Vermont Green Party Loses Ballot Access Case
October 20th, 2008On October 20, a lower state court ruled that the Vermont Secretary of State was following the law when she disallowed the Green Party’s status as a qualified minor party, back in January 2008. The consequence is that Cynthia McKinney will not be on the ballot, and voters who wish to vote her will need to cast a write-in vote. Vermont does not require write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy. However, Vermont has a bad record when it comes to tallying write-ins for president and making the tally part of its official state election returns. For example, in 2004, the Vermont Secretary of State refused to provide a tally of write-ins for David Cobb (Green Party presidential candidate) and Michael Peroutka (Constitution Party presidential candidate). Maybe this year she will handle presidential write-ins better.
The lawsuit is Hill v Markowitz, Washington County Superior Court, 640-9-08.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Per the Nader /Camejo stumbling, bumbling mess in California in P2004: Document the candidate’s federal electors —-or else! Do it from scratch, do not assume that the ballot access electors majically, automatically transfer to write in efforts…..
Boy, Uncle Ralph sure learns from his past. As the 2004 initial Southern California go to guy, and, with John Coffey, the reason his write ins got counted after the ballot access bust, I would say that his 46 state effort this year is better than all the other movements combined!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:34 am
This is too bad. Markowitz has been open to electoral system reform in the past which is more inclusive to 3rd parties. I’d have thought she’d be better with ballot access (and at least counting!).
October 21st, 2008 at 7:16 am
Yeah, and like maybe 4, 5 people bothered to write in David Cobb? The guy was an absolute disaster for the Green Party and they have yet, if ever to recover from that huckster.
October 21st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Cobb got a fair number of write-ins in 2004: 1,014 in Texas, 192 in Ohio, 108 in North Carolina, 104 in Virginia, and lesser amounts in certain other states.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
In California, the biggest Green monthly ran [same sized] photos of Nader, Camejo [RIP], Cobb and LaMarche. A P2004 political train wreck. West Coast organization and structure is still a shadow of pre 2004. First hand information from Don Lake.