Claudia-Karina Campaign Denounces Nationwide Anti-Democratic Ballot Access Restrictions, Expresses Solidarity with Candidates Standing Against the Genocide

It is crucial that all people of conscience who are against empire, oligarchy and genocide come together to overcome the anti-democratic ballot access barriers created by the corporate duopoly. The two parties of Empire have conspired to create state-by-state restrictions for independent parties, and have already announced an “army of lawyers” to use technicalities to keep people-powered competition off of the ballot. 

“The Democratic Party, while presenting the 2024 election as a ‘battle for democracy,’ is in fact leading the charge to restrict democratic choice,” said Claudia De la Cruz, presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, “and their main target is the left.” 

Overcoming considerable obstacles, the Claudia-Karina Vote Socialist campaign has already secured ballot access in California, Hawaii, Utah, Idaho, and South Carolina. Petitioning schedules vary state by state, and we have campaigns underway right now in over a dozen states, several of which we will soon announce as completed. This effort has been powered by hundreds of volunteers, which we will expand further next month when the petitioning period opens in many states.

“In many states, the petitioning threshold is so high and the ballot access rules are so ridiculous that it is clear they are not designed to facilitate the exercise of democracy, but instead to obstruct it,” said De la Cruz. 

Wherever the Claudia-Karina campaign is not able to secure ballot access, we call on our supporters and all people of conscience to lend their support and signatures so there are candidates on the ballot who stand against the genocide and against corporate power. 

“This campaign is fundamentally running against the two parties of Big Business and Empire,” said De la Cruz. “Huge number of people want a fundamental reordering of the whole system, and are rejecting the politics of endless militarism. Instead of having multiple parties who represent the same imperial foreign policy consensus, we need multiple parties that challenge it. I have proudly stood with Jill Stein and Cornel West on many platforms over the years in the mass movements for peace and justice and will continue to stand with anyone that is working sincerely to stop the siege and destruction of Gaza. Our campaign has mobilized huge numbers of young people with its unique call for building a mass socialist movement to end capitalism and imperialism, but we cannot do it alone. We are in solidarity with every effort to build a people-centered alternative to the two corporate parties. That is true even if we have ideological and political differences, such as our known disagreements with Dr. West on Ukraine and on Iran.”

In New York, Democratic state leaders have worked to drive third parties off the ballot by passing some of the most restrictive petitioning laws in the country — requiring 45,000 valid signatures of registered voters in just six weeks in the middle of spring. In prior election cycles, the PSL successfully petitioned for ballot access in New York but we assessed these new anti-democratic requirements as insurmountable. “Robert F. Kennedy may have enough ultra-rich friends to spend millions of dollars in one state, but we are not ashamed to say that we don’t,” said Karina Garcia, the PSL’s vice-presidential candidate. 

The Green Party, which lost its New York State ballot status, launched an important legal fight to stop these anti-democratic measures, only to be turned down by the reactionary Supreme Court. Now the Jill Stein campaign is attempting to regain access with a herculean volunteer-based effort before the May 26 deadline. This effort is in the interest of peace and democracy.

“It would be a travesty, and a massive indictment of the political system, if millions of people march against the genocide in Gaza, and then find there is no way to cast a powerful protest vote because there are no anti-genocide candidates on the ballot in November,” Garcia continued. 

We unite with the millions who are saying: We need a new system, not a “dollar democracy” where a fortune is required to put your ideas before voters.