By TARA BURGHART Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- A federal judge extended a temporary restraining order Thursday barring the state from voiding any voter registrations for the Green Party and ordering it to allow new members to enroll.
U.S. District Judge John Gleeson asked the party and the state Board of Elections to submit briefs on several issues by Jan. 30 and said he would issue a ruling in the case soon after, according to Jeremy Creelan, the lead attorney for the Green Party.
The case stems from the fact that the environmentally oriented Green Party failed to collect the 50,000 votes in November's gubernatorial race needed to maintain its status as a recognized party in New York.
State law calls for the party to lose its automatic place on the statewide ballot. The party's members become unenrolled or independent voters for election purposes, and the party can't enroll new members until it achieves ballot status again.
In a lawsuit filed last month in federal court in Brooklyn, the Green Party did not challenge its loss of a spot on the ballot but instead focused on the enrollment issues, arguing that New York is one of only three states that prohibit people from enrolling in the party of their choice depending on that party's status on the ballot.
The provisions violate the free-association right of the Constitution's First Amendment and the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause, according to papers the Green Party filed with the court.
Creelan said without up-to-date voter lists, organizations like the Green Party would struggle to contact and organize voters, raise funds and communicate.
"It does have an impact on minor parties' ability to grow, to develop and to become major parties," he said. "It also has an impact on voters' rights to enroll in the party of their choice."
The party wants the state Board of Elections to keep the present box under which voters can identity themselves as members of the Green Party or add a blank line on registrations voters could fill in.
Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the Board of Elections, said while the restraining order remains in effect, the state will not change the voter registration forms or registration lists.
For the state's lawyers, "the basic argument is that this is state election law and they are defending the election law," Daghlian said.
The judge's temporary restraining order _ originally issued in December and extended Thursday _ also affects the Liberal and the Right to Life parties, which both failed to get 50,000 votes in November's election.
The Green Party candidate in November, Stanley Aronowitz, received 41,797 votes.
The Green Party achieved ballot status in New York in 1998, when its gubernatorial candidate, "Grandpa" Al Lewis, of "The Munsters" television show fame, polled more than 50,000 votes.
