Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will be on the general election ballot in Minnesota, along with the name of someone who is not actually her vice presidential running mate.

Stein’s running mate is Ajamu Baraka. But the Minnesota ballot will show a Green Party ticket of Stein and Howie Hawkins. That’s because Green Party of Minnesota members began their petition process for ballot access well before the national party nominated its candidates. They used the name of Hawkins, a Green Party activist from New York, as a vice presidential candidate on the petition.

Green Party of Minnesota officials complained about the name issue in a news release.

“We believe the current inability to substitute our stand-in for our endorsed candidate is unfair in light of the arduous and time consuming ballot access process,” they wrote. “It is our hope that the Secretary of State Steve Simon will work with the Green Party of Minnesota to enable our stand-in vice presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, be replaced by our official endorsed candidate Ajamu Baraka.”

Simon’s press secretary, Ryan Furlong, said there will not be any changes.

“The secretary of state’s office does not have any legal authority to substitute the name of a candidate on a petition,” Furlong said.

State law requires minor parties to collect 2,000 signatures before Aug. 23 to get ballot access.

The Socialist Workers Party and the Legal Marijuana Now party have also petitioned to have their presidential candidates on the ballot in Minnesota.

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Tim Pugmire

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Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will be on the general election ballot in Minnesota, along with the name of someone who is not actually her vice presidential running mate.


MN ballot will show wrong Green Party veep candidate

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