In exactly 60 days the state’s three minor political parties (the
Libertarian, Independence-Alliance, and Green Parties of Minnesota) are given their limited two-week ballot access nominating petition signature gathering window. Each party must collect several thousand signatures during the last two weeks of May (only) to place candidates onto the fall general election ballot, something these three parties have done consistently every election cycle for decades.
The environment suddenly exists that makes this process an inherent health risk to not only the individuals who do the petitioning but also to the citizens being approached who get asked to sign a nominating petition. Petitioning requires constant and voluminous face-to-face interaction.
With the health and safety of all Minnesotans being paramount during this outbreak, as well as to maintain fair elections, we hereby make a formal request to Governor Walz, Secretary Simon, the State Senate Elections Committee, and the State House Elections Subcommittee to act immediately to suspend the physical petitioning requirement and/or the current filing deadline which is currently set as June 2, 2020.
An efficient solution already exists, if acted on, in proposed bills SF752 (companion HF708). Introduced in 2019 and amended in 2020 (via H0708A2) these bills remain stuck in the listed committees. If passed it would allow our political parties who have achieved over 1% in the last state wide vote to put candidates onto ballots using internal party process, such as by convention endorsement, or by filing fee, or with a deadline extended to mid-August (around the time of the state primary, 77 days prior to the general).
Sign our petition to call on Minnesota officials to support democracy and put the Minnesota Green Party on the ballot!
Click here to read the Green Party of Minnesota’s full statement.
