北卡罗来纳州罗利康纳·哈尼(Connor Harney)收到匿名短信的一天后，要求他收回他在一份请愿书上的签名，该请愿书要求绿党候选人参加北卡罗来纳州11月的投票，他说，身份不明的拉票者将他们“试图干涉民主”的行为带到了他的家门口。
他说，6月下旬，一名自称代表州选举委员会的女子出现在他位于福基-瓦里纳的家中，手里拿着一份街道地址清单，并重复了这一要求。
当31岁的哈尼——北卡罗来纳大学格林斯博罗分校的历史学家——拒绝并质疑该女子的从属关系时，她留下了一个警告:如果绿党候选人获得选票，他们可能会从民主党人手中夺走选票，并在激烈的竞争中让共和党获胜，即民主党人切丽·比斯利(Cheri Beasley)和特朗普支持的共和党众议员特德·巴德(Ted Budd)之间的参议院竞选。
“我告诉她，‘你现在的所作所为让民主党人看起来非常绝望，’”已注册的独立人士哈尼说。“但是，更重要的是，它违背了民主程序，因为你正在积极地试图确保另一个聚会不会出现在选票上。"
围绕绿党(Green Party)提名参议员候选人的努力陷入停滞引发的争议，暴露了民主党(Democratic Party)为防止这个进步团体在11月份夺走关键选票而做出的赤裸裸的努力。
州选举委员会的民主党多数派在6月30日以3比2的投票结果否决了绿党的请愿书，理由是请愿书的笔迹几乎相同，个人信息不完整，重复的名字和已故的签名。
在委员会调查其签名的有效性时，绿党随后提起诉讼，声称民主干预了请愿过程，并要求法院推翻委员会的决定。
哈尼是诉讼中提到的十几个签名者之一，他们报告说收到了恐吓信息、电话或家访。
这些签名者说，一些拉票者拒绝表明自己的身份，或者谎称自己代表绿党或民主党选举的董事会。其他人说，他们是由民主党参议员竞选委员会派出的，该委员会是在全国范围内选举比斯利和其他民主党参议员候选人的驱动力。
西卡罗莱纳大学政治学教授克里斯·库珀说，随着参议院陷入50比50的僵局，北卡罗来纳州是少数几个民主党人有很大潜力获得席位的州之一。尽管利害攸关，他发现民主党的策略“令人瞠目结舌”。
“这不是通常的政治，”库珀说。“我们预计政党希望获胜——这不是问题。当他们似乎诉诸恐吓，甚至在少数情况下撒谎时，这就越界了。”
民主党承认要求签名者删除他们的名字，但声称他们只是试图确保潜在的支持者不被欺骗。
DSCC发言人阿曼达·谢尔曼说:“我们联系了选民，以确保他们没有被欺骗。”。
谢尔曼说，DSCC正在通过其“捍卫多数”运动向北卡罗来纳州和其他八个参议院战场州投入3000万美元，这是该委员会在竞选周期早期进行的最大一次实地组织投资。
虽然民主党人在说服进步选民支持绿党投票方面收效甚微，但他们的律师，包括DSCC总法律顾问Elias Law Group，游说委员会审查签名中的违规行为。
由于申请被拒绝，绿党错过了7月1日提名11月选举候选人的最后期限。现在，该党选择的参议员马修·霍(Matthew Hoh)只能通过法院命令或大会的立法行动才能出现，大会于2004年7月1日结束了工作会议。选举美国董事会发言人帕特里克·甘农说。
该委员会将于周一提交欺诈调查结果，一周之后，绿党的诉讼将于8月8日举行首次听证会。
Hoh的竞选经理Rose Ruby说，他们争取选票的艰苦斗争显示了第三方候选人在全国面临的许多障碍。但她认为Hoh是现状的破坏者，并表示如果绿党“破坏”了他们的选举，民主党只能怪他们自己。
“剧透标签是对健康民主的反民主表征，”鲁比说。“如果民主党人不想担心他们的选票出现分裂，那么他们的工作就是赢得这些选票，并推出绿党正在推出的那种政策。”
Democrats bareknuckle Green Party off North Carolina ballot
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A day after Connor Harney received anonymous text messages asking him to retract his signature from a petition to qualify Green Party candidates for the November ballot in North Carolina, he said unidentified canvassers brought their “attempts to interfere with democracy” to his doorstep.
A woman claiming to represent the state Board of Elections appeared at his home in Fuquay-Varina in late June, a checklist of street addresses in hand, and repeated the request, he said.
When Harney — a 31-year-old historian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro — refused and questioned the woman’s affiliation, she left with a warning: If Green Party candidates gain ballot access, they could take away votes from Democrats and hand the GOP victories in tight races, namely the Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Trump-backed Republican Rep. Ted Budd.
“I told her, ‘What you’re doing now makes Democrats look very desperate,’” said Harney, a registered independent. “But, more importantly, it goes against the democratic process because you’re actively trying to ensure another party doesn’t make it onto the ballot.”
A dispute over the Green Party's stalled effort to field a Senate candidate has exposed the Democratic Party's bareknuckle efforts to prevent the progressive group from siphoning away crucial votes come November.
The state Board of Elections' Democratic majority rejected the Green Party petition in a 3-2 vote on June 30, citing petition sheets with nearly identical handwriting, incomplete personal information, duplicate names and deceased signatories.
The Green Party then sued as the board investigates the validity of its signatures, alleging Democratic interference in the petitioning process and asking the court to reverse the board’s decision.
Harney is one of more than a dozen signers mentioned in the lawsuit who reported receiving intimidating messages, calls or home visits.
These signers said some canvassers declined to identify themselves or falsely claimed to represent the Green Party or the elections board. Others said they were sent by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – the driving force working to elect Beasley and other Democratic Senate candidates nationwide.
With the Senate in a 50-50 deadlock, North Carolina is one of the few states where Democrats have strong potential to pick up a seat, said Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper. Despite the stakes, he found the Democrats' tactics “jaw dropping.”
“This is not politics as usual,” Cooper said. “We expect political parties to want to win – that’s not the problem. It crosses the line when they appear to be resorting to intimidation and, in a few cases, lies.”
The Democrats acknowledge asking signers to remove their names, but claim they were merely trying to make sure potential supporters weren't being tricked.
"We reached out to voters to ensure they had not been deceived,” DSCC spokesperson Amanda Sherman said.
Sherman said the DSCC is funneling $30 million into North Carolina and eight other Senate battleground states through its “Defend the Majority” campaign, the largest investment in field organizing the committee has ever made this early in the campaign cycle.
Though Democrats had little success dissuading progressive voters from backing the Green Party ballot bid, their lawyers, including Elias Law Group, general counsel for the DSCC, lobbied the board to scrutinize irregularities among the signatures.
With its petition rejected, the Green Party missed the July 1 deadline to nominate its candidates for the November ballot. Now the party's choice for Senate, Matthew Hoh, could appear only by court order or legislative action from the General Assembly, which concluded its work session on July 1, elections board spokesperson Patrick Gannon said.
The board will present the findings of its fraud investigation on Monday, one week before the Green Party lawsuit gets its first hearing on Aug. 8.
Hoh’s campaign manager Rose Ruby said their uphill battle to reach the ballot illuminates the many barriers third-party candidates face nationwide. But she embraces Hoh's role as a disruptor of the status quo and says Democrats have only themselves to blame if the Greens “spoil” their election.
“The spoiler label is an antidemocratic characterization of what it means to have a healthy democracy,” Ruby said. “If Democrats don’t want to fear that there’s a split in their vote, then it’s their job to earn those votes and to put out the kind of policies that the Green Party is getting out.”
