Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	324
Proposal	Delegate Apportionment for the GPUS Presidential Nominating Convention
Presenter	GPCA, GPoWS
Floor Manager	Jason Nabewaniec
Phase	Closed
Discussion	10/29/2007 - 11/11/2007
Voting	11/12/2007 - 11/18/2007
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	34 0.6666
Consens Quorum	103 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

The Delegate Apportionment Committee (DAC) was elected
pursuant to Green Party of the United States (GPUS)
proposal 175, worked for 10 months discussing and
negotiating apportionment issues, achieved consensus,
accepted amendments, and proposed a new delegate
apportionment formula in the form of proposal 256. This
proposal needed 66.7% approval to pass; proposal 256
received 65% approval. The DAC had been charged with
proposing apportionment in general, including the
Presidential nominating convention; after their consensus
proposal failed, members ceased work on proposals.

GPUS proposal 272, a revision of the proposal 256, was then
sponsored by several states, adopted on April 16, and its
calculation approved on July 4, 2007 with 73% approval.
Since the DAC had intended to propose a model for the
convention apportionment similar in structure to that
proposed in 256, and since several of the people who opposed
proposal 256 and 272 said that they thought that such a
performance-based menu-option model was suitable for the
convention apportionment, this model is being proposed for
convention apportionment.

The current proposal was developed, with minor amendments,
from a proposal for convention apportionment approved by all
the members of the original DAC who remained to the end of
the committee's work.

Proposal

This proposal presents a formula to be used to calculate
delegate apportionment for the 2008 GPUS Presidential
nominating convention.

The new Delegate Apportionment Committee to be elected in
2010, pursuant to proposal 272, shall revisit issues of
proportionate representation in the GPUS national
Presidential nominating convention in light of experience
with this formula and propose a permanent formula for the
apportionment of national conventions in 2011.

ALLOCATION OF DELEGATES TO THE GPUS PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING
CONVENTION

ARTICLE I. CALCULATION - The apportionment for the national
nominating convention will be calculated every four years,
in the odd numbered year preceding the national election
year by the Apportionment Standing Committee. Pursuant to
proposal 272, this committee will have collected the
necessary information from state parties to calculate the
National Committee apportionment. The Apportionment Standing
Committee shall use this same data to calculate the
apportionment for the Presidential nominating convention.
The Apportionment Standing Committee shall consider possible
corrections to the data since the previous calculation.
Should there be any ambiguities in the application of the
calculation method, the committee shall rule on these
according to its internal challenge process and standards.
The results of such rulings shall be reported on its
publicly accessible listserv.

The Apportionment Standing Committee shall present the
results of its calculation of the 2008 convention as soon as
possible, and no longer than two months following the
adoption of this proposal. It shall present the results of
recalculations to the National Committee by November of the
year preceding the Presidential election year. The results
of the apportionment recalculation must again be approved by
the National Committee by a simple majority vote, and shall
become effective for the following Presidential nominating
convention.

ARTICLE II. DELEGATES AND VOTES -Each delegate seat counts
for one vote. To compensate for the expense, difficulty and
environmental burden of travel to the convention, proxy
votes are allowed, under the following rules:

1. The number of proxy votes per delegation may not exceed
the number of seated delegates on that delegation.

2. Delegations may cast any allowed proxy votes by
consulting their constituent body or consulting a specific
delegate whose proxy is held.

3. Delegations with at least four voting members also have
the option of casting the proxy votes proportionally to the
votes of the seated delegates as a whole.

4. In delegations where individual seated delegates carry
proxy votes, no seated delegate may cast more than one proxy
vote.

ARTICLE III. SIZE OF THE GPUS PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING
CONVENTION - The Presidential nominating convention shall
consist of 800 ą5 delegates when all states and caucuses are
included. All states shall be included in the allocation
calculation, whether or not they currently have an
accredited state party. Should any new state party be
accredited after an apportionment, that party shall receive
the number of delegates allocated. Should any new caucus be
accredited after an apportionment, the convention will be
expanded by the number of delegates allotted to the new
caucus.

ARTICLE IV. MINIMUM VOTE - All accredited state parties are
entitled to a minimum of five votes and five delegates.

Accredited caucuses are guaranteed three votes. Any
GPUS-accredited caucus of a diversity group that is
under-represented on the National Committee by a factor of 2
to 1 or greater, relative to the general population, shall
be apportioned four votes.

ARTICLE V. PROPORTIONAL ALLOCATION METHOD - Using the data
collected from each state party, the Apportionment Standing
Committee will determine the proportion of delegates
allocated to each state party to the national convention
using four measures of relative Green Party strength. These
measures are based on estimating each state party's active
contribution to the Green Party in terms of campaign
strength, in-state voting strength, Presidential voting
strength, and number of members.

Within most of these categories, there are multiple methods
of determining the strength of a state party relative to
parties in other states. The state may choose which method
in each category to use. If the state does not choose, the
Apportionment Standing Committee will use the method in each
category that gives each state party its highest possible
score. The final score is given in terms of a percentage of
the national Presidential nominating convention.

The formula for calculating the number of delegates
allocated to a given state party is as follows:

1. Using the choices of the state party, calculate the score
in each of the four categories. Normalize each category so
that the total percentage is 100%.

2. Add up these scores and divide by 4 to get an average
score. This is the percentage of the delegation designated
to the state.

3. If the percentage is less than the minimum percentage
threshold of delegates allocated to each state, then five
delegates will be allocated to that state. The minimum
percentage threshold is
{5 /[800 - (number of delegates apportioned to accredited
caucuses)]} x 100%.

4. If the percentage is greater than the minimum threshold,
that is the initial percentage of delegates allocated to the
state party.

Once the initial percentages are calculated for all states,
these values must be normalized to assure that the total
percent of delegates equals 100%. The formula for
normalizing the initial percentages is as follows:

5. Set all states with initial percentage scores below the
minimum threshold value equal to the minimum threshold.

6. Add up the initial percentage scores of all states and
divide each state's initial percentage by this total.

7. Repeat steps 5. and 6. until the total percentage of
delegates allotted to all states (800 - number of delegates
apportioned to accredited caucuses) equals approximately
100% (will usually take 3 to 4 iterations),

The number of delegates allocated to each state is
calculated by multiplying the normalized percentage of each
state by [800 - (number of delegates apportioned to
accredited caucuses)] and rounding off to the nearest
integer.

8. The threshold for rounding may need to be adjusted in
order to bring the total number of delegates within the
range of ą5 of the target number.

ARTICLE VI. ALLOCATION MEASURES

The Apportionment Standing Committee will seek submissions
of data from state Green Party organizations according to
the following criteria:

1. Membership
The number of Green Party members in the state party as
close as possible to the date of the start of the work of
the committee. (This will then be calculated as a percentage
of the total number of Green Party members in the United
States.)

Green Party membership is defined as follows:
" In states where the Green Party can register voters, Green
Party membership is defined as the number of voters that are
registered in the Green Party. Green Party membership in
these states may also include those who are ineligible to
vote but are extended formal membership by the state party.

" In states without Green Party voter registration, Green
Party membership is defined as the number of people who have
filled the qualifications for membership in that state
party, have signed up to be Green Party members, and are
included in the database of current members in that state
party. Calculations and email lists may not be substituted
for membership rolls. State parties without partisan
registration that have Green Party primaries may use the
number of voters who received Green Party primary ballots as
a back up measure for membership.

" To mitigate the inherent differences between registration
laws and membership definitions, state parties may also use
the number of signers of state party ballot access petitions
in the Membership category. To avoid overly large
fluctuations in the formula due to differences in proportion
between the measures, the number of ballot access signatures
shall be applied at one half strength.

If state legal action results in a state Green party having
its members legally invalidated, they may continue to use
the same membership count until the next apportionment
cycle.

NOTE: For the purposes of #2, Campaign Strength, and #3,
State Voting Strength, "Green Party Office Holders" and
"Green Party Candidates" must be Green Party members. They
may not also be members of the Republican or Democratic
Party or running solely on another political party's ballot
line. For State Voting Strength, if a candidate is listed on
more than one party's ballot line, only the votes for the
Green Party ballot line can be counted.

2. Campaign Strength
A. The number of Green Party Office Holders in your state as
a percentage of the total number of Green Party Office
Holders in all affiliated state parties. Green Party office
holders are defined as members of the Green Party who are
elected to public office in elections (not including
internal party offices such as central committees). If they
received less than 50 votes to win the office, they will
count half.

B. The number of local and statewide Green Party Candidates
that ran for office in your state during the last four-year
election cycle as a percentage of the total number of local
and statewide Green Party Candidates that ran for office in
the U.S. in all affiliated state parties during the same
period. Local or statewide Green Party Candidates are
defined as Green Party members who run and appear on the
ballot in public elections. If they received less than 50
votes, they will count half.

C. The percentage of the total U.S. population that resides
in your state, multiplied by 0.5. This measure is designed
to compensate for overly restrictive ballot access laws in
some states. State parties are not eligible to use this
measure if they have had ballot access for every election
cycle over the past four years. State parties are also only
eligible to use this measure if they make a claim that
ballot access laws are overly restrictive in their state. If
used here, population may not be used in #3, State Voting
Strength or in #4, Presidential Voting Strength.

D. As another option to compensate for overly restrictive
ballot access laws, states may choose to repeat the
Membership measure (Article VI, Section 1, above) in this
category. State parties are not eligible to use this
measure if they have had ballot access for every election
cycle over the past four years. State parties are also only
eligible to use this measure if they make a claim that
ballot access laws are overly restrictive in their state.

3. State Voting Strength
A. The number of votes cast for Green Party Candidates in
your state during the last four-year election cycle as a
percentage of the total number of votes cast for Green Party
Candidates in the U.S during the same time. State parties
may use two times the number of signers of state party
ballot access petitions as equivalent to votes cast.

B. The highest number of votes received by a single Green
Party Candidate in your state during the last four-year
election cycle as a percentage of the total number of Green
Party votes received by the highest vote getter in each
state in the U.S. during the same time. State parties may
use two times the number of signers of state party ballot
access petitions as equivalent to votes cast.

C. The percentage of the total U.S. population that resides
in your state, multiplied by 0.5. This measure is designed
to compensate for overly restrictive ballot access laws in
some states. If used here, population may not be used in #2,
Campaign Strength or in #4, Presidential Voting Strength.
State parties are not eligible to use this measure if they
have had ballot access for every election cycle over the
past four years. State parties are also only eligible to use
this measure if they make a claim that ballot access laws
are overly restrictive in their state.

D. As another option to compensate for overly restrictive
ballot access laws, states may choose to repeat the
Membership measure (Article VI, Section 1, above) in this
category. State parties are not eligible to use this
measure if they have had ballot access for every election
cycle over the past four years. State parties are also only
eligible to use this measure if they make a claim that
ballot access laws are overly restrictive in their state.

4. Presidential Voting Strength
A. The number of votes cast for Green Party presidential
nominee in your state in the November 2000 general election
as a percentage of the number of votes cast for the same
candidate nationwide.

B. The number of votes cast for Green Party presidential
nominee in your state in the November 2004 general election
as a percentage of the number of votes cast for the same
candidate nationwide.

C. The percentage of the total U.S. population that resides
in your state, multiplied by 0.5. (This measure is designed
to compensate for overly restrictive ballot access laws in
some states. If used here, population may not be used in #2,
Campaign Strength or in #3, State Voting Strength.)

D. As another option to compensate for overly restrictive
ballot access laws, states may choose to repeat the
Membership measure (Article VI, Section 1, above) in this
category.

Resources

CONTACTS:
Cat Woods, cat801@mindspring.com, 415-897-6989
Aram Falsafi, aram@aramfalsafi.com, 206-723-6827

References

None

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