Green News and Opinion

In a column published by the News and Observer of Raleigh was written by Hart Matthews of the North Carolina Green Party.

While I don't much care for the slam on South Carolina, he sure does make a convincing argument that the voters loose out most of all by keeping us off the ballot. Hit the link to read more...


Hart Matthews, Correspondent
DURHAM - Suppose for a minute that you disagreed with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Not that you necessarily disagreed with their platforms and their public statements, but say you didn't like how the parties actually govern.

You wouldn't be alone, by the way. We all know President Bush's approval ratings have taken a dive, but recent surveys show Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing too. More than half of Americans polled said they don't see Democrats offering alternatives to the current Republican governance.

Now, suppose you decided to run for office. You don't identify yourself as a Democrat or a Republican, so you'll run as an independent candidate. Even better, you'll start your own political party. You've got good ideas, there are people who agree with you. What are your chances of getting elected in North Carolina?

You might better ask what your chances are of getting on the ballot in North Carolina.

If you're a political party, you'll first have to gather 69,734 petition signatures and get them validated. Roughly one-third of all petition signatures are tossed out by the board of elections, so you'll be shooting for about 105,000, or one for every 73 people in the state.

To get there, you'll have to hire professional petitioners (no third party has ever done it without them), and you'll probably have to get big funding from out of state. If you're as efficient as the Libertarian Party of North Carolina, maybe you can do it in nine months at a cost of $100,000.

Good luck in the election! But remember, if your party doesn't pull down 10 percent of the vote for governor or president, you'll be starting all over in the next election cycle. Don't you wish you had that $100,000 for advertising now?

• • •

It doesn't have to be like this. North Carolina's current ballot access requirements, in both absolute numbers and per-capita, are the third most stringent in the nation. Until the provisions for independent candidates were overturned in federal court recently, independents had to raise about 99,000 verified signatures, the second-highest requirement in the country.

All this in a state where more than half of the races (86 of 170) for the General Assembly will be uncontested this November (and where more than half of eligible adults decline to vote).

To put things in perspective, two-thirds of states will grant independent ballot access with 10,000 signatures or less. Twenty-one states grant party ballot access with 10,000 or less. Nine states will let parties and independents on the ballot with 5,000 or less. And two states will put a party on the ballot with zero signatures.

South Carolina requires 10,000 signatures for ballot access, whether you're a political party or independent candidate.

You'd think ballot access reform would be a slam dunk in North Carolina. Who wants to be less democratic than South Carolina?

However, ballot access reform is not necessarily popular in the General Assembly. A bill introduced in the House last year would reduce the signature requirement by three-fourths (to 17,434 verified signatures) and bring the vote threshold to stay on the ballot down to 2 percent. That's an improvement that still leaves North Carolina in the top 20 most restrictive states.

The Electoral Fairness Act of 2005 (House Bill 88) passed out of two House committees by unanimous vote. But on the last day of the session, the bill was amended back to the state's current signature requirements. The way it currently stands in the Senate Judiciary I committee, House Bill 88 would actually make it more difficult to get on North Carolina's ballot.

The legislature should let go its stranglehold on elections. The N.C. Open Elections Coalition, a group of third parties and electoral reform groups, is asking the Senate to pass House Bill 88 in the form it passed two House committees last year.

Our elected officials should make it easier, not harder, for the citizens to get involved in their government. Third parties believe their viewpoints are vital to the healthy functioning of our state and our democratic system. You don't have to agree with them on that point to believe that fairness demands better ballot access laws.

(Hart Matthews is director of the N.C. Green Party. The N.C. Open Elections Coalition is online at www.ncopenelections.org)