GREEN PARTY OF ALASKA
http://alaska.greens.org/
August 15, 2005
Contact: 575-3396 Larry Buchholz, Chair or Jim
Sykes, Elections Advisor
Land line contact: Larry Buchholz 745-4332, Jim
Sykes 745-6962
GREENS AND REPUBLICAN MODERATES WIN COURT VICTORY
FOR ALASKANS
Alaskans can now have a wider choice of candidates
during the primary election thanks to today's Alaska Supreme Court
ruling allowing multiple political parties to appear on a single
ballot. The Green Party's Chair Larry Buchholz said, "It's time
the Republican controlled legislature stops stepping on people's
constitutional rights."
The ruling does not force the Republican Party to
be on a common ballot with all the other political parties, but all of
the political parties who wish to be on one common ballot can now do
so. One likely scenario would be to have a Republican only ballot and
an everyone else ballot. Green Party Elections advisory Jim Sykes
said, "We would welcome the Republicans back to a blanket ballot
like we had prior to 1994 in order to give Alaskans the full range of
choices we used to have. If the Republicans still want to restrict the
choices Alaskans make at the primary ballot, then they can go their
own way."
Sykes added, "These two small political
parties, the Republican Moderate and Green Parties, fought for the
rights of Alaskans on this most basic issue of elections-the
foundation of our system. Now it's time to elect people to the
legislature who care about the rights of Alaskans more than
manipulating the system for their own political power plays."
The Supreme Court used a four-step test to decide
in favor of the original Superior Court ruling. The Supreme Court
stated that the constitutional right of association of the Greens and
Republican Moderates had been violated. They stated that the current
law placed a substantial burden on the rights of the Green and
Republican Moderate Parties. They said the precise interests of the
state were too abstract or too narrowly tailored to achieve its stated
interests.
