Green Party of Los Angeles County Endorses Presidential Recount 2016

Whereas in a true democracy every vote should be counted; and

Whereas Grassroots Democracy is one of the Green Party's Ten Key Values (http://www.cagreens.org/ten-key-values); and

Whereas the Green Party of California (GPCA) platform calls for "Voting System Integrity - Make voting systems secure, reliable and verifiable" (http://www.cagreens.org/platform/electoral-reform#voting-system-integrity); and

Whereas the Green Party of the United States platform calls to "Develop publicly-owned, open source voting equipment and deploy it across the nation to ensure high national standards, performance, transparency and accountability; use verifiable paper ballots; and institute mandatory automatic random precinct recounts to ensure a high level of accuracy in election results" (http://www.gp.org/democracy_2016#Voting-Equipment-Ballots-Recounts): and

Whereas the Green Party of the United States platform calls to "Establish guarantees that every citizen's vote counts, and that all U.S. voting systems—including electronic ones—are verifiable, transparent and accurate" (http://www.gp.org/democracy_2016#Voting-Equipment-Ballots-Recounts); and

Whereas in the wake of widespread complaints about disqualification and obstruction of legitimate voters in the 2004 presidential campaign, it was the 2004 Green Party presidential campaign of David Cobb and Pat LaMarche that led investigations and demanded recounts in Ohio and New Mexico ; and

Whereas this 2004 Green Party candidate led effort led to uncovering evidence that led to the conviction of two Republican operatives in Cuyahoga County and to greater caution in many states regarding computer voting (including the decision in some states not to use Diebold machines in future elections); helped accelerate the growth of the "Election Integrity" movement (which is largely responsible for the halt of the proliferation of "Black Box Voting" Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines; and provoked a "top to bottom" review of the California voting systems by then-Secretary of State Debra Bowen, leading to DREs being outlawed in the state (http://www.jill2016.com/why_do_recounts_matter); and

Whereas soon after the November 2016 presidential election, several nationally renown election integrity activists and computer security experts raised substantial concerns about voting irregularities in  the presidential resutls in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; and

Whereas in reponse, on Novmeber 22 the 2016 Stein for President campaign began raising the substantial funds needed to file the recounts and pay the substantial filing fees, legal fees and recount observers costs (http://www.jill2016.com/why_does_it_cost_so_much); and

Whereas this effort has demonstrated broad grassroots support - with over 150,000 donors averaging less than $50 per donation; and

Whereas recount efforts have been filed in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; and

Whereas the recount efforts have exposed widespread voting machine issues around accuracy and transparency in all three states, and even the lack of any paper ballots in large parts of Pennsylvania; and

Whereas the recount revealed a large number of machine-caused (de facto Jim Crow) undervotes in primarily African-American Detroit, that are several times margin of victory in the state; and

Whereas the recount is being vigorously opposed by local and state election officials, Republican Party officials and Trump related SuperPACs; and

Whereas efforts to shut down the vote remind of Florida 2000; and

Whereas election integrity is a fundamental, good government and non-partisan issue; and

Whereas the recount efforts has elevated the issue of election integrity, garnering substantial press coverage and popular debate; and

Wheres as recount 2016 is growing the election integrity movement, and connecting it to electoral reforms like ranked-choice voting, proportional representation and a national popular vote for president; and

Therefore the Green Party of Los Angeles County supports and endorses the 2016 recount efforts of the 2016 Jill Stein for President campaign in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.