A federal judge has rebuffed a last-minute bid by the Green Party to get itself and its candidates on this year’s ballot. Arizona Public Radio’s Howard Fischer reports.
Parties remain listed from election to election by having enough people signed up. Secretary of State Ken Bennett took the Green Party off the ballot after its adherents fell below the threshold. The party did not meet a Feb. 27 deadline to submit enough names to requalify so the party sued to declare the deadline an illegal hardship. But, Judge Neil Wake pointed out the Greens have met the same deadline in the past under similar circumstances. Party co-chair Angel Torres said that’s different.
“Because of population increase here in Arizona and increased voter registration, the number of signatures we needed to get has increased. So, for example, four years ago in 2010 we had to turn in roughly a little over 20,000 signatures. This election cycle we had to turn in 23,041,” Torres said.
Wake also noted the new Americans Elect Party managed to comply. But, Torres called the comparison invalid.
“Americans Elect had some wealthy benefactors where they were able to pay for professional petitions. We at the Green Party have depended mostly on volunteers to help collect our signatures,” Torres said.
Torres is not giving up, with the party already filing an appeal.
