Green Party simply sends a list of electors (one in each Congressional District) in its paperwork for the fall ballot. Greens vote for Coordinating Council leadership by district each Fall, so the leaders of those districts have served as our electors in past elections. This makes far more sense than Strange’s reading of the law because it would take away the right of citizens to run for president under a party if that party didn’t already have enough people running and elected, a catch 22. Past Wisconsin Elections Commissions and Ethics Boards would have to have told past Green Party leadership this process for electors, which has been acceptable for more than twenty years.
- For example, in 2016, Jill Stein similarly gained ballot access and put forth her electors in an acceptable manner through her ballot status garnered by Ron Hardy’s nearly 3% of the 2014 Treasurer election vote.
Finally, because all of this rigging by the Democrats is really about calling the Green Party spoilers in their horse race, we in the Green Party continue to affirm that we are not Democrats and will not be voting for the Democrats whether or not our candidate is on the ballot. In fact, the Democrats continuing to claim our votes while being a party that values a foreign policy of war and a domestic policy of austerity is insulting and ridiculous.
While it would not be surprising if the Democrats’ complaint to withhold ballot options from citizens were satisfied, such an action would continue to chip at the illusion that the United States government is by the people, of the people, and for the people. The U.S. founding occurred because the founders said they were being taxed without their interests having representation as a British colony. With hundreds of billions of our tax dollars going out the door unquestioned to proxy-wars, bombing Palestinian children, and even giving Israel universal healthcare while Americans are denied such a service at home, it is quite clear that neither Republicans or Democrats represent ordinary Americans. Yet, they would like to continue to remain in power controlling hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to enrich themselves and wealthy corporations while ordinary people have lead in the water, millions are struggling with homelessness, thousands can’t afford to go to the doctor and even die from treatable medical issues, students are drowning in school debts, and more. This is completely unacceptable, and the Greater Milwaukee Green Party is committed to fighting for the needs of Wisconsinites and for a truly democratic and just system.
