Email Congress now to save the Presidential Election Campaign Fund that Greens rely on to level the playing field!

Friend --

The "Freedom To Vote Act," S2747, has just been introduced to replace the "For The People Act," also known as HR1.

Grassroots Democracy defenders will recall HR1 contained poison pills that would have cut off our access to public matching funds for presidential campaigns — one of our most important resources for ballot access and nationwide campaigning — by quintupling the amount of money candidates would have to raise to qualify.

Since HR1 contained long-overdue voter protections, Greens campaigned to amend HR1, remove the poison pills, and pass the provisions that protect our rights at the ballot box. HR1 ultimately failed to pass the Senate in any form.

Now, the Democrats are back with the “Freedom To Vote Act” and a new approach to killing public funding for Green presidential candidates: eliminating the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, entirely!

We are fighting for our very existence against the Democrats' coordinated, nationwide attack on our ballot access and access to public campaign funding. They are trying to erase hard-won progress you made possible. Will you donate $25 today to fight back against this unrelenting assault on our party and Grassroots Democracy?

Apparently, the “Freedom To Vote” does not include the freedom to vote for candidates who represent your values or the freedom to organize electorally against the parties of War and Wall Street.

Tell Congress: Ensure The "Freedom To Vote Act" Includes Voting For Who You Want

Though pieces of this new bill will protect elections and voting rights — and those provisions need to be passed — S2747 still contains poison pills for grassroots, multi-party democracy: 

• Eliminating the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which Green presidential candidates have used for presidential primary matching funds
  
  
• Permitting party committees to contribute $10,000 (up from the current $5,000) to House candidates (including House candidates who qualify for matching funds)
  
  
• Qualifying for Congressional matching funds will require  at least 1,000 contributors and $50,000 in contributions of $200 or less. 

The Green Party opposes the elimination of presidential matching funds and the qualifying threshold for matching funds for House candidates that is beyond the reach of most Green Party House candidates.

The Green Party supports amending S2747 to eliminate the public campaign finance section which will suppress grassroots candidates and will make it harder to pass the  good things in the bill, such as pre-empting Republican state laws for partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression, election subversion, intimidation of voters and election administrators, and the disclosure of “dark money.”

Only then will S2747 truly be a “Freedom to Vote Act.”

Sign the Petition, then share the petition. And consider making a gift to the Green Party today, as we continue to fight for a more inclusive, fair and true democracy for all.

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org/