Green Party of California
   

Frequently Asked Questions
Political/Legal Issues

Contents

The Green Party's Use Of Government Buildings

This part of the code pertains to "county central committees," which we call county
councils. To use a gov't building for a state meeting requires that the meeting be officially
sponsored by the county council.
 

 ELECTIONS CODE
 SECTION 7870-7871
7870.  The Department of General Services shall permit any committee
that desires to do so to hold meetings in a state building within
the county, at least one of which meetings each month shall be
without charge.

7871.  All meetings of the committee shall be held in quarters which
shall be accessible to persons with disabilities.

 

Verifying Green Party Registration

To verify that a person is registered with the GP, the best source is
the county registrar's database. The Liaison does have a statewide
listing of registrants, but the county's data is usually more curent.
The Liaison can check the state database, but if the persons name is
not found, then the registrar should be checked.

See also the next topic for more info on the statewide database.

Voter Registration Database

The state party and county councils are entitled to a free copy of the
index of registration for each primary, general and special election.

Important!
Voter registration data is NOT public information. This data can be
furnished only to authorized persons and only for specific uses. There are
statutes on this, but Regitrars tend to enforce this thier own way. Find
out what are your Registrar's requirements.

From the election code:

2185. Upon written demand of the chair or vice chair of a party
state central committee or of the chair of a party county central
committee, the county elections official shall furnish to each
committee, without charge therefor, the index of registration for the
primary and general elections or for any special election at which a
partisan office is to be filled. The index of registration shall be
furnished to the committee demanding the index not less than 25 days
prior to the day of the primary, general, or special election for
which they are provided. Upon written demand, the county elections
official shall also furnish to the committee the index of
registration of voters who registered after the 54th day before the
election, which shall be compiled and prepared by Assembly districts.

The county elections official shall furnish either two printed
copies or, if available, one copy in an electronic form of the
indexes specified in this section.
-----

County records are more accurate and contain more data than the
state-level records maitained by the Secretary of State. Regarding
the database accuracy, the SoS replied:

"Yes, we rely on the counties to indicate which registrants within their
jurisdiction need to be purged/modified.  They simply send us a Voter
"Update" file that indicates necessary changes on a regularly scheduled
basis (determined by the size of the county - for example, Los Angeles sends
us files daily, whereas Alpine county sends us files once a month), which we
in turn process.  When we last compiled statistics on data currency on June
1st, 90% of our voter registration data was at or less than 14 days old, and
I expect that percentage to climb when we compile statistics again on July
1st due to some county issues we have resolved in the past month or so."

State data is a subset of the counties' data. It does not contain county names or voting
history.

 

County Councils

We do not follow the P&F election code regarding county councils, we follows our bylaws.
This stems from a 1992 lawsuit we initiated to run the party by our internal procedures.
We won that case. However, in 1995, Secretary Jones  appealed and successfully
overturned certain provisions that addressed open primaries and our "None of the above"
ballot entry. All other provisions, including the county coucil issue, remains in effect.

Green Party of California v. Jones, 31 Cal.App.4th 747
[No. C013273. Third Dist. Jan 19, 1995.]

 

County Council Candidates On The Ballot

From a discussion on the ERWG list:

It is in the election code that if less than a full compliment of candidates are
running for an at-large office, that consitutes an uncontested election and they
can be appointed to the office rather than standing for election. So they do not
have to be placed on the ballot.

Chris Jerdonek in Yolo found a section in the election code (7772.1) that states
if a write-in candidate qualifies for the ballot, then all the candidates have
to be listed. Chris also says that all parties have similar clauses. Thomas
Leavitt in Santa Cruz reported the the P&F party has successfully used that to
get their candidates on the ballot when they had less than a full compliment.

Personally, I found 7772.1 rather ambiguous, but it apparently has been
interpreted as Chris says.

But there's one technical problem. Our 1992 lawsuit won us the right to operate
county councils by our bylaws rather than the P&F code, and 7772.1 is in that
section of P&F code from which we won relief. Our bylaws reference various
sections of the code for governance (§10229 most relevent), but none of them
have the write-in escape clause of 7772.1.

So... I doubt that we have legal standing.

But... most Registrars think we operate under the P&F code so you could probably
pull it off, and all other parties do it.

Ultimately... most of these questions come down to how friendly, coorperative,
and informed your Registrar is.

 

Appointment Of Interim County Councils

7840. The state central committee shall have power to appoint
interim county central committees in the following counties:
   (a) Counties in which the voters have not elected one or more
members of central committees in the direct primary election
preceding the organization of this committee.
   (b) Counties in which all members of a county central committee
are removed from office or cease to be registered as affiliated with
the Peace and Freedom Party.

Persons appointed to interim county central committees pursuant to
this section shall meet the qualifications otherwise required of
appointees to membership on the county central committees. Notice of
any appointments pursuant to this section shall be filed by the
state central committee with the elections official of the county for
which that interim county central committee is appointed. Interim
county central committees appointed pursuant to this section shall
have all the powers and privileges afforded county central committees
by this part.

 

Primary Endorsements

[Excerpt]

EU v. SAN FRANCISCO DEMOCRATIC COMM., 489 U.S. 214 (1989) 489 U.S. 214

EU, SECRETARY OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA, ET AL. v. SAN FRANCISCO
COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 87-1269.

Argued December 5, 1988
Decided February 22, 1989

Section 11702 of the California Elections Code (Code) forbids the official governing bodies of
political parties to endorse or oppose candidates in primary elections, while 29430 makes it a
misdemeanor for any candidate in a primary to claim official party endorsement.
 
 

   (a) The ban on primary endorsements in 11702 and 29430 violates the First and   Fourteenth
Amendments. By preventing a party's governing body from stating  whether a candidate adheres
to the party's tenets or whether party officials   believe that the candidate is qualified for the
position sought, the ban   directly hampers the party's ability to spread its message and
hamstrings   voters seeking to inform themselves about the candidates and issues, and   thereby
burdens the core right to free political speech of the party and its   members. The ban also
infringes a party's protected freedom of association  rights to identify the people who constitute
the association and to select a   standard-bearer who best represents the party's ideology and
preferences, by   preventing the party from promoting candidates at the crucial primary election
juncture. Moreover, the ban does not serve a compelling governmental interest.   The State has
not adequately explained how the ban advances its claimed   interest in a stable political system
or what makes California so peculiar  that it is virtually the only State to determine that such a
ban [489 U.S.  214, 215]   is necessary. The explanation that the State's compelling interest   in
stable government embraces a similar interest in party stability is   untenable, since a State may
enact laws to prevent disruption of political  parties from without but not from within. The claim
that a party that issues   primary endorsements risks intraparty friction which may endanger its
general   election prospects is insufficient, since the goal of protecting the party  against itself
would not justify a State's substituting its judgment for that   of the party. The State's claim that
the ban is necessary to protect primary   voters from confusion and undue influence must be
viewed with skepticism,   since the ban restricts the flow of information to the citizenry without
any   evidence of the existence of fraud or corruption that would justify such a  restriction. Pp.
222-229.

Non-partisan Endorsements

[Excerpt -- This is still being researched]

EU v. SAN FRANCISCO DEMOCRATIC COMM., 489 U.S. 214 (1989) 489 U.S. 214

EU, SECRETARY OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA, ET AL. v. SAN FRANCISCO
COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 87-1269.

Argued December 5, 1988
Decided February 22, 1989
 

the second count challenged the ban on endorsements in nonpartisan school, county, and
municipal elections;
 

The court stayed all proceedings on the second count under the abstention doctrine of Railroad
Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941). 13
------

This means the ban on endorsements is lifted.

 

Party Affiliation Of County Council Candidates


 

Section 8001 of the code does specify that a person has to be registered with
the party at least 3 months before making a declaration of candidacy, and cannot
have been registered with another party for 12 months prior. And this
specifically applies to central committees.
-----------

7852.  No person shall be appointed to membership on a county
central committee unless she or he is registered as a voter
affiliated with the Peace and Freedom Party in the county, or is a
resident of the county who would register as a voter affiliated with
this party if not legally prohibited from doing so.
 

8001.  (a) No declaration of candidacy for a partisan office or for
membership on a county central committee shall be filed, by a
candidate unless (1) at the time of presentation of the declaration
and continuously for not less than three months immediately prior to
that time, or for as long as he has been eligible to register to vote
in the state, the candidate is shown by his affidavit of
registration to be affiliated with the political party the nomination
of which he seeks, and (2) the candidate has not been registered as
affiliated with a qualified political party other than that political
party the nomination of which he seeks within 12 months, or, in the
case of an election governed by Chapter 1 (commencing with Section
10700) of Part 6 of Division 10, within three months immediately
prior to the filing of the declaration.
   (b) The elections official shall attach a certificate to the
declaration of candidacy showing the date on which the candidate
registered as intending to affiliate with the political party the
nomination of which he seeks, and indicating that the candidate has
not been affiliated with any other qualified political party for the
period specified in subdivision (a) immediately preceding the filing
of the declaration.  This section shall not apply to declarations of
candidacy filed by a candidate of a political party participating in
its first direct primary election subsequent to its qualification as
a political party pursuant to Section 5100.
 

GPCA Not In Election Code

When dealing with some state government officials, they refer to the
election code to verify that the GPCA is a qualified party in California.
But they do not find a "Green Party" section in the code.

This is because, under section 5005 of the code, a newly qualified party
selects an existing party's code to operate by until the new party has
established its own section.

Accordingly, the GPCA selected the Peace and Freedom Party's code as its
operating procedure. And we are in the process of developing our own section
for the election code.

The Secretary of State maintains a web site that lists all qualified parties
in California. The GPCA is listed there. That site is at
www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_f.htm.

Section 5005:

"5005. Until otherwise provided for by statute, a political party
newly qualified pursuant to Section 5100 shall carry on its
activities in accordance with procedures applicable to any other
political party that has detailed statutory provisions applicable to
its operation as shall be designated by the newly qualified party.
The temporary officers of the newly qualified political party elected
pursuant to Section 5001 shall file notice of its selection with the
Secretary of State not later than 30 days after the political party qualifies."

Last updated: 12/29/2006 (BH)