Georgia Green Party Barred From State Ballot, Considering Lawsuit

The Georgia Green Party is considering its legal options over this week's from the Georgia Secretary of State that its candidates won't be on the November ballot.

"Our experience with this year's petition drive illustrates many of issues we raised in our pleadings and testimony before Judge Story," said Hugh Esco, cochair of the Georgia Green Party. "We are exploring multiple strategies for challenging this determination."

On March 17, Federal District Court Judge Richard Story issued an order finding that Georgia's ballot access regime as it applies to Presidential candidates is unconstitutional. As an interim remedy, he set a threshold of 7,500 signatures for Presidential ballot access until the General Assembly has an opportunity to revisit the question.

On July 12, the Green Party filed a petition containing 1,672 pages of signatures from Georgia voters. But on Tuesday, the Georgia Secretary of State told the party that "your total number of valid signatures submitted is 5,925, and . . . did not meet the requirement.

"Dr. Jill Stein will not appear on the ballot in the General Election."

The Green Party's setback came during a busy week in Georgia politics. On the same day that Donald Trump named a new national campaign team, the organization also said it has added two staffers to its Atlanta office.

Former TV producer Jennifer Hazelton will handle communications, according to the AJC, and Billy Kirkland will serve as senior strategist. Kirkland was a staff member during David Perdue's successful U.S. Senate campaign victory over Michelle Nunn.

The Georgia hires also come at the same time that Trump is preparing to air his first TV ads of the general election. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump's ads will begin airing Friday in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Also this week, Trump promoted pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager and named Breitbart co-founder Stephen Bannon as campaign chief executive, according to Fox News.

See also:

• Dems: Clinton Will Ramp Up Campaign in Georgia
• New Poll: Clinton's Lead Over Trump in Georgia Grows
• Clinton, Trump Tied in Georgia: Poll
• Patch Poll: Clinton and Kaine or Trump and Pence?

After decades as a reliably red state, Georgia may truly be a battleground come November.

A recent poll from WSB-TV shows Hillary Clinton and Trump in a statistical tie for the presidency among Peach State voters. Trump holds a narrow edge over Clinton, the Democrat, in the poll -- 45.5 percent to 44.2 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson took just over 5 percent of support in the poll and Green Party nominee Jill Stein came in with 2.5 percent.

Democratic Party of Georgia officials also say they've been informed that Clinton's campaign plans to expand its spending and operations in the state.

In 2012, President Barack Obama got more than 45 percent of the vote in Georgia -- compared to 53 percent for Mitt Romney -- without a single campaign stop in the state and with limited advertising and organization.

"Ultimately, in spite of the technical deficiencies used to justify this ruling, the Georgia Green Party far surpassed its burden to demonstrate a 'modicum of support' as required by the Courts, and the voters of Georgia have a constitutional right to see their candidates of choice on the printed ballot," Esco said.

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