Green Party Watch

via Ross Levin at IPR:

The full story from the South Carolina Green Party:

Eugene Platt is doing great work in local government alerting people to the serious problems with SC’s electronic voting machines.

Voting machines targeted: James Island PSD official pushes for replacement

BY EDWARD FENNELL

JAMES ISLAND — A day after engineering a “historic” vote by his fellow James Island Public Service District commissioners, Eugene Platt set his sights on a larger goal.

Platt on Tuesday urged James Island Town Council to adopt a resolution calling for South Carolina to replace its electronic touch-screen voting machines. The iVotronic machines, Platt contends, have many problems and voters have little confidence in vote counts they produce. He told council the JIPSD was the first elected body in the state to urge replacement of the machines, and the town could become the first municipality to do so.

“I hope you will do something similar and start and statewide trend and get the attention of the state legislature,” Platt said.

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In a 14 page opinion, available here, all three members of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling that kept Eugene Platt off the ballot in 2008. Platt will be on the ballot this November as the nominee of the Green Party, and if his ballot access petition is found to be adequate, as a petition candidate as well.

A full evaluation of the decision is available at Ballot Access News.

Eugene Platt, a member of the South Carolina Green Party steering committee, is running for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. A prominent South Carolina blog, The Blogland of Earl Capps has an article about his race, quoting a voter in the district.

Whatever you can say about him, the guy has long ties to the islands, experience in government. Republicans, Democrats and Independents like him. His sober, mature approach to getting things done is what we need.

Greens across the nation who care to do so can donate to Platt’s campaign by visiting his website.

This is from Daisy’s Dead Air by Greenville’s own

Daisy Deadhead

Morgan Bruce Reeves

The South Carolina Green Party Convention was Saturday, May 1, at the Happy China restaurant in West Columbia. Yes, we all fit in one restaurant, with room to spare. (Hey, this is a certifiably RED STATE, so even that much is doing pretty good!) This was my first Green Party convention, and I was excited! read more »

The Charleston City Paper has offered up some coverage of the South Carolina Green Party’s recent candidate recruitment efforts. The article, written by Greg Hambrick, is titled Greens Growing on November Ballot. The piece points to state and federal candidates, and quotes Eugene Platt saying

“I believe the 2010 election cycle offers historic opportunities for third party and independent candidates,” Platt says.

Our current list of candidates is:

U.S. SENATE: Tom Clements.
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, District 1: Robert Dobbs.
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, District 4: Faye Walters.
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, District 6: Nammu Muhammad.
GOVERNOR: Morgan Reeves
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Leslie Minerd.
SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION: Doretha Bull.
S.C. HOUSE, District 24: D.C. Swinton.


S.C. HOUSE, District 74: Christopher Jones.

S.C. HOUSE, District 115: Eugene Platt.
RICHLAND COUNTY COUNCIL, District 5: Antonio Williams.

Other non-partisan races will be announced at a later date. Greens who are interested in school board, Soil and Water Conservation District Commission and other non-partisan races are encouraged to get in touch with the steering committee as soon as possible.

Wednesday I attended a hearing by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The case was Tempel v Platt. George Temple, chair of the Charleston Democratic Party sued to keep Eugene Platt, the Green Party nominee for SC House District 115, off the November ballot. Platt had been nominated by the SC Green Party before the Democratic Party held it’s primary. Platt opted to run in the Democratic primary. While he won the SCGP nomination, he lost the Democratic primary. The Charleston Post and Courier has a story on the case as well. H/T to Ballot Access News for the link to the Post and Courier piece.

South Carolina law requires candidates to sign a “loyalty pledge” which says that the candidate will not run a write-in campaign nor attempt to appear on the ballot as a petition candidate if they lose a primary campaign. Platt did not offer as a write-in candidate, nor did he seek signatures to appear as a petition candidate after losing the Democratic primary. Instead, he simply sought to appear on the ballot as the nominee of the ballot qualified party which nominated him: the SC Green Party.

Tempel sued in state court to force Platt off the ballot. The first court to hear the case did not permit the submission of any testimony or evidence. The judge simply said that Platt had signed the pledge and was off the ballot. Case closed.

Wednesday the supreme court heard Platt’s appeal. read more »

January 6th saw the ACLU arguing for Eugene Platt before the South Carolina Supreme Court. Platt had been denied a spot on the ballot in 2008 even though he had been properly nominated by the South Carolina Green Party. After Platt won the Green Party nomination he lost the Democratic primary.

The ACLU press release points out that South Carolina’s loyalty pledge law violates the South Carolina Green Party’s free association rights, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The full release is available at the ACLU website or below the fold. A personal reflection on the court hearing is in progress and will hopefully be here later tonight. read more »

The Charleston Post and Courier is carrying story about Eugene Platt and his appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court to protect his free speech rights, and the same rights for the South Carolina Green Party.

Platt had sought the Green Party and Working Families Party nomination in spring of 2008. He was nominated by both parties, and Platt’s nomination by the Democratic Party in a primary would seem to make his election all the more likely. South Carolina is one of the states which permit fusion voting.

However, when the Democratic Party primary was held, read more »

Eugene Platt, a member of the South Carolina Green Party Steering Committee and candidate for State House, has had a letter to the editor published in the Charleston Post and Courier. Platt, who is often in the editorial pages with columns and letters on topics important to Greens and other progressives, targets the Charleston City Council. The council has rejected the Charleston Green Plan: Sustainability & Climate Protection for the 21st Century. The full text of the letter is below the fold.
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In a press release issued 10/13/2009 Eugene Platt announced that he will be a Green Party candidate for South Carolina State House District 115 in 2010. Platt, the only elected Green in South Carolina, will likely face both a Democratic and Republican candidate in November.

Platt has served for more than a decade on the James Island Public Service District Commission, placing first in an eight candidate race last fall for re-election. Platt was denied a chance to appear on the ballot last year because of a change in interpretation of state law by the state’s Election Commission. That decision was affirmed by a federal judge and has been appealed by the ACLU on behalf of the South Carolina Green Party.

The full text of Platt’s announcement is below the fold. Platt is a member of the South Carolina Green Party steering committee, and has been actively recruiting candidates to run on the Green Party line. District 115 is in the Charleston area.
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In a letter published in the Charleston Post and Courier, Green Party spokesperson Eugene Platt called for an end to plans to extend Interstate 526 onto Johns and James Islands.

Platt, an elected member of the James Island Public Service District Commission, pointed to a resolution against the proposed extension passed unanimously by the Town of James Island Council on April 7 as evidence that the communities most impacted by this proposed road are united in their opposition to the project. The complete text of his letter can be read by clicking on the article headline.
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According to an interested observer, the Charleston SC Democratic Party’s attempt to keep Eugene Platt off the November ballot in SC House District 115 as the SC Green Party’s nominee has failed today in state court. The Democratic Party did apparently secure an injunction, but the injunction prevents Platt from campaigning for write-in votes and from gathering signatures to appear on the ballot as a petition nominee. Since Platt is not seeking write-in votes nor ballot access signatures to run as a petition candidate, the court has apparently enjoined Platt from doing things he has not done and has no plans to do.

What at least one observer suggested that a ruling that the statute was un-Constitutional might have been a more complete victory, this ruling apparently does not include an enforcement provision.

Tomorrow Platt and the South Carolina Green Party go to Federal Court for what is hoped to be a final ballot access hearing. Both Platt and the state party are represented by attorneys working for the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

One of the disadvantages or citizen journalism is that in this case the citizens are making the news too. This is one reason we have an “editorial” category. As we focus in our “real” lives on certain issues or campaigns it is natural that we will write a lot about that topic. If I am going too far in covering Eugene Platt’s campaign, please do let me know.

Eugene Platt is the South Carolina Green Party candidate for State House District 115. He faces two court cases in his fight to appear as the South Carolina Green Party.

Platt came within 40 votes of beating the Republican last time, and that Republican candidate has an interesting history that Platt has been too polite to point out.

A simple Google search for “Wallace Scarborough” scandal gets you 214 hits. Let’s take a look at a few of those Scarborough hits to see what’s there. read more »

Green Party Watch Radio will host South Carolina’s only elected Green, Eugene Platt, this Sunday from 3 to 3:30 East Coast Time.

Platt is at the center of a legal battlefield. He has been sued in state court by Charleston County Democratic Party Chair George Tempel to keep him off the November ballot. Platt and the South Carolina Green Party have had to go to federal court against the South Carolina Election Commission to overturn a staff decision to bar Platt from the November ballot.

Platt will join Democratic Party nominee Anne Peterson Hutto and incumbent Republican Wallace B. Scarborough once barriers to the voter’s rights to a legal third choice are removed.

Platt, who ran as the Democratic Party nominee against Scarborough in 2006, losing by fewer than 50 votes out of more than 12,000 cast, has needlessly been slandered by the Charleston Post and Currier/s reporter with the phrase Political observers don’t expect Platt to place any better than third should his name appear on the ballot… without naming who these “political observers” are.