Friday, July 27, 2012

[gpga-forum] Your help needed to put Greens on Georgia Ballot, now till August 6th

Sent on behalf of Nan Garrett, 
2012 Petition Drive Coordinator
Georgia Green Party

Hello all:

Your help is urgently needed.  The Georgia Green Party is pursuing a
multi-pronged strategy to put its candidates for state assembly, county
sheriff and President of the United States on the ballot for the 2012
General Election.  

Basically, we need cash in the bank and feet in the street.  But first
a little background.

Our filing deadline is noon on August 6 but we would love to file
Friday August 3, if we can.  Our plan includes: (1) litigation
(see the postscript below); (2) continuing to canvass neighborhoods in
House District #57 where we have nominated Kwabena Nkromo and in Glynn
County where we have endorsed Reverend Zack Lyde for Sheriff;  and (3)
making a push to cover every voting precinct in those two jurisdictions
for the Tuesday July 31st General Primary. 

This year the Party is proud to offer a viable local Green candidate in
Atlanta for the state legislature who has served in the leadership of
his Neighborhood Planning Unit and worked to develop community gardens
which are feeding Atlanta residents in the West End.  To put Kwabena on
the ballot will require the valid signatures of nearly 1600 registered
voters.  His campaign has been knocking on doors every weekend, but an
infusion of help is needed to put them over the top.  

And on the Georgia Coast, we have endorsed three term past chairman of
the Georgia Green Party, Reverend Zack Lyde for Sheriff of Glynn County.
Putting Zack on the ballot will require just shy of 2600 valid
signatures.  

Typically, primary election day is where certain nonpartisan judicial
races are decided, plus the partisan primaries for voters to decide the
R's and D's nominees for the November ballot. Typically it occurs a
week after our petition filing deadline.  But due to a reapportionment
year only election calendar, we can use the Primaries this year for our
ballot access drive.  

This year, the Primary will also feature a public referendum on a
Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax or T-SPLOST, that
has raised the interest of the media and voters here in Georgia for
well over a month.

Wealthy developers and multinational corporations have convinced their
elected representatives to ask voters to pass a tax on ourselves.  A
study of the project list and financing mechanisms demonstrates that it
will do little to relieve congestion gridlock, little to shift our
dependence on cars for our daily commute or foreign wars of occupation
for oil; but much to undermine the ownership, funding and governance of
MARTA, Atlanta's premier and publicly owned transit system, built these
last forty years by the taxpayers of Fulton and DeKalb Counties as
white flight divested from our urban core and its public
infrastructure.  

Millions of dollars are being spent in a fevered effort to terrorize
voters into taxing ourselves during these already economically-stressed
times.  

For a variety of reasons you can find on our state party's website, the
Georgia Green Party is publicly opposing this tax.  We have an
opportunity this coming Tuesday to carry that message directly to
voters as they head into the polls.  And while we're at it, we intend
to collect enough signatures to put our candidates on the ballot and
support our litigation strategy.  

We need your help to do this right. 

Again, we need cash in the bank and feet in the street.  Here is how
you can help:

(1) You can make a monetary donation to the Georgia Green Party at
http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/.  Use the 'donate' button at the top
to donate funds using your debit card. 
    http://supporters.georgiagreenparty.org/supporters.cgi

(2) You can join the effort as a petitioner circulator, setting aside
August 31st and as much other time as you can to help us reach the
voters of House District #57 and of Glynn County or for the state-wide
petition, of your own community.  Use the button on our website or
follow this link directly to pledge your involvement and we will be in
touch:
    http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/Campaign2012/BallotAccessPetitionPledge

(3) You can offer housing and southern hospitality to supporters coming
from out of town.  Again we provide a button on our website, and the
link below where you can share with us what you have and how you can
help:
    http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/Campaign2012/SouthernHospitalityForBallotAccessInGeorgia

The Party has retained me coordinate these efforts and your reply to
this email will reach me and the Party officers who are eager to help
you help us give all Georgia voters Green options on November's
ballot.  Or call the numbers below to plug right in.  

Nan Garrett
2012 Petition Drive Coordinator 
Georgia Green Party

P.S.  Want extra incentive?  Jill Stein will be in Georgia next week,
most likely  arriving the evening of August 2 and staying through most
of August 3. That's right, Jill Stein is coming to Georgia next
week!  Come help us complete the petitioning job before Jill reaches
Georgia and we can use her presence as a media draw when we all
converge on the state offices to file our successful petitions for
ballot access for Kwabena Nkromo on the morning of Friday August 3rd.
We have a ways to go but that is still a 'do-able' goal.  But even if
we can't file by August 3rd, we have a final weekend before our Monday
noon filing deadline.

P.P.S.  Useful contact information: 

Bruce Dixon, 
Co-Chair, Georgia Green Party -
bruce.dixon@georgiagreenparty.org  
or 404-797-2087 

Kwabena Nkromo,
Green candidate House District 57
kwabena.nkromo@gmail.com 
or 404-991-0334 

Abiodun Henderson, 
Nkromo's campaign manager
kadeyonnah@hotmail.com 
or 678-458-3089 

So send people, fun, and money to the Georgia Green Party, as soon as
possible and help us make history by getting Greens Kwabena Nkromo,
Zack Lyde and Jill Stein on the Georgia ballot. 

P.P.P.S.  More on our ballot access litigation:

Our odds before the courts for putting Stein-Honkala on the Georgia
ballot are enhanced when we deliver at least five thousand signatures
for our state-wide candidates Stein-Honkala.  The reason we are seeking
5000 petition signatures for our state-wide candidates, rather than the
56,000 signatures the law requires, is because that is the number -
5000 - which would be sufficient for placing our slate on the ballot in
all but a handful of states in this nation.  Our case was recently
dismissed by the trial court, but our attorney Mike Raffauf has filed a
Motion to Reconsider, and is prepared to bring an appeal should that
motion fail.  We stand on the best precedents available in the Eleventh
Circuit.  With your help, we can demonstrate that the Green slate
enjoys that 'modicum of support' from the public, and that voters have
a right to see the Green candidates on the ballot.  

To follow the developing story of the Georgia Party's litigation
strategy, please link to:
    http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/category/campaign-2012/ballot-access-litigation

No comments:

Post a Comment