At the upcoming national meeting to be held in Tulsa, the Oklahoma Green Party will submit a proposal to the membership addressing the process of selecting the Party’s presidential nominee. The proposal would institute direct voting, to replace the current system of representational selection. The proposal is among several being presented for consideration.
Proposal For Instituting Direct Voting For The Green Party Presidential Nomination And Ensuring Adequate State Party Representation On The Gpus National Committee
Sponsor: Green Party of Oklahoma
Contact: James M. Branum, jmb@jmbzine.com, 405-476-5620
BACKGROUND: One of the 4 pillars of the Green Party is that of grassroots democracy. The idea of grassroots democracy is difficult to define, however, particularly when considering the tension between insuring that all individual members of the Green Party have an equal voice, while at the same time ensuring that all state parties have a voice in the party as well (since the historic roots of the GPUS was in the Association of State Green Parties, a cooperative body of many of the various state Green Parties in existence at that time).
It is out of our desire to see these two concerns be met, that we submit this proposal to the Green Party National Committee for consideration.
PROPOSAL 1: The Green Party of Oklahoma calls upon the GPUS to establish a nation-wide primary election for the 2008 Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominations. This election would be conducted by a mail-in voting procedure using IRV. To insure the integrity of the process, ballots must be sent to the GPUS members in hardcopy form by US mail, and ballots must be sent back to the GPUS for counting by US mail.
This primary ballot would have the names of all constitutionally eligible candidates who have submitted a written declaration of candidacy to the GPUS, as well as the option of “None of the Above”.
PROPOSAL 2: The Green Party of Oklahoma calls upon the GPUS to ensure, that whatever method of delegate apportionment is used in the future, that every state be guaranteed a minimum of at least 2 delegates to the national committee.
