{"id":2839,"date":"2025-01-20T01:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T01:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2025-03-24T00:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T00:22:23","slug":"gpus-view-on-new-jersey-legislatures-attack-on-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/from-gpus\/gpus-view-on-new-jersey-legislatures-attack-on-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"GPUS View on New Jersey Legislature’s Attack on Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Note:\u00a0 GPNJ will be posting it’s own thoughts on the current, ongoing attack on democracy coming from our State Elected Officials.\u00a0 Below is the viewpoint of the Green Party of the United States.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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STOP the NJ Bill Limiting Voter Choice\u00a0<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Instead of addressing the urgent concerns of New Jersey residents after a low turnout 2024 general election for their state, New Jersey Democrats have quickly pushed through a bill that would further limit NJ voter choice and access to the ballot. On Thursday Dec 19, the New Jersey General Assembly voted along party lines to dramatically increase the requirements for independent candidates to have access to the ballot.<\/p>

If signed into law, Assembly Bill 5117 would more-than-double the ballot access petition signature requirements for “statewide candidates” such as Governor, Treasurer and President from 800 valid signatures to 2,000 signatures. The increase will do little to bar wealthy candidates from accessing Ballot Access but will cost New Jersey voters, and most independent candidates, a lot more time and money.<\/p>

Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D), a cosponsor of the bill, and others have claimed that the present requirements potentially allow for too many candidates, which would make elections too \u201cchaotic\u201d and \u201cconfusing\u201d, even though they have failed to provide documentation of widespread confusion over the number of candidates.<\/p>

According to expert Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, \u201cthe US Supreme Court said in 1968 in Williams v Rhodes, in the concurrence by Justice Harlan, that 8 candidates on the ballot for a single office would not confuse anybody.\u201d<\/p>

New Jersey had only 9 candidates for president on the ballot in 2024. In the NJ US Senate race there were only 6 candidates. In no US House race were there more than 6 candidates, and the average congressional district had four candidates on the ballot.<\/p>

GPUS calls upon all supporters of democracy and voter choice to contact Governor Phil Murphy and tell him to:<\/p>

  • VETO AB 5117. It will only create more bureaucracy and create obstacles for voter choice for New Jersey residents<\/p><\/li>

  • ENABLE\u00a0 digital signature process for all candidate ballot access which will eliminate clutter bureaucracy and\u00a0 provide more protection and privacy for those signing petitions as well.<\/p><\/li>

  • Pass legislation that will reduce the vote threshold for political parties in New Jersey from 10% to 1%. New Jersey\u2019s laws intentionally prevent the establishment of new parties. Voter choice and political options create stronger, more democratic and more informed elections.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

    Our Prescription for Democracy:<\/p>

    The Green Party of the United States calls for enacting Ranked Choice Voting and Proportional Representation such as the Fair Representation Act.<\/p>

    • Publicly-funded federal, state and local elections<\/p><\/li>

    • Free and equal time on television and radio for all ballot-qualified candidates<\/p><\/li>

    • Prohibition of large corporations to spend on influencing elections<\/p><\/li>

    • Elimination of all ballot access laws that discriminate against opposition parties<\/p><\/li>

    • Abolishment of the Electoral College<\/p><\/li>

    • Full felony re-enfranchisement upon completion of sentences<\/p><\/li>

    • Restoration and strong enforcement of the Federal Voting Rights Act<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Note:\u00a0 GPNJ will be posting it’s own thoughts on the current, ongoing attack on democracy coming from our State Elected Officials.\u00a0 Below is the viewpoint of the Green Party of the United States. STOP the NJ Bill Limiting Voter Choice\u00a0 Instead of addressing the urgent concerns of New Jersey residents after a low turnout 2024 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-from-gpus","8":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3135,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/3135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnj.org\/test-gpnj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}