Diane Peterson of the St. Paul Greens spearheaded a reform bill in the legislature that removed a barrier to her service as an election judge, and that of many other Minnesotans. She served as an election judge for the first time in 2004, when Greens had major party status. Election law allowed major party individuals to serve, but not others. When she learned that soon she would no longer be able to serve because the Greens were scheduled to lose their major status, she decided to change the discriminatory law. She approached her Republican House Representative and convinced him to introduce a bill to remedy the situation. She coordinated efforts with Rep. Meslow, Sen. Marty, the League of Women Voters, her city clerk, and a lobbyist for the League of Minnesota Cities. She reapproached her new state senator, a Democrat, and her new state rep, a Republican, late in 2006 to introduce new bills in the 2007 Legislature, which they did. She testified for the bill before two committees, and it almost passed into law.

But partisan politics stopped it, and her two legislators brought it back in 2008 for another try. Finally, on May 12, 2008, the governor signed the reform into law after it was rolled into another Legislator's bill. It was a multi-partisan effort, and Peterson claims some credit for it being a Green victory for better democracy. The new law allows Greens, and others, to apply beginning June 1, 2008. Judges may serve in any Minnesota community; they are not confined to their own neighborhood or city.

Peterson encourages Greens to celebrate this win for democracy by becoming an election judge (many more are needed for this big voter turnout year).

This is the second Green win for more democratic election law: Peterson reformed the way presidential candidates are listed on Minnesota ballots in a 2000 bill mandating that both first and last names appear, rather than just last names, which gave an advantage to major party candidates with high name recognition due to skewed media coverage.