Bill would increase ballot access

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:16:05 -0400

A bill would expand ballot access in North Carolina.

State Sen. Jim Jacumin, a Burke County Republican, said he filed the Electoral Freedom Act after intensive lobbying by a constituent.

The bill would reduce the number of signatures required for a political party or unaffiliated candidate to be recognized by the state.

It is being pushed by North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections, a political action committee formed by UNC-Charlotte political science major Jordon Greene.

The group, which had an annual budget of $81 last year, is nonpartisan.

Its Web site includes links to the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties, which are recognized, as well as the Constitution Party, the Green Party and the Modern Whigs, which are not.

"We want everyone to be able to come to us for information and work together toward the goal of alleviating the problem of ballot access," Greene said.

McHenry opponent seeks signatures

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:19:33 -0400

A Lenoir man hopes to run against U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry.

Bryan Greene, 46, needs to gather 17,000 signatures of registered voters by June of 2008 to qualify for the ballot as an independent candidate under state law.

Endorsed by the Christian conservative Constitution Party of North Carolina, he pledges to make abortion illegal, oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants and abolish the income tax.

On foreign policy, he believes that the Iraq war and the war on terror are unconstitutional:

The President of the United States has NO right at all what so ever to declare war, and the US Congress cannot constitutionally, by the founders' philosophy of government, delgate their power to delcare war.

A former Marine, he works in the engineering department at Frye Regional Medical Center.