Blog

On the initiative of Thano Paris, state committee member and a former co-chair of the Georgia Party, members of the Georgia Party leadership sought to engage with and support the #IRunWithAhmaud effort to demand justice for the lynching death of Ahmaud Arberey, murdered in the streets of Brunswick Georgia on February 23rd.

After consultation with a meeting of the state committee, current state committee members Thano Paris and Hugh Esco, along with former state party chairman Rev. Zack Lyde, of Brunswick Georgia, have been participating in regular conference calls with local organizers in Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit. Green party participants have been providing technical assistance and support to the Recall Barnhill campaign which seeks to give voters of the six-county district an opportunity to remove their district attorney from office.

Barnhill is one of the three District Attornies (from the Waycross, Brunswick and Atlantic Judicial Circuits) who abused their prosecutorial discretion to deny the family of Mr. Abrbery the equal protection of the law, leaving it to the Georgia Attorney General to assign prosecutors from Northwest Georgia to step in and prosecute the case being braught now against Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr (who shot the video documenting the crime).

Early meetings of the coalition organized to perfect and refile the recall application earlier rejected. These meetings also engaged Decatur based election attorney Bryan Sells, particularly on an effort to overturn the district residency requirement restricting who is eligible to circulate a recall petition. The Georgia Recall Act required residency in the district the subject of a recall among recall petitition circulators. Last week, Sells filed litigation to overturn that requirement (motion for temporary restraining order). In a Federal Court Order signed Friday, June 19th, Judge Lee Martin May struck down the provision in a Consent Judgement among the parties.

While Party officers continue to urge Georgia Greens willing to travel to invest time and energy in Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District to help put our nominee Jimmy Cooper on the Congressional ballot before the August 14th filing deadline, we also encourage those inclined to help with this recall effort in the Waycross Judicial Circuit.  The forty-five day petitioning window opens today, June 22nd, 2020.  A successful petition will require 21,998 valid petitions (30% of those registered and qualified to vote in the last election in 2018).

 

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” (Frederick Douglass, 1857)

On the occasion of the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, the struggle which is being broadcast before the world today is against ​ police brutality . ​ This brutality, which is looped within 24/7 ratings-driven news cycles, is presented to us as the killing of unarmed people of African descent by police officers. This is not a struggle that we shy away from because not only do we believe that black lives matter, but we understand that the lives of Afrodescendant people have been disregarded for centuries, and that there must be revolutionary changes in American society to rectify this. Piecemeal reforms are insufficient; body cameras have not ended the trend of police killing unarmed civilians. Training certificates are insufficient; the officers who commit these offences routinely pass their peace officer standards and training (POST) and cultural awareness classes. Racism is an American problem that extends beyond any particular police department, and police brutality is broader in scope than the killing of unarmed civilians by police officers.

Police brutality is a microcosm of the history of brutal policies imposed on black lives globally.  The United States exports this brutality by way of a military industrial complex that has facilitated coups and coup attempts across the African continent (i.e. Libya 2011, Ghana 1966, Congo 1961, et al.), and throughout the Americas (i.e. Venezuela 2019, Honduras 2009, Haiti 1991, Panama 1989, Grenada 1983, Brazil 1964, Cuba 1961, et al.) where black lives are most adversely affected by political and economic instability. The policy of exporting the brutality of war is represented by the hundreds of billions in annual international weapons revenue brought in through the US State Department Foreign Military Sales process, and the rapid expansion of United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) by establishing dozens of US military bases, conducting routine pre-emptive military operations, and stationing thousands of US soldiers across the continent of Africa since 2007. All of this is done at the expense of American tax-payers, whose interests are not represented by these policies of brutality that enrich an ofttimes unelected oligarchy.

Since the arrival of European invaders and the launch of the transatlantic slave trade, Afrodescendant people have not made progress in this land without the shedding of our blood – that fact is enmeshed within the foundation of the United States of America. This was the case in the 16th century, during the San Miguel de Gualdape Rebellion of 1526. This was the case in the 17th century, during the Gloucester County Conspiracy of 1663. This was the case in the 18th century, during the Stono Rebellion of 1739. This was the case in the 19th century, during the American Civil War. This was the case in the 20th century, during the Civil Rights Movement. And, in addition to many more cases over the past half a millennium, this continues to be the case in the 21st century, during our struggle against the police killings of thousands and the prison enslavement of millions.

This is why the Green Party platform is imperative for Afrodescendant people in the 21st century, as a means of radically transforming the foundation of this country from one that feasts upon our blood into a foundation that will sustain us. We invite all people of African descent, and all people, to join us in this struggle.

 

Quick Decision Council (2020/2021)

J.Kweku Lumumba, co-chair, (2021)

+ Denice Traina, co-chair (2020)

LeRoy Bartell, treasurer, (2021)

Hugh Esco, secretary, (2020)

 

Additional members of the state committee:
Khalifa Wasiuddin Ahmed (2021), resigned

Steve Carr  (2021)

+ James Cooper (2020)

+ John Fortuin (2020)

Al Herman (2020)

Thano Paris (2021)

Joshua Pritchett (2021)

Qadija Tatum-Aamir, (2020)

—–other servants of the Party—-

+ signifies members of the Delegation on National Green Party Affairs

 

Notice is given of, and Greens from across Georgia are urged to participate in an additional Annual Convention in 2020 for the Georgia Green Party. Pursuant to recent changes to the party convention rules, and a finding by the officers of the party that exigent circumstances exist, this additional convention will use online platforms for the conduct of its business. This convention will meet in four sessions across three days, beginning the evening of Thursday, June 25th, continuing on the evening of Friday, June 26th, concluding with both a morning and an afternoon session scheduled for Saturday, June 27th, 2020.  [  Please ignore an email from the membership development committee which erroneously report the dates of the convention. ]  Full details for participation will be shared with members of the party and others registered for the event. We anticipate opening registration the week of week of June 8th.

Georgia Greens seeking to convene caucuses for their unorganized counties are urged to communicate their intentions with party officers by writing the state party officers, as soon as possible to schedule an opportunity to conduct their county caucuses hosted by the state party, and to have state-party communication with Greens in Georgia give notice of an opportunity to participate. All such caucuses will be scheduled for week-day evening hours and daylight hours on the weekend.

The recognized candidates seeking the Party’s nomination for President of the United States have been invited to participate in a virtual candidate forum on Friday night.

Members of the state committee are agreed to hold this subsequent June 2020 convention to elect members of the state committee and our delegation to the Green National Committee, to name delegates to the 2020 Quadrennial Presidential Nominating Convention of the Green Party of the United States (originally scheduled for Detroit Michigan, which will now be conducted as a virtual convention). This subsequent state convention might also consider changes proposed to the state party bylaws and potentially additional changes to the platforms of the state party and for the national party’s 2022 Platform cycle.

Our February 22nd Nominating Convention held in Bonaire Georgia has already nominated for the U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 8th Congressional District, Jimmy Cooper and endorsed in the non-partisan special election scheduled for November, John Fortuin for the U.S. Senate. In addition, we have nominated a slate of sixteen candidates for Presidential Elector as a part of the process for qualifying our Presidential slate to be nominated by the national Convention in July.

Please watch this page for upcoming details on how to register, how to schedule a caucus so Greens in your county can name its delegation to our state convention, how to submit proposed changes to the platform of the party to our Platform Committee and other details on how to participate in this process.

Thank you,

Denice Traina, Co-Chair
Kweku Lumumba, Co-Chair
LeRoy Bartel, Treasurer
Hugh Esco, Secretary

Building on the 2016 victory in Georgia Green Party vs Kemp, in Federal District Court for Georgia’s Northern District,  candidates this year have challenged the 5% ballot access barrier as it applies to Libertarian Congressional candidates.  The Libertarian Party of Georgia retains ballot access under the OCGA 21-2-180 rule for their candidates for state-wide office.  No Congressional candidate in the history of Georgia’s 5% rule has met the standard and suceeded in obtaining ballot access since its enactment in 1943.

Today, the 11th Circuit heard oral arguments in the Libertarian Party’s appeal of Judge Leigh Martin May’s denial of plaintiff’s motion for summary judgement, handed down September 23rd, 2019.

With apologies for the late start of this recording, this audio provides all but the first first or three minutes of today’s hearing on the case.

Cowan-vs-Raffensberger-oral_arguments-20200522-11th-Circuit-1-17-cv-04660-LMM-19-14065.mp3

Georgia Green Party to Hold Virtual State Convention
rules adopted to suspend some rules under ‘exigent circumstances’

Today the officers of the Georgia Green Party have published their determination that exigent circumstances exist, necessitating the suspension of certain rules for the conduct of party business related to the Party’s upcoming Nominating Convention and its local affiliation process.

“Under the exigent circumstances of pandemic conditions, for some, the price of admission to the Green Party’s state convention was just discounted by the cost of a cross-state round-trip commute. It is now as easy as checking your email and downloading a video conferencing client,” said Kweku Lumumbu, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party.  “Admittedly, for others, the price of participating in this imperative progressive work has grown, unfortunately matching the barriers which already exist for them because of internet inaccessibility or computer illiteracy.”

A determination (that exigent circumstances exist) now is authorized by newly adopted changes to the Rules of the party’s Nominating Convention, adopted Sunday evening, April 19th, at a called meeting of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party. The meeting considered six proposed changes to the party’s convention rules, adopting four of them. The other two items were discussed and postponed until a subsequent meeting scheduled for April 26th, to account for the notice requirements imposed by the state committee’s process.

Party officers intend to file and publish the revised rules of the party after next Sunday’s meeting. Most of the changes to these rules were designed to make allowances for certain face-to-face meetings to be conducted using video conference technologies, and for the party’s internal elections and its presidential preference caucus to be conducted on existing internet accessible applications, which have been used for years to elect the steering committee of the Green Party of the United States.

Besides the rules suspensions authorized under narrowly defined ‘exigent circumstances’, the state Green Party’s state committee also adopted significant changes to its Rules, determining how and by whom its delegation to the Presidential Nominating Convention are instructed.  Formerly, only “credentialed delegates to” a delegated convention were able to cast ballots on the question. The new rule will now require that all “dues paying members of the party in attendance at the Convention of the Georgia Green Party” will get a ballot on the question.

“We have always depended on our dues paying members to fuel the work,” said Denice Traina, an Augusta based physical therapist who serves as Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party. “This year, being a member will come with an opportunity to vote directly, rather than through delegates elected by county caucuses, in our party’s Presidential Preference Caucus.”

Party officers intend this week to lay out a calendar and details for an online convention, culminating the weekend of June 6th, for an additional 2020 nominating convention originally anticipated to take place in Athens Georgia.

— 30 —

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 4th, 2020

For further information, please contact:
Kweku Lumumba <kweku.lumumba@georgiagreenparty.org>
Denice Traina email

 

At the Georgia Green Party’s recent Bonaire Nominating Convention on February 22d, Delegates without objection adopted an amendment to the Platform of the state party endorsing the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights. Late that night, the news was released in the form of a two sentence plus a link post on the party’s social media profile. Within a few days, that post attracted an international mobbing of the party’s facebook profile by Greens around the country and trans-rights-activists around the world who equated standing up for the rights of women as an attack on trans identified individuals.

The following week, the national Party’s Lavender Caucus published a statement demanding that our party ‘rescind its endorsement of the Declaration’, issue a ‘formal, written apology’, ‘commit to educating (our)selves and (our) membership about the necessity of gender affirmation’ and that failing to take these steps, that ‘the Georgia Green Party must be disaccredited and disavowed by the Green Party of the United States’.

Shortly thereafter, Dario Hunter, a candidate seeking the Green Party nomination for the 2020 Presidential race began a process of shuttle diplomacy seeking to set up a private meeting between a spokesperson of the national party’s Lavender Caucus and an officer of the Georgia state party. On March 16th, following agreement of the Lavender Caucus to participate in such a meeting, he extended a formal invitation to the Georgia state party to participate in what he had characterized as a ‘Reconciliation Retreat’.

As the conversation unfolded in national party channels the hateful rhetoric and name-calling targeting the women in the Party who were speaking up to defend the position taken by the Georgia Green Party was punctuated with threats of actual violence and doxxing. Multiple women were banned from national party social media forums for comments grounded in biological reality and their defense the rights of children to be protected from conversion therapy.

An ad-hoc Greens for Dialogue Not Expulsion have been circulating a petition to ‘urge that instead of the action proposed by the Lavender Caucus a respectful discussion of these and related issues be organized’ and that Greens ‘take a step back from’ efforts demanding that individual Greens or a state party be ‘decertified, sanctioned, or silenced for positions they have adopted, or for concerns which they may have expressed on these important issues’. Greens from thirty-three states and the United Kingdom have so far signed this petition, which has shown twice the support of an opposing statement being circulated by the Lavender Caucus.  Only last week, Greens for Dialogue Not Expulsion launched a public effort to build a national caucus to defend the party’s commitment to grassroot democratic practices, the right of dissent and freedom of speech within the organization.

On March 29th, the national party’s Black Caucus weighed in to state:  “We value discourse and reflective inquiry to resolve conflicts and the many pressing issues in our society today.  As such we do not, yet, support expulsion of any affiliated state or caucus, on the issues of languaging around Women’s rights, Children’s rights, and Transperson’s rights. We are stating without reservation all of these are human rights and need to be take seriously. To this end we are aware that there are issues on many sides of these issues that need to have serious consideration. We are talking about real people with real issues and their concerns cannot be taken lightly.”

At its regular monthly meeting this past Sunday evening, the state committee of the Georgia Green Party authorized the response linked below to Dario Hunter’s invitation. In the Party’s letter, Georgia Greens respond to say:

“While we acknowledge the apparently bruised feelings of your caucus’ leadership, we fail to understand how we are responsible for that. We do understand that framing this conflict as interpersonal is counter­ productive to the work we have to do as a political party. The resolution of this conflict must engage a party­wide conversation on the underlying issues. No invitation ­only reconciliation retreat will do the trick.”

. . .

“We welcome an opportunity to participate in dialogue on the issues raised by the Platform amendment which has been the subject of this recent controversy. But we would prefer to do so with people who have actually read the language we have adopted, and the document we have endorsed, not just the hyperbole and derogatory misinformation being spread about it. We insist on a fair and across the board application of the rules. We insist that we not be compelled to speak in a vocabulary which fails to convey our understanding of how the world works. When our position is mis­characterized, we will continue to insist on an opportunity to correct the record, and to use the language we feel is necessary to do so accurately.  We seek an equitable enforcement of the rules around name calling, that we not be referred to as bigots, hateful, nazis, terfs, cis, transphobic, etc. And we insist that the threats of physical violence and doxing cease immediately; that those responsible for such breaches of decorum be prohibited from engaging in our party’s forums.”

“We are eager to address concerns with the document we have adopted.  But such concerns must be explicitly stated. In fact, we invite you to prepare a written critique of the Declaration to which we might respond. Being called hateful bigots or transphobes provides us not a single clue about the substance of the name­-caller’s concerns.”

. . .

“Neither our state party, nor its officers hold any animosity for members of the Lavender Caucus. We do strenuously object to the anti­-democratic behavior encouraged by and engaged in by members of your caucus leadership. But we do not see the need for a ‘reconciliation retreat’, as you framed it in your phone conversation with our state party secretary, or outlined it in your letter.”

 

To read the full text of the Georgia Party’s response, see this link:
https://georgiagreenparty.org/reply_to_dario_hunter_invitation-final_signed/

To read the one page platform amendment, the adoption of which sparked this controversy, see:

https://georgiagreenparty.org/georgia-green-party-2020-nominating-convention-february-22nd-bonaire-georgia/hr3_endorse_dwsbr/

For a copy of a related document adopted by the state committee in December of 2019, see:

https://georgiagreenparty.org/declaration-on-the-sex-based-rights-of-women-endorsed-this-evening-by-georgia-green-party/declaration_on_sex_based_rights_of_women-provide_for_party_endorsement-as_passed/

To read the full text of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, see:
https://www.womensdeclaration.com/
https://www.womensdeclaration.com/documents/7/Declaration-with-logo.pdf

Ballot Access Barriers a Public Health Threat in Pandemic Conditions

Represented by Bryan Sells, a sole practitioner specializing in voting rights, election law and redistricting, the Georgia Green Party joined litigation filed today (1:20-cv-01312-ELR) in Georgia’s Northern District of the United States District Court, seeking relief from Georgia’s oppressive ballot access barriers, with pleadings demonstrating that compliance with the law presents a public health threat under pandemic conditions.

“Giving voters in Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District the opportunity to vote Green in November’s election risks exposing our ballot access petition circulators, and the voters they interact with, to 176,000 or more Georgians while ignoring CDC guidance related to social distancing,” said Jimmy Cooper, nominated by the Georgia Green Party at its February 22nd convention in Bonaire Georgia.

The Bonaire Convention also endorsed Clarke County resident John Fortuin as its candidate in the non-partisan state-wide special election to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate created by the resignation of former Senator Johnny Isakson; and nominated a slate of Presidential Electors. Besides the nearly 22,000 valid signatures required to put Jimmy Cooper on the ballot for Congress, the Georgia Green Party has been organizing to collect an addition 7,500 signatures to secure a ballot line for its Presidential slate, expected to be named by its national party’s Quadrennial Presidential Nominating Convention, scheduled for Detroit Michigan, the weekend of July 8th through 12th.

“Voters and ballot access activists in Georgia should not have to choose between the health of their families and communities and our right to effectively participate in the democratic process,” said Kweku Lumumba, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party, who by day works with homeless youth, and in the evening hosts a weekly radio show. “Georgia voters deserve an opportunity to vote for the Green imperative: a political paradigm shift to comprehensively address the present and potential impact of catastrophic climate change, to end perpetual wars, to promote and protect a world worthy of passing on to our children, and to remove barriers to democracy that have not been erected against Green Party participation in other states.”

The pleadings filed today by Attorney Sells are styled as Cooper et al vs. Raffensperger. Besides Green Party candidate Jimmy Cooper, the co-plaintiffs include Martin Cowen, a Congressional candidate nominated by the Georgia Libertarian Party, and the Georgia Green Party itself.  The state party represents the interests of Georgia Greens with respect to the ballot access barriers which have kept their party’s Presidential nominees off Georgia’s ballot every election cycle since Ralph Nader first ran in 1996. Georgia is one of only four states where no Green Party presidential slate has ever appeared on the ballot. The case has been filed, but not yet processed. Although the assignment of a case number is still pending, we soon anticipate its public availability in the court’s online systems. Attorney Sells anticipates offering the judge a draft consent decree in the next couple of business days, asking the Attorney General and Secretary of State to cooperate with plaintiffs for the benefit of a quick and inexpensive resolution to this controversy.

“We appreciate last week’s order by Secretary Raffensperger, extending the petition filing deadline into August”, said Denice Traina, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party. “But we also recognize that that was the extent of his statutory authority. Without judicial intervention, Georgia voters will be denied an opportunity to vote for Green candidates in Novembers’ election, without demanding that we risk the health of the communities we seek to serve.”

“Under pandemic conditions, Georgia’s ballot access barriers go far beyond the Jim Crow intentions of the 1943 General Assembly to keep black voters off the ballot”, said Jimmy Cooper, a Lizella Georgia resident, who also serves as the state party’s 2020 ballot access coordinator. “They constitute a public health threat to all Georgians, indeed to people far beyond Georgia’s borders.”

— 30 —

Complaint as filed:  Cooper-vs-Raffensperger-complaint-as-filed-20200326

The Georgia Green Party
https://georgiagreenparty.org/

Fortuin for Georgia
http://www.fortuinforgeorgia.com/
campaign website expects to relaunch next week

Jimmy Cooper for Congress
https://jimmycooperforcongress.com/

The Law Office of Bryan Sells
http://www.bryansellslaw.com/

—–

For immediate release
Thursday, March 26th, 2020

For further information, please contact:

Hugh Esco, Secretary, Georgia Green Party
912-571-1833 * email

Jimmy Cooper
Green Party nominee, 8th Congressional District of Georgia
404-877-2044 * jimmycooper@mail.com

Co-Chairs, Georgia Green Party
Kweku Lumumba, 770-895-7686 * kweku@kosssa.com
Denice Traina, 706-951-2413 * email

 

Just as the 2020 Nominating Convention of the Georgia Green Party was convening, a Democrat operative showed up at the Convention venue in Bonaire Georgia to entice Jimmy Cooper to abandon his plans to seek the Green Party nomination for Georgia’s 8th Congressional District, and to instead accept pledges to cover the $5,220 qualifying fee, available if he were to qualify instead in the uncontested Democrat Primary, the first week of March.

In the 2018 election cycle, Jimmy Cooper showed stronger write-in results than any previous Georgia Green Party candidate except for its 2002 Gubernatorial nominee and the Presidential slates it has supported in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

‘Legislated off the ballot’, as the Party’s former Chairman Bruce Dixon, now deceased, often put it, the Georgia Green Party was left to run the two candidates of its 2018 slate as write-ins. Jimmy Cooper was undeterred by the ballot access barriers and proceeded with his Fall campaign. His work was visible in the write-in tabulation.

In a letter shared with the Georgia Party leadership, late Sunday night, Mr. Cooper wrote to thank the party for the nomination, stating, “I will do my best to make you all proud, and ideally win one for the Georgia Green Party.” He then proceeded to share the offer extended to him Saturday morning at the site of the Green Party’s Bonaire Convention: of a qualifying fee, a way to bypass the ballot access petition barriers imposed on Greens by the Democrats, a sure shot at the uncontested nomination, and the likely support of the Democrat party.

“If I had run as a Democrat, I may or may not have gotten elected. But it is not my intention to get elected just to be one progressive in a Congress made up and run by corporate owned politicians, collecting a paycheck and getting nothing done,” wrote Jimmy Cooper of Crawford County Georgia.  “I am running to start a movement. I am running to change American politics and government. I do want to get elected, but I want my doing so to lead to real change.”

“We are proud to have nominated Jimmy for a second election cycle. He has shown in his humble and low-key way, a willingness to roll up his sleeves, to do the work and to engage with the working people of the 8th District, with the concerns they share with working people across this nation,” said Lithoinia resident Kweku Lumumba, Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party.

“We are delighted with this expression of party loyalty exhibited with Jimmy’s declining the blue team offer,” said Denice Traina, of Augusta Georgia, co-chair with Mr. Lumumba of the state party. “This underscores the point we have raised time and again as we have litigated the Jim Crow ballot access barriers imposed on us by the Democrat Party. Greens are not just disaffected Democrats, we seek to offer the people of Georgia a completely new type of politics, grounded in integrity, committed to a just, sustainable and peaceful future for our children and ready to challenge the corruption undermining the promise of the rhetorical flourishes often attributed to this nation’s founders.”

Mr. Cooper wrote: “If a working-class American, not a millionaire, but someone who works for a living, and struggles just like most other Americans now, runs as a Green Party candidate, pays the qualifying fee, raises the required number of petition signatures and gets on the ballot, and WINS the election over an incumbent Republican, in an extremely gerrymandered red district in middle and southern Georgia, that is a game changer in American politics. It will show it can be done ANYWHERE, and will inspire others to do so.”

The Georgia Green Party is urging Greens from across the nation to step up and help meet the challenge of assembling a qualifying fee which represents nearly 15 weeks of this candidate’s take-home pay, excedes the gross monthly mean income in Georgia by roughly 7%, and which no doubt far exceeds that of the working people in Jimmy’s rural district.

— 30 —

References:

https://georgiagreenparty.org/

Cooper Shows Well in Canvas of Write-in Votes

Georgia Green Party 2020 Nominating Convention, February 22nd, Bonaire Georgia

See Jimmy Cooper’s campaign launch video:

Jimmy Cooper for Congress

Donate to Jimmy’s campaign

Donate

For immediate release
Monday, February 24th, 2020

For further information, please contact:
Kweku Lumumba, CoChair
770-895-7686, kweku@kosssa.com

Denice Traina, CoChair
706-951-2413, email

Jimmy Cooper, nominee for U.S. Congress, Georgia’s 8th District
404-877-2044, jimmycooper@mail.com

 

The Platform of the Green Party of the United States has long called for the abolition of the Electoral College, as an anti-democratic institution, a legacy of the slavocracy which founded this nation.

And yet,  .  .  .

A component of our participation in the Presidential election is nominating our slate for the Electoral College.  Should the Green Party slate for President and Vice-President win a plurality of the Georgia vote in the general election used to decide the quadrennial Presidential election, we will be responsible for seating our slate of Presidential Electors in the Electoral College.

Even given the long odds of our overcoming the Jim Crow ballot access barriers, the wealth primary, the debate exclusion and the media whiteout of Green Party candidates and their campaigns, our taking this step to nominate and qualify a full slate of sixteen Presidential Electors strengthens our standing before the courts as we litigate these barriers.

And your participation in this process can make a material contribution to our success in this election cycle.

Citizens of Georgia, at least 21 years of age, are eligible to run.  For a more complete examination of the qualifications and disqualifications for this office, please see pages 79-83 of this document:

https://sos.ga.gov/admin/files/Qualifications_and_Disqualifications_2013.pdf

Candidates wishing to pursue the nomination of the Georgia Green Party for Presidential Elector are asked to file with the Party, in advance of our Nominating Convention, their notice of intention to seek the nomination of the party:

Notice-Intent-to-Seek-Nomination-20200214

To run for Presidential Elector a candidate or their agent must appear in the office of the Elections Division of the Secretary of State during qualifying which ends at 12:00 noon on the first Friday of March, that would be March 6th, in the 2020 election cycle.  To qualify requires the filing of an affidavit of candidacy, and a qualifying fee of $1.50 paid by check or money order.

The affidavit required to qualify for Presidential Elector is available for download from the website of the Secretary of State.  After an inquiry with the Elections Division seeking to verify which affidavit is required, we can now confirm that the one linked here is the one suitable for this purpose.  If you will be unable to attend the Bonaire Convention, please complete and sign before a notary public who will verify your identity and notarize these documents, this affidavit and send it along with a check or money order for $1.50, payable to the Secretary of State of Georgia with someone who will be attending.

https://sos.ga.gov/admin/files/Notice_of_Candidacy_and_Affidavit_(Federal).pdf

Election Code Provisions relevant to candidates for Presidential Elector, for the Electoral College

Section 21-2-10. Election of presidential electors

At the November election to be held in the year 1964 and every fourth year thereafter, there shall be elected by the electors of this state persons to be known as electors of President and Vice President of the United States and referred to in this chapter as presidential electors, equal in number to the whole number of senators and representatives to which this state may be entitled in the Congress of the United States.

History

Laws 1824, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 235; Code 1863, § 1251; Code 1868, § 1332; Code 1873, § 1311; Code 1882, § 1311; Civil Code 1895, § 89; Civil Code 1910, § 103; Code 1933, § 34-2501; Ga. L. 1958, p. 208, §§ 1, 3; Code 1933, § 34-1601, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 21; Ga. L. 1993, p. 118, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1.

Section 21-2-11. Performance of duties by presidential electors

The presidential electors chosen pursuant to Code Section 21-2-10 shall assemble at the seat of government of this state at 12:00 Noon of the day which is, or may be, directed by the Congress of the United States and shall then and there perform the duties required of them by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

History

Orig. Code 1863, § 1252; Code 1868, § 1333; Code 1873, § 1312; Ga. L. 1880-81, p. 67, § 1; Code 1882, § 1312; Ga. L. 1888, p. 33, § 1; Civil Code 1895, § 90; Civil Code 1910, § 104; Code 1933, § 34-2502; Code 1933, § 34-1602, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1.

Section 21-2-12. Procedure for filling presidential elector vacancies

If any such presidential elector shall die, or for any cause fail to attend at the seat of government at the time appointed by law, the presidential electors present shall proceed to choose by voice vote a person of the same political party or body, if any, as such deceased or absent presidential elector, to fill the vacancy occasioned thereby; and immediately after such choice the name of the person so chosen shall be transmitted by the presiding officer of the college to the Governor, who shall immediately cause notice of his or her election in writing to be given to such person. The person so elected, and not the person in whose place he or she shall have been chosen, shall be a presidential elector and shall, with the other presidential electors, perform the duties required of them by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

History

Laws 1824, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 240; Code 1863, § 1253; Code 1868, § 1334; Code 1873, § 1313; Code 1882, § 1313; Civil Code 1895, § 91; Civil Code 1910, § 105; Code 1933, § 34-2503; Code 1933, § 34-1603, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1.

Section 21-2-13. Compensation of presidential electors; payment of expenses of electoral college

Each presidential elector shall receive from the state treasury the sum of $50.00 for every day spent in traveling to, remaining at, and returning from the place of meeting and shall be entitled to mileage at the rate of 10 cent(s) per mile to and from his or her home. The reasonable expenses of the electoral college shall likewise be paid by the state treasurer, in both cases upon warrants drawn by the presiding officer of the college.

History

Orig. Code 1863, § 1257; Code 1868, § 1338; Code 1873, § 1317; Code 1882, § 1317; Ga. L. 1882-83, p. 54, § 1; Civil Code 1895, § 95; Civil Code 1910, § 109; Code 1933, § 34-2507; Code 1933, § 34-1604, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1993, p. 1402, § 18; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1; Ga. L. 2010, p. 863, § 3/SB 296.