Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	1022
Proposal	Amendment - Convention Rules, Half-Votes, in response to COVID-19
Presenter	Steering Committee
Floor Manager	Gloria Mattera
Phase	Closed - Adopted
Discussion	06-27-2020 - 06-28-2020
Voting	06-29-2020 - 07-05-2020
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Consens Quorum	Two Thirds of Yes and No Votes

Background

Owing to the COVID-19 crisis, the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) decided to hold a virtual presidential nominating convention on July 11, 2020, instead of a face-to-face convention as originally planned. This necessitated a series of one-time amendments to the Convention Rules to facilitate a virtual process, approved by the National Committee on on.
In Proposal #1011, a change was approved to eliminate half votes in the first round for this year’s convention. Originally when #1011 was drafted, it was not clear what kind of voting software approach was going to be taken for the convention, and there was uncertainty that it could accommodate half-votes.

At this point, Convention organizers have indicated that they will be able to accommodate half-votes. For that reason this proposal would reinstate the ability to cast half-votes in the first round (and only the first round). Previously there were no half votes allowed after the first round and that would remain the same with this proposal.

The reason for half votes in the first place is that with a small number of delegates per state, it becomes difficult to practice proportional representation in allocating delegates if there are multiple candidates with support within the party. This year several state parties - apparently unaware that Proposal #1011 had eliminated half-votes - had voted to allocate half-votes at their caucuses and conventions.

Because the Credentials Committee needs to finish the preliminary credentials process by July 2, this proposal must move with haste. Under GPUS Rules and Procedures, all proposals must have a one week vote and are supposed to start discussion on a Monday and go for a minimum of two weeks. But a shorter discussion period and an expedited placement into the voting queue can occur if the Steering Committee, by a 2/3 vote approves findings that declare that this would allow the GPUS to meet deadlines it would otherwise not meet, or be of other substantial benefit to the GPUS. That has occurred in this case and for that reason it has a two day discussion and seven day vote, for something that should not be controversial.

Proposal

That the National Committee add
“Half-votes from delegates assigned with such will be counted in the first round.”
to Section 5-10 Nominating a Presidential Candidate
such that it will read
5-10.3 Half-votes from delegates assigned with such will be counted in the first round. Succeeding rounds will count only whole votes.

Resources

Effective immediately, including applicable to the 2020 credentials process. GPUS webmaster would archive existing Convention Rules, update Convention Rules to reflect all changes in this proposal, then after the Convention archive that version of the Convention Rules and update the Convention Rules to show only the permanent amendments and not the one-time ones.

References

Existing GPUS Presidential Convention Rules http://www.gpus.org/convention-rules

The voting software used by the Green Party of the United States is free software, licensed under the General Public License v2 (GPL).