Jill Stein and the Green Party of Nevada filed petitions today to qualify for the 2016 elections, including Stein for President.
The party was required to file 5,431 signatures to qualify as a party for the ballot. The signatures will now be verified by county clerks and then sent to the state board. The Greens filed more than 8,500 signatures.
Nevada will be the 22nd state where the Green Party has qualified for the November election, with 299 electoral votes – more than the total needed to win the election. This is only slightly behind the electoral votes that the Libertarian Party have qualified for so far. The Greens expect to be on nearly all states this November. Nevada was one of the states the party failed to qualify in for the 2012 election, when it was on 32 states.
“I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to get us on the ballot in Nevada. I greatly appreciate the inspired assistance we received from Bernie Sanders’ supporters following the Democratic Party’s shameful manipulation of it Nevada state convention. We will ensure that voters will have a progressive alternative this November,” said Stein.
Stein is running on a Power to the People platform. She supports a Green New Deal that promotes full employment and economic justice by transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2030 to curb climate change. She advocates the abolition of student debt; an end to policies of mass incarceration; and, single payer universal health care.
“Ballot access is one the tools the two main parties use to suppress democracy in America. Even the largest third parties have to expend enormous resources and time navigating complex rules that vary from state to state,” added Rick Lass, the national ballot access coordinator for Jill Stein.
America’s political system features numerous anti-democratic policies that are specifically designed to prevent the most oppressed sectors of our society from participating in the electoral process. Students and young people, African-Americans, poor people, and the elderly all face tremendous barriers, such as voter ID laws, disenfranchisement of ex-offenders, and restrictive residency requirements, among others.
“Our campaign is promoting solutions for each of these unjust restrictions to our voting rights,” added Stein, who is campaigning this weekend in California.
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