Monday was a huge win for the North Carolina Green Party. After the party was removed from the ballot in 2021, conducted a petition effort to return and filed a First Amendment rights lawsuit, the leftist third party was unanimously certified by the North Carolina Board of Elections Monday morning. While North Carolina’s filing period concluded July 1, there’s still a chance a judge will extend the deadline so that the party will be able to field candidates in the 2022 election.
It was a win that was immediately met with pushback from the North Carolina’s Democratic Party, which announced it intends to file a lawsuit in state court over the board’s decision. The Democrats allege that the state is ignoring its own ongoing investigation into the party amid allegations of fraudulent signatures.
In making this allegation, Democrats ignored a major point from Monday’s board decision: even with the questionable signatures, the party still has 1,600 people more than needed to make its way onto the ballot. The 100 county boards of elections were required to validate all the signatures they received. That information was given to the state board. The state board decided unanimously that the party was good to proceed.
