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HI ,
Well, we finally made the mainstream media, but while 2016 was all about
slandering Stein/Baraka as Russian assets, this year it's that Howie and
Angela are tools of the Republican Party that are denying people in
Wisconsin their absentee ballots.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Green Party's track record as
being the party of election integrity is clear. _WE_ are the ones regularly
pressing for integrity from elections authorities around the country. _WE_
are the ones pushing to replace bad voting machines with auditable paper
ballots and ending voter suppression via racist voter ID laws and party
suppression.
The simple solution in Wisconsin is for the Democrats to immediately stop
playing games and using delaying tactics to prevent voters from being able
to support third-party candidates, get new ballots printed that include
Howie and Angela as a choice, and send them out. Both major parties collude
to boost their own electoral chances in a myriad of ways and deny voters'
and candidates' major rights.
So what exactly is happening in Wisconsin? Here's a quick run-down:
* When we realized that Angela Walker's change of address could become an
issue, we took it upon ourselves to inform the Wisconsin Elections
Commission.
* After three different sets of instructions over three days, the
commission staff finally instructed us to include a notarized statement of
candidacy with Angela's new address when we filed the petitions...which we
completed to the letter.
* The state law only accepts a maximum of 4,000 signatures to be
submitted for a minimum of 2,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot. We
actually collected nearly 6,000. The staff of the Board of Elections found
that more than 3,000 of the signatures were valid.
* A challenge was filed against our petitions, claiming that the change
of address invalidated many of them, which conveniently brought us to below
2,000 signatures.
* NONE of the signatures were actually ruled invalid.
* We were summoned to a hearing with the Elections Commission, during
which we were restricted from offering testimony that pointed out the
breakdown in process from the commission staff. Our rights of due process
were severely restricted by the chair of the commission, a Democrat
appointee.
* The attorney representing the Democratic challenger huddled with the
chair of the commission before the hearing to agree on how to restrict our
testimony.
* The commission ended up being deadlocked on the validity of the
signatures, which means that they are presumed to be valid.
* The commission did uphold the challenge to Angela's address.
* Because of these irregularities, we decided to sue. Because of the time
constraints before absentee ballots were to be printed, we sued in the
Wisconsin Supreme Court.
* It took time to find an attorney that would represent us, and every
Democrat-aligned attorney we contacted ignored us.
* The Court ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to provide a list
of everyone who has requested an absentee ballot, as well as a list of
everyone who has actually received one. That list was due last Tuesday at 5
pm CDT.
* As of our last information, the Elections Commission was not able to
provide those lists to the Court. They reported in the media that they were
only able to find out information about some of the counties.
* Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported [8] that NO COUNTY
has actually mailed out an absentee ballot.
The Democrats are telling the media that they've mailed out thousands of
ballots, when really county elections officials printed _mailing labels_
and count these as "sent." This is pure spin and a departure from the
truth. They are waging a media battle against us to cover up their own
failure to respect the democratic process and to ensure that accurate data
was available on demand.
How can we trust that our elections will be fair, when the process is used
as a soccer ball between the two ruling parties?
The delay is actually coming from the Democrats, not this campaign or the
Green Party. If they would have allowed us to offer a proper testimony in
the hearing, they would have been compelled to deny the challenge. If they
would have accurate information on county elections data at their
fingertips as they should have, there would be no delay.
Further, we have never had any conversations with the state GOP. They are
not directing our legal actions. We are compelled by the wishes of nearly
6,000 Wisconsinites who want to see the Green Party on the ballot.
We will not back down from our position that Howie Hawkins and Angela
Walker should be placed on the ballot without further delay. Our signatures
are solid, the paperwork is in order, and in the interest of serving
democracy, the Democrats should abandon the spin and misinformation and
step aside so that absentee ballots can be sent out.
In solidarity,
TEAM HOWIE
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Web: howiehawkins.us
Email:
[email protected]
Phone: (315) 220-0101
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