Democrats ask Wisconsin Supreme Court to exclude Green Party from election

Democrats are asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to step in and prevent a Green Party candidate from appearing on Wisconsin’s ballot.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the latest push by Democrats in the fight for voting access in a state known for its razor-thin election results.

The Democratic National Committee filed a so-called Petition for Original Action this week, arguing that the state’s highest court should take up the matter.

The petition states that Jill Stein and Butch Ware, the Green Party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates, should not be legally allowed to appear on the Wisconsin ballot.

According to the petition, this is because the Green Party does not have statewide officeholders or candidates for the state legislatures required to nominate Wisconsin’s presidential electors.

But Jason Call of Stein’s campaign team called these legal arguments baseless.

“This is a completely pointless lawsuit designed to waste our time and resources,” Call said. “We’ve already had legal counsel look at the matter, and basically the Democrats are trying to exploit a missing part of Wisconsin election law that doesn’t define how third parties, like minor parties, should select their electors.”

DNC representatives did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The arguments made in the petition reflect those made by the DNC in complaints filed with the Election Commission.

Democrats first filed a version of this complaint on August 14, but the commission dismissed it on a technicality after determining that the complaint did not name an election official as a defendant. The DNC has since filed essentially the same complaint, but also naming Wisconsin Elections Commission Director Meagan Wolfe as a defendant. However, the commission dismissed this second complaint without review.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has scheduled a meeting for August 27 to confirm candidates for the November election. The Wisconsin Supreme Court should intervene beforehand and order the Elections Commission to block the Green Party, the petition says.

“Although this Court rarely exercises its original jurisdiction, it does so
if the ‘questions submitted are of such importance that, in the circumstances, they require a prompt and binding decision’,” the petition states.

In an interview on Tuesday, Call said the complaints had motivated the Green Party to field more candidates in future elections in Wisconsin.

“If the Democrats want to play that game, we will. We will fight back hard,” he said. “If the Democrats want to be anti-, not undemocratic, but anti-democratic, we will certainly put candidates against them. And if they want to call us spoilsports, they can do that, but we will certainly defeat their efforts to exclude us from the election.”

Call told WPR that the Green Party plans to field Wisconsin candidates in time for the Nov. 5 election.

But Pete Karas, campaign chairman of the Wisconsin Green Party, said Call was vague about the timing of the plan.

The deadline for partisan candidates from Wisconsin to file ahead of this fall’s election was June 3, and primaries for the congressional and state elections were held on August 13. Candidates can file until noon on the Friday before Election Day.

Karas said the Wisconsin Green Party plans to field candidates for governor, Wisconsin attorney general, state treasurer, secretary of state and all contested state legislative elections in 2026.

“We are very angry about the undemocratic behavior of the Democrats,” he said. “We will target every district in the state. The Democrats may see this as a deterioration in their chances of winning the upcoming election, and they can see it however they want.”

Stein last appeared on the Wisconsin ballot in 2016, securing more than 31,000 votes in the state.

In 2016, former President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by about 24,000 votes. Four years later, in 2020, President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes.

Karas rejected claims by some Democrats that the Green Party could harm progressive causes by enabling Trump’s victory. He criticized how both Republican and Democratic candidates have responded to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“Our view is that we have two candidates, the two corporate candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, who are both for genocide, and that line cannot be crossed,” Karas said. “And there are many people out there who do not support that and will support the only candidate on the ballot who is against genocide.”

Karas said Wisconsin must allow ranked-choice voting and called the two-party system a failure.

“I don’t think you can ruin a bad system,” he said.