Friend:
As you may know, Greens in North
Carolina are in jeopardy of losing our registered Green voter status.
That means the North Carolina Green Party may have to collect over
14,000 petition signatures in order to regain our legal party status,
and with it our ballot access and the ability for people in North
Carolina to register as Green voters again.
Regardless of the obstacle, the
NCGP will be running several candidates at the local level this year.
But right now, we need your support: please contact Governor
Cooper and ask for Executive Relief due to the Covid-19
pandemic.
This is a time-sensitive request and cannot wait—please
send your request to Cooper today. See below for a sample message to Cooper for you to
copy and paste.
On January 26, the NCGP sent
correspondence to the governor's office, asking for Cooper to cancel
or reduce the ballot-access petition requirements due to Covid, so
that the NCGP can regain its ballot line and legal party status
without being forced to petition during a global pandemic. We are
asking you to send the following correspondence below too. You may
personalize if you wish; however, the most important thing is that you
please send it today.
You can copy and paste the correspondence
below in the body of the official “Contact Governor Cooper”
form. Or you can email the
correspondence to [email protected]. Or both. (Note: we cannot verify that the office of
the governor will receive an email to that address; so we recommend
that you send it via the "Contact Governor Cooper" form, or
both.)
SAMPLE MESSAGE TO
COOPER:
Governor Cooper,
I am contacting you to request that
the Office of the Governor:
- Immediately issue an Emergency Executive Order to the State
Board of Elections to keep the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP)
certified as a legal party and/or to retain all North Carolina voters
presently registered as Green as a Green-Inactive status, honoring
their wishes to remain Green Party voters, for a period of 18 months.
Please honor the democratic wishes of your constituents to remain
registered with the party of their choice.
- Issue a
one-time Emergency Executive Order to waive the petition requirement
for all parties that had ballot access during the previous election
cycle due to the extreme dangers of petitioning during Covid-19. The
NCGP does not wish to ask for special treatment; we ask out of
legitimate and urgent concern for the safety of our volunteer members
and the general public.
- Issue an
Emergency Executive Order to lower by at least 75 percent the petition
requirements toward establishing a new political party and to allow
provisions for electronic petition signatures toward establishing or
re-establishing a political party. If petitioning is to remain a
requirement by law, then your allowing for electronic petition
signature gathering is the only safe form of petitioning during the
Covid-19 pandemic.
By honoring these reasonable
requests in the interest of the safety of our volunteers and the
general public, the office of the governor would be sending this
message to North Carolina residents:
- The NCGP
and other alternative parties should not have to risk the health of
their volunteers and the general public to maintain ballot status and
survival as a political party. Instead these parties should follow the
guidelines of your Executive Order and not participate in dangerous
and socially irresponsible public petitioning.
- The
state of North Carolina respects the democratic wishes of its
constituents to remain registered with their party of choice during
the exceptional circumstances of this pandemic.
Governor Cooper, we are confident
that you will look beyond partisan politics and make the just and
ethical decision to ensure the health, safety, and democratic
participation of the residents of North Carolina. You have long argued
against voter suppression, and we ask that you honor those same
intentions and values by fulfilling our request to uphold democratic
participation and voter choice.
After emailing the governor, if you
wish, you can also send a letter to him via snail mail:
North Carolina Office of the
Governor 20301 Mail Service
Center Raleigh, NC
27699-0301
You may read the NCGP's
full correspondence that we sent to the governor.
Please help NCGP to regain our
ballot status: make a donation, become a dues-paying member, or get NCGP
merchandise.
Thanks so much for your support. With your help, we're going to
regain our ballot line and ability to register to vote Green, one way
or another, and soon!
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