Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	153
Proposal	Strengthening Internal Democracy in GP-US
Presenter	Green Party of New York State, Green Party of Vermont
Floor Manager	Jody Grage
Phase	Closed
Discussion	07/04/2005 - 07/24/2005
Voting	07/25/2005 - 07/31/2005
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	32 0.6666
Consens Quorum	47 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

To maintain our party's unity we must institute internal democratic reforms
that ensure that all viewpoints are respected, all members can participate
fully in the institutions of the party, and all decisions truly reflect the
will of the Green Party membership.

In order to strengthen internal democracy in the Green Party of the United
States, we ask the National Committee of GPUS to approve the following
proposals.

Proposal

The Green Party of New York and the Green Party of Vermont call upon the
GPUS to strengthen internal democracy by adopting a national policy based on
the principle of one person, one vote.

To facilitate the adoption of one person, one vote, the GPoNYS calls on the
GPUS to require all accredited state parties to estimate the size of their
state membership relative to other states, and that a neutral commission be
set up to evaluate the claims made by each state.

ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE

It is imperative that all members in the Green Party recognize that our
national decisions reflect the true will of our members and that their
opinions and votes are fully counted and respected.

The Green Party internal structures must correspond with the principle of
one person, one vote. No member of the Green Party may have more or less
representation than any other Green Party member when selecting the party's
presidential ticket and its national leadership bodies.

State representatives to national leadership bodies and selection of
delegates for national conventions must correspond to the principle of one
person, one vote. Any existing regulations that conflict with this principle
are invalid and must be adjusted to correspond to it.

The principle of one person, one vote must be respected along with our
principles of gender parity and diversity on the issues the party has
declared relevant for our nation and our time.

DETERMINING STATE MEMBERSHIP SIZE

Before the Green Party can implement one person, one vote representation, we
must develop methods to fairly determine the membership size of each state.
Given that more than half of the states in the United States do not allow
citizens to register for any third political party, each state party will
have to use different methods for estimating membership sizes.

States can estimate their membership size using registration numbers, number
of elected Greens, votes cast for local, statewide, or Presidential Green
candidates, or whatever method they deem appropriate. All estimates by any
one state must be contrasted with estimates from all other states to
determine the overall percentage of delegates allotted that state.

NEUTRAL COMMISSION TO CERTIFY MEMBERSHIP SIZE

Based on the principle above, a special commission should be established
that, as clearly as possible, represents the Green Party members and its
differing political currents, geographic spread and other factors such as
gender and race. The commission will be selected by the National Committee
and will meet every two years in odd-numbered years.

Each state will be asked to provide an estimate of their membership size
based on any combination of direct and/or indirect methods they deem as
appropriate. The commission will review each state's claims and their
premises. They will either agree or make their own estimate. In cases where
there is disagreement between the commission and a state, every attempt will
be made by both parties to resolve the dispute.

Once the membership size for each state has been certified by the
commission, these values will be used to determine the proportion of
representation each state gets in our national governing bodies and at the
national convention.

Representation for delegates and for election of the National Committee
members will follow the certification of membership state by state in a
formula that will be based on a one person, one vote criteria.

Resources

None.

References

This proposal is to be presented for vote to the 2005 national Green Party
meeting, to be held July 21-24 2005.

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