Jill Stein says Dems’ push to keep her off ballot is ‘mockery’ of democracy

CHICAGO — Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein says the Democratic Party’s pressure to keep her off the ballot in swing states undercuts Vice President Kamala Harris’ message that her campaign is about saving democracy. 

“I think it’s quite obvious that this makes a mockery of our democracy,” Ms. Stein told The Washington Times ahead of a scheduled media appearance in Chicago on Monday to coincide with the start of the Democratic National Convention. 

The Green Party has ballot access in roughly 20 states, with Ms. Stein filing to become election-eligible in other states. 

She conceded to The Times that she must rely on a write-in campaign in at least four states. 

A Democratic Party staffer last week filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission arguing that the Green Party shouldn’t be on the ballot in the battleground state because it doesn’t have anyone who would be allowed by state law to serve as a nominator for its presidential electors. That means they can’t assemble a valid list of presidential electors, voiding their eligibility on the ballot.

Ms. Stein also ripped Ms. Harris’ vault to the top of the ticket after President Biden’s withdrawal from the race as belying Democrats’ boast as democracy defenders. 

She called the rallying around Ms. Harris as “extremely rigged” and “foreshortened.”

“It’s now the undemocratic party or the anti-democratic party,” she said.

Ms. Stein linked efforts to ignore her candidacy to her support for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Last week, she selected as her running mate Butch Ware, a Black Muslim and historian who condemns Israel’s actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.

“We cannot have a democracy unless we hold our leadership accountable [on Gaza],” she said, noting her support for Abandon Biden, a group of Muslim and Arab American leaders formed when Mr. Biden was headed for the nomination.

The group, which is amid changing its name to Abandon Harris, is urging voters to not support the vice president in November over her refusal to push for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“The role that Abandon Biden is playing is really critical, that we cannot have a democracy unless we hold our leadership accountable, particularly the White House,” Ms. Stein said. “I think this community is extremely courageous by standing up and daring to confront the powers that be at a time when the American people are really in rebellion.”