Contact:

Gloria Mattera, Green Party of NY Co-Chair, (917) 886-4538, [email protected]

Peter Lavenia, Green Party of NY Co-Chair, (518) 495-8001, [email protected]

New York - The Green Party of New York declared its support of the recount effort launched by 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Party officers added the recount effort was focused on election integrity and making sure all votes are counted, a fundamental principle of grassroots democracy and the Green Party.

“The right to cast a vote and have it be counted is one of the most fundamental rights that we enjoy as Americans. Most voters assume their votes are counted, but this isn't always the case. There’s a history of millions of provisional and absentee ballots being thrown out for trivial reasons, and miscalibrated machines often didn't read a large percentage of others. Additionally, thousands of voters may have been wrongly purged from the rolls through a database called Interstate Crosscheck. We need to count those votes and make sure people aren't having their voting rights taken away. That's why the campaign is conducting the recount and why we as a party support it,” said co-chair Gloria Mattera.

“We also know over 90 million eligible voters didn’t vote in the 2016 general election. When so many of our fellow citizens are of the view that voting just doesn’t matter, this suggests a wide and deep skepticism that government is not responsive to the needs of the people. Those who decided to go the polls faced many challenges such as long lines, cutbacks in voting hours, insufficient, antiquated and malfunctioning voting equipment, demands to see identification, or in the worst case scenario finding out that they had been purged from the voter rolls. Reports from the field indicate that these problems were especially prevalent in communities of color, who also faced Jim Crow-modes of voter suppression and disenfranchisement,” said co-chair Peter LaVenia.

“It’s time that we as citizens stand up to the corporate controlled Democratic and Republican parties and demand a fully auditable, transparent, and trustworthy voting system that we can have confidence in. That is exactly what Jill Stein has initiated with the recount effort. We acknowledge concerns raised by some members of the party and welcome a diversity of opinion and open debate. We support the courageous steps taken by Jill Stein to help build a functioning democracy in the United States,” concluded Mattera.