Indiana Green Party

or How the Indiana Democratic and Republican Parties Defeat Competition Before Election Day

by Kathleen Pettijean

Over the last century, Indiana lawmakers have made ballot access for independent and minor party candidates increasingly more difficult. By repeatedly amending state election laws since 1933, Indiana legislators, comprised almost entirely of members of the Democratic and Republican parties, have erected barriers to ballot access that are now nearly insurmountable.

Gradual Erosion of Ballot Access for Independents and “Minor” Parties

Prior to 1933, for an independent or minor party candidate to run for a state or federal office in Indiana, state law required the submission of 500 signatures 20 days prior to the general election in November. Over the next 7 decades, the deadline for signature submission crept up to September 1st, then to July 15th. In 2001, Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon signed SB 329, which moved independent and minor party candidate signature petition deadlines to June 30th. These latest moves deprived citizens of the opportunity to gather signatures over the summer months where it is easier to find large crowds in public places such as state and county fairs, summer festivals, family gatherings and, ironically, 4th of July parades.

At the same time lawmakers narrowed the signature-gathering window, they re-wrote the law to increase the number of signatures required for anyone other than Democratic or Republican candidates to be on the ballot. The current formula for the number of signatures is 2% of the total votes cast for Secretary of State in the previous general election. So while Indiana’s population only doubled from 1933 to 2001, the current number of signatures required for a minor party or independent candidate’s name to appear on the ballot for a state or federal office increased 64-fold to 32,741.

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, March 20, 2008

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens warn that election of Obama, Clinton, or McCain will not reverse the meltdown touched off by the subprime mortgage crisis

Greens blame bipartisan failure to recognize Enron-style abuses, SEC and Federal Reserve Board indulgence of banks and lending institutions for the crisis: cozy relationship between Democratic and Republican politicians with industry has betrayed US homeowners; seniors, African Americans, and Latinos were special targets for lending deception

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders and candidates warned that the election of Democrats and Republicans to Congress and the White House will do little to stem the financial meltdown touched off by the subprime mortgage crisis.

The party called the crisis evidence of the failure of deregulation and corporate-friendly lending and housing policies. Greens urged a far-reaching overhaul of economic policy to meet the needs of the American people, with an emphasis on accountability, close regulation of financial institutions, and rethinking the status of corporations and their power over democratic government.

"Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain are too cozy with Wall Street and major financial institutions to take real action against abuses by banking and credit industries," said Carol Brouillet, Green candidate for Congress in California's District 14 (http://www.carolforcongress.org). "The subprime mortgage crisis is the result of Enron-style corporate practices, policies that impose debt on working Americans, false inducements made to borrowers, and CEO recklessness, ignored by the SEC and by Democratic and Republican officeholders until too late."

Jim Coplen, Co-chair Green Party of the United States

In 2002 I read Michael Moore’s book Stupid White Men, in which he praised Ralph Nader and recommended his book, Crashing the Party. That book was, of course, about Nader’s 2000 run for the U.S. Presidency on the Green Party ticket. Shortly after reading that, I found the Indiana Green Party’s web site and emailed an inquiry. I have, essentially, never looked back.

I had always voted Independent, but like others found ballot choices increasingly less diverse. The Democrats and Republicans offered little real difference between them. There no longer seemed a “lesser evil,” just more evil everywhere.

Some of us from the Midwest who came of age in the ’60s grew up complacent and conservative, following the lead of our elders. Only later did we find that many of the values upon which we’d based our lives were false, naïve assumptions (Nixon and the Vietnam War helped bring us to that point). We learned to think more carefully about our decisions, both political and personal, and looked to see if they were based on honest analysis, or something we had been spoon-fed by a manipulated media and our own government.

We have largely come to believe this country is being controlled and sold, by and to, big business. Basic fairness has been lost. Cheap power goes to big corporations as the cost for poor families trying to heat their homes goes higher. People die of cancer because manufacturing wastes ex hausted into their neighborhoods has poisoned them. Forests and farmlands are being swallowed at an alarming rate; much of our well water is too tainted to drink. The list of abuses is nearly endless.

McCain Survives Challenge to His Indiana Petition
March 15th, 2008 Ballot Access News, by Richard Winger
Indiana requires presidential primary candidates to submit 4,500 signatures in order to appear on a major party presidential primary. Furthermore, there must be 500 signatures from each of the state’s 9 U.S. House districts. John McCain’s petition was upheld on March 12 by the Indiana Election Commission, even though there was doubt that he had 500 valid signatures from the 4th district.

McCain submitted 498 signatures that everyone agrees were valid, from the 4th district, on February 12. There were also 3 signatures on a petition from Monroe County (a county that is split into two different U.S. House districts) that were questionable, because that petition didn’t say which U.S. House district they were from.

McCain then submitted another 13 valid signatures from the 4th district on February 22.

Indiana practice is not to accept petitions on a piecemeal basis. In other words, petitioners only get to turn in signatures once. If there aren’t enough, a supplemental petition isn’t permitted, even if the supplemental petition is turned in on or before the deadline.

It is also Indiana practice that petition forms must be completely filled out, and omitting the district number is usually fatal.

BY PATRICK GUINANE
pguinane@nwitimes.com
Thursday, March 13, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS | Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's spot on the Indiana ballot is safe.

The bipartisan Indiana Election Commission voted 4-0 Wednesday to reject a challenge by Indiana University student Thomas Cook, a liberal blogger who argued the McCain campaign hadn't secure enough petition signatures.

To get on the ballot, a presidential candidate must secure signatures from 500 voters in each of Indiana's nine congressional districts. Cook said the McCain camp fell at least two signatures short in the 4th District, which covers west central Indiana.

The commission's partisan staff came up with two different petition counts -- 511 and 514. But Cook asked the commission to throw out 14 additional petitions the McCain campaign filed just before last month's deadline.

But Sarah Steele Riordan, a Democratic commission member, said the important thing was that the campaign filed enough signatures by the deadline, and that Hoosiers deserve the chance to vote for the GOP nominee.

"If there are 514 (signatures), if there are 511, if there are 501 -- that's enough," she said.

Thomas Wheeler II, the commission's Republican chairman, said the dispute shows that state lawmakers need to overhaul the state's "arcane" ballot access laws, which he called "fraught with error" and "confusion."