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Greens Hope Ballot Access May Come Through Lawsuit

McCourt's gubernatorial effort falls short, but other Green candidates pass 50,000

By Laura Brunts

Despite high hopes this election year, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Malachy McCourt did not garner the 50,000 votes necessary to give the party ballot access over the next four years. Preliminary results show just over 40,000 ballots for the would-be Green governor.

Gloria Mattera, co-chair of the Green Party of New York State, said the party had canvassed voting machines to verify the ballot count, and will be observing the count of provisional and absentee ballots. “In most elections there are discrepancies,” she said of the canvass. “Sometimes you can pick up a lot of votes that way.”

But there is also a possibility that the Greens will gain ballot access through a lawsuit. All of their other statewide candidates – for comptroller, attorney general, and U.S. Senate – drew more than 50,000 votes. Comptroller candidate Julia Willebrand got over 100,000 votes, a record high for the party, media coordinator Ann Link said.

“We are investigating whether it's viable to make a case to the New York Board of Elections. We're talking to several law firms and experts in ballot access, and looking at similar lawsuits in other states,” Mattera said.

State election law in New York, however, states that parties must obtain at least 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election to be able to maintain ballot access for the next four years. Most states also give ballot lines to parties who are able to get at least 50,000 votes for a presidential candidate.

At a victory party election night at Rocky Sullivan's, a bar in Murray Hill, Green Party candidates and organizers were sure that the 1-1.5 percent reported for McCourt would translate into at least 50,000 votes.

If the Green Party had reached this benchmark, Green candidates would no longer have to collect 15,000 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot. There would be drastically reduced signature requirements, allowing the party to run many more local candidates. There might even be primaries.

In a speech as the results came in, McCourt refused to concede the election. It was not until later in the night that the actual number of votes was reported.

“The people have not spoken, the corporations have spoken, so I'm not making any concession speech,” he said to much applause. “We may not have won, but we are triumphant.”

All of the other statewide candidates – Willebrand, Howie Hawkins for U.S. senator and Rachel Treichler for attorney general – had run for office previously. Link described this collective experience as one of the party's advantages this year. McCourt and his running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Alison Duncan, on the other hand, were both first-time candidates.

“We did rally quite a few votes,” Mattera said, referring to the 100,000 for Willebrand.

The problem, she said, is that Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer was able to sell himself as a reformer, and he was endorsed by other alternate party lines. The Working Families Party frequently endorses Democrats like Spitzer, meaning that votes on their ballot line also count towards the candidate.

When asked whether the Green Party might adopt this strategy, Mattera said that it might only happen on a case-by-case basis.

“It's unlikely that there would be much cross-endorsement. Spitzer supports the death penalty and certain positions that are against the Green Party,” Mattera said. She added that sometimes the Working Families Party “endorses candidates that don't uphold their principles, and that's problematic for the Greens.”