Editor,
The latest attempt in the ongoing attempt to litigate, legislate and re-interpret the Green Party off the ballot has passed two house committees and will soon be on its way to the state Senate.
House Bill 628 increases the registration threshold for major party status, not by doubling or tripling it, but by a whopping 30-fold or 3,000 percent increase! If this draconian requirement were in place elsewhere the Democrats would not have full-ballot access in Utah nor would Republicans in the District of Columbia. We are already the only state in the Southwest that requires both registration and voting minimums, and with the proposed changes our registration requirements would be at least 10 times the highest requirement in our region.
The laws in Nevada are typical: there the requirement is 1 percent of the vote for any statewide race (as opposed to New Mexico's 5 percent for president and governor) or 1 percent of voters registered in the party (compared to the 10 percent of HB628). In all of our neighboring states, Greens and Libertarians are entitled to full participation just as the members of the big parties are.
While the Secretary of State states that she is proposing this bill because of the supposedly prohibitive cost, the figures that they have come up with are deceptive. The cost of the election should be spread out among all primary election voters, not laid on the shoulders of the 13,000 Greens.
Why the great concern on the part of the Bureau of Elections for "democracy on the cheap?" Isn't the mission of that office to enfranchise and enable voters?
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Although I was the Green US Senate candidate in 1996, I was once ostracized from the Green Party for supporting Democrat Tom Udall. This is because I represent a vision of the Green Party that seeks to build coalitions with like-minded people and to sometimes avoid the "spoiler" scenario and to work with Democrats in a coalition administration, just as Greens do in Germany. I hope to promote an effort for a Democrat/Green coalition for the 2004 presidential election, but hostile actions directed against Green ballot access only strengthen the case of the hardliners within the party, who would have us run no matter what.
As a victor of a hotly contested Green primary for U.S. Senate in 1996, it is clear to me that the very primary elections that this bill seeks to abolish also guarantee a voice for more moderate rank-and-file Greens who might vote against running as spoilers by voting for the 'None of the Above Option" if it were available or for candidates committed to withdrawing in favor of a "Green" Democratic candidate. After my ostracism for supporting Tom Udall, a poll of our members revealed majority support for my position.
This pragmatism will never prevail in a party convention where the more intractable types are over-represented. Whipping up the anger of Greens, then leaving the hardcore to make all the decisions in the party only guarantees further spoiling miseries for the Democrats.
I urge readers to call their state senators and encourage them to vote against HB628. This bill undermines the American democratic principles of free and fair elections, one person-one-vote, a level playing field, and the participation of as many people as possible in the democratic process, especially the young people who are our future and are strongly represented in the Green Party.
Abraham Gutmann
UNM student
