Green Party, Constitution Party are no longer options for your NC voter registration

Two political parties are no longer recognized in North Carolina.

Decertification of a political party happens automatically when a party fails to poll at least 2% of the entire state’s vote for governor or president in the latest general election.

Neither the Green Party nor the Constitution Party met that criteria. In 2020, Green presidential candidate Howie Hawkins won 12,195 votes or 0.22% of the vote for president, while Constitution candidate Don Blankenship won 7,549 votes or 0.14% of the vote.

The NC State Board of Elections notified both parties last week.

To qualify, the parties needed to meet one of three criteria set out under North Carolina law:

• A group’s candidate for governor or president must receive at least 2% of the entire state’s vote in the most recent general election.
• A group files signatures of at least 0.25% of all registered N.C. voters who voted in the most recent election for governor, with at least 200 registered voters from each of three congressional districts.
• The group files documentation proving that it had a presidential candidate nominated in the most recent general election in at least 35 states.

North Carolina has 9,062 voters registered with the Green or Constitution parties.

NC State Board of Elections spokesman Pat Gannon said voters of the two parties will automatically be re-registered as unaffiliated voters. From there, they have a choice of joining the remaining three parties: Republican, Democratic or Libertarian. They may also remain unaffiliated.

A letter sent to the two parties lays out that this can happen no earlier than 90 days after the certification of an election and that the Board of Elections will take up the matter during its February meeting.

Constitution Party

The NC Board of Elections last recognized the Constitution Party on June 6, 2018.

The party’s formation happened after state lawmakers, in 2017, lowered the number of voters’ signatures required to form a new party.

The board announced then that the party filed 11,925 signatures and more than 200 signatures from the three congressional districts.

The Constitution Party says it supports the principles in the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. It is recognized in fewer than 20 states.

Green Party

The state elections board last recognized the Green Party on March 27, 2018.

The Green Party formed after meeting the third criteria of having a candidate on the ballot in 70% of states. In 2016, Jill Stein was the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 38 states. She lost the election after receiving less than 2% of the popular vote.

The Green Party is an independent political party that says it is part of a Green movement. The party’s website says it shares four pillars with the Green movement:

• Peace and nonviolence
• Ecological wisdom
• Grassroots democracy
• Social justice

The party is recognized in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 4:03 PM.