Consumer Activist will speak about Ballot Access at Reading meeting this July

Reading, PA - The Green Party of Pennsylvania announces that longtime consumer advocate and three-time Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will speak at the party's national convention this summer.  Nader will headline an event on the evening of Saturday, July 14, at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center. 

Nader will speak as part of a series of evening events aimed at attracting new people to the Green Party and its "10 key values" which include democracy, ecology, social justice, and nonviolence.  Nader's talk will focus on "ballot access," a term which describes the procedures which allow or block potential candidates' ability to get their names on the ballot.  In 2004, Nader was forced off the Pennsylvania ballot by the Democratic Party and charged fines close to $90,000.  He was trying to qualify as an independent for President. 

Capital University Law Professor Mark Brown studied the 2004 legal wrangling that took Nader off the ballot in Pennsylvania and recently published a law review article on the affair.  Brown discovered that the Democrats were aided by a judge who may have been motivated by animus towards Nader's candidacy. 

Carl Romanelli, last year's Green Party Senatorial Candidate, will also speak at Saturday's event.  Like Nader, he was also kicked off the Pennsylvania ballot by Democrats.  Romanelli commented on his experience with the Democratic Party and Pennsylvania judiciary, "More than the nasty politics, the inexcusable behavior of the Pennsylvania court system must be reviewed.  The fact that the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court are blatant partisans is cause for an investigation and sanction."

After an 8-week signature review process last fall, Democrats were able to find enough loop holes and technicalities to disqualify tens of thousands of legitimate voters' signatures from Romanelli's petitions.  Furthermore, Romanelli was also ordered to pay fines close to $90,000.  Romanelli has vowed to fight this verdict and has taken his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.   Said Romanelli, "I will pursue this matter to its highest levels in order to right this injustice.  2006 is not an isolated case.  It is part of a distinct, evolving Democratic strategy.  Ralph Nader and I shatter the myth that the Democrats are the good guys."

Supporters of ballot access are worried that if the tactics employed in Pennsylvania are ultimately successful, Democratic legislators around the country will likely introduce similar punitive election laws in other states particularly "swing states", in a preventive effort to keep independents and newer political parties off the ballot.

Earlier this year, Pennsylvania was singled out by European human rights groups for particularly bad ballot access laws. 

DC-based hip hop act Head Roc will also perform on Saturday.  Thursday and Friday nights' line ups will feature more local bands.  The convention, which will attract close to 200 Green Party delegates from all over the country and the world, will take place at the Abraham Lincoln Wyndham hotel in Reading July 12-16.   For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.gpanc.org.

The Green Party of Pennsylvania is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties.  The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands for grassroots democracy, sustainable economics, nonviolence, and ecology.  The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands in firm opposition to the War in Iraq and has always advocated for energy conservation and sustainable energy policies.