Democratic operatives have achieved the remarkable task of removing the Green Party from the ballot in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. For the first time in two decades, the Green Party will not appear on the ballot in either state. The Democratic strategy was clear: remove the spoiler Green Party from the ballot and you will force progressive voters to cast a vote for Old Joe Biden. In a close election such as 2016 and possibly 2020, the 1% of Green voters could be the deciding margin for Biden to defeat Trump. Democrats are cheering the decisions: CNN “Pennsylvania Supreme Court election rulings are big wins for Biden.”
There certainly is reason for Democrats to be pleased with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Not only did they strike the Green Party from the ballot, they also overrode the plain language of the statute and unilaterally extended the date when ballots can be received (3 days after election day rather than election day), permitted Democrats to place ballot baskets around heavily Democratic areas such as Philadelphia to make it easier to vote, and forbade Republicans from using monitors who do not come from the specific county of the voting booth (Republicans have trouble getting monitors in Philadelphia where there are very few Republican voters but lots of Democratic voters). Collectively these measures offer a real opportunity for political operatives to commit fraud and change the outcome of the election. We don’t think these measures are really helpful for democracy and raise the specter of a tarnished election outcome.
However, as outlandish as these actions are, the disenfranchisement of the Green Party is perhaps even more brazen. In Wisconsin, the Democrats challenged the Green Party attempt to get on the ballot. Wisconsin law requires 2000 voter signatures from registered voters to get on the ballot. Wisconsin law allows a party to submit up to 4000 signatures to get on the ballot. The Green Party submitted over 3900 signatures. The Democrats challenged the Green Party signatures on the grounds that the address of the Vice Presidential candidate Angela Walker listed on some of their forms was incorrect as she had moved during the process. Normally, courts and electoral commissions try to look at the substance with the goal of creating a vibrant democracy. However, in Wisconsin, the voting officials struck removed some 2100 signatures solely because of the address of the VP candidate, and then got the Supreme Court to rubber stamp the decision on a 4-3 vote. As one of the dissenting justices said, “The Commission ignored its legal obligations under Wis[consin law} … [and] suppressed the rights of voters to choose Green Party candidates for President and VicePresident.”
Emboldened by their success in Wisconsin, the Democrats went after the Greens in Pennsylvania as well. The Democrats challenged the way that the Green Party had nominated stand-in nominees until they had held their Convention and replaced the stand-ins with the eventual nominees Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker. While using COVID as a rationale for extending the date by which ballots can be received and have to be counted, the same Court ignored how COVID has made it more challenging for smaller parties to file paper work and gather signatures to get on the ballot. Using a technicality about how the Green Party had sent the stand-in forms to the state, the Democrats got the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to rule in a 5-2 decision that the Hawkins and Walker should be removed from the ballot.
We wonder if the super partisan legal efforts by the Democrats will boomerang. First, the appearance of stifling voters and blocking the Green Party is not one that resonates with democratic ideals. Democrats have repeatedly accused Republicans of curtailing voting, but we note that the Republican Party did not try to block the Libertarians from being on the ballot. Attempts to ensure election integrity are quite different than removing candidates from the ballot. The hypocrisy is palpable. Second, the Democrats have completely antagonized the Green Party faithful. On Twitter, Green Party voters are saying they will never vote for Biden. Most are saying they will write in their candidate, a few saying they will vote for Trump to spite Biden. Third, this whole process has given the Green Party a tremendous amount of free publicity. Howie Hawkins is no Ralph Nader or Jill Stein. Suddenly, he has a lot of free, sympathetic press.
Conventional wisdom is that today was a big win for Democrats. It certainly was not a big win for democracy, but we’re not sure that all the underhanded tactics will not boomerang on the Democrats.
NewEnglandPolitics.com 