OntheWilderSide

My quick overview of the Green Party primaries:

One report from Boston, but no statewide returns from Massachusetts yet. Anyone with info or a news story I am missing, please e-mail at votewilder at yahoo dot com.

From Massachusetts, from the Wicked Local:

…the Green Party, where in Boston, 184 people cast ballots. Ralph Nader emerged the winner in the city with 67 votes, compared to 64 for second-place finisher Cynthia McKinney. There were also 26 write-ins and 14 people who had no preference…

In California, where Nader’s name was directly on the ballot, Nader won with 66.8%, with former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in second place with 19.9%. I will be interested to also see the same contest as it played out in the smaller, CA, Peace and Freedom Party.

In Illinois, Ralph Nader’s name was not on the ballot (because of not being a declared candidate.) So, the McKinney-Nader match-up is hard to make a determination by. Though, McKinney won the whole Green field in Illinois with 57%. Howie Hawkins, as a stand-in for Nader, received 17%. (For myself, as an active Green, and primary-watcher, I do not think enough was done to inform Greens that Howie was the stand-in for Nader. In fact, the national party only sent out their summary press release listing which candidates were on what state ballots yesterday afternoon, in the middle of primary voting day.)

In Arkansas, Nader was not even a choice on the ballot. So, one might imagine that the some of the 53% of greens there who voted “uncommitted” might have been expressing a wish for Nader to be listed. Regardless, the winner in Arkansas was Cynthia McKinney with 21% of the lead. With Jared Ball in second place at 11%.

Problems at the Polls: Unfair administering of the Green Party primary by the election officials:

Reports back from Illinois, Arkansas and California that pollworkers and systems made it difficult to even cast a Green Party vote. In Illinois-I think separate from the Green Party-they had an incident of a pollworker falsely telling people that their vote could be cast in “invisible” ink, it was because he gave them a touch-screen stylus instead of a pen. Ironically, the Wall Street Journal inadvertently corroborated reports of problems in California, by quoting a very nice “Green Party member” who was saying that he was going to vote for Hillary Clinton, and instead voted for Obama. In Green Party, Greens were supposed to get Green ballots. Other reports said this was confused and not working correctly.

Filed under: Ballot issues, election, elections, grassroots democracy, green, Green Party Websites, News, president, presidential race, progressive politics, third party, US Politics Tagged: | Election results, Jared Ball, primary, results, Super Tuesday, third parties