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Court rejects Democrat appeal to keep Green Party off ballot

By The Associated Press

Connor Harney Connor Harney, a supporter of the North Carolina Green Party's petition to place candidates on the November ballot, poses for a photo at Yates Mill County Park in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Harney is one of more than a dozen signers mentioned in a recent Green Party lawsuit against the state Board of Elections who reported receiving intimidating messages and home visits from canvassers asking him to remove his name from the petition. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

By The Associated Press

RALEIGH — A federal court denied Democrats’ last-ditch effort Thursday to keep the Green Party from potentially hurting their electoral prospects in North Carolina, rejecting their request to block a lower court order placing Green Party candidates on the November ballot.

ALSO READ: Democrats bareknuckle Green Party off North Carolina ballot

The North Carolina Democratic Party and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asked the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to block an Aug. 5 district court order prohibiting the state elections board from enforcing a candidate filing deadline to keep the Green Party’s U.S. Senate candidate, Matthew Hoh, off the November ballot.

The court rejected the Democrats’ request for a stay in a one-page ruling Thursday, a day before the state board’s ballot printing deadline, without providing its reasoning.

The decision follows U.S. District Judge James Dever III’s order Wednesday denying the Democrats’ request that he block his own ruling in the Green Party case. Dever wrote that the Democratic organizations “clearly played a critical role” in delaying the Green Party’s ballot consideration and “do not appear in this court with clean hands.”

The Green Party accused Democrats Wednesday of trying to “sow confusion just long enough” for the Friday deadline to pass.

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“As tomorrow is the deadline for finalizing ballot preparation, we believe this decision by the 4th Circuit keeps (state senate candidate) Michael Trudeau and me on the ballot in November,” Hoh said Thursday.

Democrats have warned Hoh’s appearance on the ballot could divide progressive voters and lead to a GOP victory in the tight Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Rep. Tedd Budd, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee also filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday urging the court to reject the Democrats’ emergency motion.

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