Come Out And Support Mary Norwood’s Ballot Access Fight
GIV will join Mary Norwood’s campaign and volunteers on Tuesday, July 13th at 11AM in support of her effort to ensure that her ballot access petitions are counted fairly, and that technicalities not get in the way of providing voters more choice.
Norwood will be presenting ballot access petitions to Fulton County’s Board of Registration and Elections, which has given initial indications that Norwood’s effort will not be successful due to minor technicalities. Norwood and team have done the very hard work of collecting over 20,000 signatures of the course of the past couple of months, taking on the incredibly unfair ballot access requirements for non-major-party candidates.
It’s been nearly impossible for most people to gain access to the ballot here in Georgia – the requirements are so high that prospective candidates often give up before they start. She and her campaign have done the work to get the very substantial grassroots support to do what is nearly impossible for most people to do.
GIV will be on hand to support her demand that the County Board should take the voters’ wishes into consideration, and that ballot petitions be counted and counted fairly.
The major parties are comfortably in power, and are more concerned with making it hard for others (including voters) to get into the process – they are about more impossibility, rather than more possibility. Please join us, and Mary Norwood’s campaign and volunteers, to insist that the Fulton County Board take a stand and support the additional choices voters are asking for.
DETAILS BELOW FROM NORWOOD’S WEBSITE:
Join us on Tuesday for the Petition Turn-In at 11:00 a.m. and the Board of Elections Meeting at 2:00 p.m.
There’s a cafeteria at Fulton County Government Center, where we can have lunch in between.
| DATE: | Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | |
| TIME: | 11:00 a.m. | Petition Turn-In, Room #4075 |
| Noon | Lunch at Cafeteria (or on your own) | |
| 2:00 p.m. | Board of Elections Meeting, Room #4056 | |
| PLACE: | Fulton County Government Center | |
| 141 Pryor Road | ||
| Atlanta, GA 30303 | ||
| PARKING: | Underground Parking Lot across the street and surface lots nearby | |
In Republican Field, Georgia Indies Give A Thumbs-Up to Sen. Jeff Chapman
Over the past several months, Georgia Independent Voters has reached out to all of the candidates for Governor of Georgia, to talk with them about their views on independent voters here in Georgia and where they stand around issues of structural political reform that are important to independent voters here in Georgia.
We heard from, and spoke with, several candidates, and were impressed with the candidacies of both Carl Camon, a Democrat, and Jeff Chapman, a Republican. Both Camon and Chapman were supportive of key structural reforms independents want to see here in Georgia – both were supportive of a verifiable voting record, of maintaining open primaries, of radically lowering ballot access barriers for independent and third party candidates, and of giving political independents representation on the currently highly partisan Federal Election Commission. We appreciated the opportunity to speak to all of the candidates who responded to our invitation.
Among the Republican candidates, we found Jeff Chapman to be very engaging and responsive, both in his careful and detailed responses to our questionnaire, and to our questions during our interview with him. Chapman very quickly understood the basis for independents’ concerns regarding the current political system, and as he learned more, spoke practically and passionately about finding ways to open the process, and ensuring it becomes more inclusive. More importantly, he was interested in finding ways to bring political access problems into the light of day. He repeatedly indicated that he thought the best way to address issues is to foster genuine and open discussion among all parties – and he clearly felt that we need to include all citizens of the state, not just those in one of the major political Parties.
Senator Chapman came across as someone who is concerned about the state of the political system, and expressed interest in working with independents on this score, to work toward more inclusion and honesty in the system. A key impression we had, based on his history and our conversation, was his willingness to stand for issues of principle while in elected office. In our experience, it is one thing to have principles, and another thing to fight for them when going against the grain. Senator Chapman’s history indicates that he has stood up for honesty and openness and has worked in a bipartisan and non-partisan manner, even when his actions (and sometimes his candidacy) were met with disfavor by the Republican Party establishment. While Chapman regards his politics as conservative, his view of the state of our political system seemed to align with independents’ non-ideological concerns, and he seemed to appreciate the importance of the non-ideological electoral reform issues, such as ballot access reform, which independents consider to be critical to revive our political system. While GIV has elected not to endorse for Governor at this time, we see Senator Chapman as a great choice for voters who elect to participate in the Republican primary election on July 20.
Please view Senator Chapman’s and Mayor Camon’s written responses to our independent questionnaire.
Independents Call on Mayor Kasim Reed To Speak Out on Ballot Access Controversy
On June 29th, GIV sent the below letter to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed asking him to speak out in support of independents, and in opposition to recent actions of Fulton County Commissioner John Eaves’ campaign for reelection. The Eaves’ campaign’s recent actions represent blatant partisan manipulation of the political system with no intent other than to avoid honest competition. Last year Reed received GIV’s endorsement in his campaign for Mayor after expressing support for various structural reforms of the political system including ballot access reform.
“Dear Mayor Reed,
We are writing to ask for your help on important matters of democratic process in the Fulton County Commissioner’s race. When we spoke about political process prior to your election as mayor, we were impressed by your concern to have true competition and a level playing field in elections. We would like to urge you to use your influence to affect the outcome of a hearing that will be taking place tomorrow regarding Mary Norwood’s ballot petitions being challenged by Commissioner Eaves. We appreciate your support on this matter. Below is text of a letter that we sent to Commissioner Eaves.
Letter to Commissioner John Eaves
Mayor Reed, we appreciate your keeping up with the honesty and intent of the voters, and not allow minor technicality be used unfairly in the election process. We truly appreciate your consideration on this matter.
Sincerely,
Murray Dabby, Thyrsa Gravely and Mike Pickering
Georgia Independent Voters
GIV Objects to Abuse of Election Law by Major Party Candidate
On Tuesday June 29th, Georgia Independent Voters sent the below letter to Democratic incumbent Fulton County Commissioner John Eaves. Eaves’ campaign has begun an effort to disqualify more than 8,000 ballot access petition signatures collected by independent candidate Mary Norwood (as an independent candidate for Fulton County Commission Chair, due to Georgia elections law, Norwood must collect more than 20,000 signatures in order to have her name on the ballot) on the basis that the word “Fulton” in the county field on ballot petitions is pre-printed and not handwritten.
“Dear Commissioner John Eaves,
“We are writing on behalf of Georgia Independent Voters, a grassroots organization that is working to bring the voice of independents into the political process. We are part of a network of other grassroots independent organizations in over 30 states who are affiliated with independentvoting.org.
“We have been following the campaign for Fulton County Commission Chair and read recently of your actions challenging petition signatures collected by Mary Norwood’s independent campaign for the seat you currently hold, on the sole basis of a typed versus a handwritten “Fulton” in the county field of the official ballot access petition. Disqualification of these signatures on such a ridiculously minor technicality would be a slap in the face of the honest intent of her campaign workers who are trying to do the already onerous work of gathering an unwieldy amount of signatures within the county. Georgia is already known for the unfairness of its ballot access requirements as compared to other parts of the country. Norwood’s campaign is required to collect signatures from nearly 1 in 10 voters to qualify to get on the ballot, and will pay on the order of $3-4 per signature to qualify (roughly $80,000-$90,000), while as a major party candidate, you are required to pay only $1,251.45 to qualify. Even more importantly, as an organization of independent voters here in Georgia, your actions are a denial of the voices of every one of the voters who signed those sheets, who were expressing their support to ensure a greater variety of choice in our political system.
“Independents are nonpartisan, and fall across the political spectrum. We number a large plurality in most elections in recent years, and are a majority of registered voters in multiple states, including Massachusetts and Utah. In Georgia, in 2008, over one million self-identified independents voted in the general election. Regardless of ideology, one thing that independents have in common is a growing anger regarding the extent to which the two major parties write and exploit the rules of our political system for their own benefit. Independents are more and more recognizing and raising our voices about the use of unfair political practices that prevent access to the political process, whether the barriers keeping citizens out of the system (for example, closed primaries) and those like ballot access barriers, limiting candidates’ access to the system and limiting voters’ choices in elections. The system is already broken and we are concerned about politicians using the dysfunction to create unfair advantage.
“We ask that you honor the hard work of hundreds of voters in Atlanta by backing down from any efforts to deny hard sought signatures from being used in this Fulton County race, and we ask you to speak out publicly against this kind of abuse of the rules of the system to limit voter choice.
“Sincerely,
“Murray Dabby, Thyrsa Gravely and Mike Pickering
Georgia Independent Voters”
Georgia Independent Voters Meeting Location?
Hello Georgia Independents!
Interest in GIV is increasing, and we would like to find a “home” for independents in Atlanta where we could meet regularly. We have been discussing possibilities for a place to meet, but we want to open it to others. Please let us know your ideas! The Dems have Manuel’s, and surely the Reps have a home as well. Let’s find a home for independents!
For those outside Atlanta, please let us know of places you think independents could use to meet in your hometown! A coffee shop? A diner? A pub, bar or restaurant?