<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">But it's the Democrats in control of the legislature who have prevented Illinois' paying its bills by refusing to tax the rich.<div><br></div><div>Voting for Democrats in Illinois simply prolongs that acquiescence to the 1%.</div><div><br></div><div>Debs is supposed to have pointed out long ago, "It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it."</div><div> <div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Jul 19, 2014, at 10:40 AM, Stan <<a href="mailto:swag901@ymail.com">swag901@ymail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>AKA tools of the Republican Party. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The Greens have another chance to get Republicans elected by splitting the liberal votes.</div><div><br></div><div><font style="color:#333333"><i>Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID</i></font></div></div><br><br>"C. G. Estabrook via OccupyCU" <<a href="mailto:occupycu@lists.chambana.net">occupycu@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:<br><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><br><div><div style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 18px;"> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><table bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="topMessageWrapper" width="600" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; width: 600px; border: 0px none transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px auto;"><tbody><tr><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="transparent" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="transparent" valign="top" style="background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="word-wrap: break-word; table-layout: fixed;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#005826" style="background-color: rgb(0, 88, 38); border: 0px none transparent; padding: 20px 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Illinois Green Party" src="https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1110382/f363db7556dee8ff970b607ee79e08ca/image/jpeg?token=0301be2363cf39a51055f7191f2c5152&"></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="word-wrap: break-word; table-layout: fixed;"><tbody><tr><td><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 30px; font-family: georgia, serif;"><img height="10" src="https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1110382/9a818592c31aaaa82afebab98a6a0936/image/png?token=5c8b479eb3c8b43f6039c04f6350577b&" width="10"><br></span></div><div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><br><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(8, 96, 148);"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>THE PETITION DRIVE</strong></span></span></p><p>On June 23rd, the Illinois Green Party submitted 29,707 signatures to the State Board of Elections in order to place our full slate of candidates on the November ballot - US Senate, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer.</p><p>Three volunteers in particular collected an insane number of signatures. Rita Maniotis collected 4,071, Sheldon Schafer collected 3,246, and Charlie Howe collected 2,066. Rich Whitney, Scott Summers, and Bill Kreml also collected over 1,000 signatures each. All together, 118 petition circulators came together with many other generous donors and volunteers in order to build the Green Party in Illinois. The voters of Illinois deserve candidates that will stand up for public education, teachers, children, the environment, unions, pensioners, and progressive taxation.</p><div> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(8, 96, 148);"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>THE CHALLENGE</strong></span></span></p><p>Illinois is notorious for its backwards and unfair "binder check" process. It's a process that allows objectors to challenge individual signatures without any evidence, cause, or consequences. An extremely high burden of proof is automatically put on the defense who have already signed and notarized each individual petition sheet.</p><p>Karen Yarbrough, the sitting Cook County Recorder of Deeds and a prominent Democrat, officially challenged our signatures on June 30th.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Filgp.org%2Fenemies-of-the-slate%2F">Make no mistake</a>, this is at the direct behest of Pat Quinn and Mike Madigan. What this potentially means is a grueling 3-4 weeks, 7 hours/day, of 8-10 people going line by line through our petition sheets, each with a hearing officer and a representative for Yarbrough. Independent Maps, in an attempt to put a statewide referendum on the ballot, just went through this process and lost. Some hearing officers tossed over 85% of their signatures. In 2006, putting our volunteers through this process set the actual campaign back until September with our people already burned out.</p><div> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(8, 96, 148);"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>THE LAWSUIT</strong></span></span></p><p>Rather than fight the Democratic Machine and the State Board of elections on their own terms, we've decided to fight back by attacking the fundamental problem, the election code itself.</p><p>On July 15th, Scott Summers, Green Party candidate for Governor, and the slate of Green Party statewide candidates, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to halt the state’s “binder check” process and have key provisions of the Illinois Election Code ruled unconstitutional. You can read more about the lawsuit<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Filgp.org%2Fsummers-v-smart%2F">here</a>.</p><div> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(8, 96, 148);"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>RISE UP AGAINST THE MACHINE</strong></span></span></p><div>Overturning these key provisions of the election code doesn't just help the Green Party. It doesn't just help third parties and independents. It would bust open the Democratic and Republican primaries as well, making it easier for all candidates to actually get on the ballot and not be subject to harsh and arbitrary legal challenges. Our fight isn't just for our party or even our party's values. We're building multi-party democracy in the United States and right here in Illinois.</div><div> </div><div>Help us offset our legal and petitioning expenses, and help us raise funds to support our<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Filgp.org%2Frise-up-against-the-machine%2F">terrific candidates.</a><br><br><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Filgp.org%2Fdonate%2F">Donate here</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and better yet donate and also become a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Filgp.org%2Fjoin-the-ilgp%2F">Green Party member</a>!</div><div> </div><div> </div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>FOR THE LATEST NEWS,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FIllinoisGreenParty">LIKE US ON FACEBOOK</a></strong></span></div><div> </div><div>For more information about the Illinois Green Party, see<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=36473894&msgid=455463&act=KPTI&c=1110382&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ilgp.org">ILGP.org</a></div><div> </div><div> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="transparent" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="transparent" valign="top" style="background-color: transparent; padding: 25px 0px 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><div style="border-color: rgb(194, 217, 231);"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="word-wrap: break-word; table-layout: fixed;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#005826" style="background-color: rgb(0, 88, 38); border: 0px none transparent; padding: 10px 15px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Illinois Green Party * 213 S Wheaton Ave * Wheaton IL 60187<br><span class="skype_c2c_print_container">773-809-4547</span></b></span></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="word-wrap: break-word; table-layout: fixed;"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#005826" width="80%" style="background-color: rgb(0, 88, 38); border: 0px none transparent; padding: 0px 15px 10px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#ffffff" face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size: 8px;">Paid for by the Illinois Green Party. 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