Cobb Commits Support for Georgia Petition Drive

For immediate release: May 6, 2004

COBB COMMITS SUPPORT FOR GEORGIA PETITION DRIVE
Urges Greens to Help the Green Party of Georgia

Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb today pledged his support to the Green Party of Georgia's ballot access drive and urged Greens across the country to lend their support as well. Georgia's ballot access law, one of the most difficult in the nation, requires that 37,153 validated signatures be collected by July 13 in order to place statewide candidates on the ballot for the Georgia Green Party.

"My campaign exists to build the Green Party. I pledge to tour Georgia after winning the nomination at the Milwaukee Convention to share some of the Texas magic we delivered in 2000," said Cobb. In 2000 Cobb and Nathalie Paravicini coordinated a successful petition drive in Texas that collected over 75,000 signatures in just 75 days.

Georgia Green Party organizers are working to match a $40,000 challenge grant to hire a crew of petition circulators to meet the July 13 deadline. However, both donors and Green organizers have expressed concern to the Cobb campaign that if the Green Party does not nominate its own candidate for president this year, the petition drive might not be worth the effort because there would be no guarantee of a candidate on the ballot. The Green Party of Georgia has an emergency meeting scheduled for this coming Sunday to assess the situation and finalize an action plan.

"I want to congratulate the Georgia Green Party on the ground work they have laid which has attracted this level of support for their petitioning effort," said Cobb. "The Voting Rights movement has overturned the white primary, the poll tax, literacy tests, districts which dilute minority voting strength and other barriers to the full enfranchisement of every citizen in Georgia. Next we'll overcome these ballot access barriers, and by building the Green Party we'll complete the unfinished business of the Voting Rights Movement by publicly funding elections and implementing proportional representation as well."

Cobb urged Greens across the country to send donation to the Georgia Green Party to match the challenge grant and help get the Georgia Greens on the ballot. Donations should be sent to: Georgia Green Party, PO Box 5332, Atlanta, GA 31107. Volunteers interested in helping out can contact petition drive coordinator Melody Powell at 404-806-0584.

David Cobb is the most active candidate seeking the presidential nomination of the Green Party at its national nominating convention in Milwaukee on June 27. He has more delegates than any other candidate seeking the nomination at this point.

For more information on David Cobb's campaign go to http://www.votecobb.org/

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