The results were split between Nader and McKinney. But Lordy, the numbers of Green voters is getting minuscule, a trend that needs to be reversed quickly if the party is to remain viable.
California
Registered voters: 15,712,753
Registered Greens: 127,042 (0.81% of registered voters)
Total Green votes: 27,511 (about 20% voted)
Arkansas
Open primary system. Voters can vote for any candidate.
Registered voters: 1,570,961
Total votes cast: 510,850
Total Green votes: 637
According to the secretary of state’s office earlier this month, the Green Party has six registered voters in Arkansas.
Ouch.
Illinois
Total votes cast: About 2.8 million
Total Green votes: 2,597
The main reason there are not more Green registered to vote as Greens is because most counies in Arakansas don’t have the forms availble for Greens to gegister. We have been a political party under Arkansas law for only a few months. We are woking on the problem.
The second reason is that over 90% of Arkansas voters register independant or “prefer not to state”. In fact, one problem we have been having is that some County Clerks do not even know that it is possilbe to register by party in Arkansas because we are the first ones ever to ask them about it.
Like you, Bob, I’m a former Green. I’d argue that the internal schisms, complicated by prioritizing process over results makes the party unviable already.
I love what the Greens stand for– but the way it’s been implemented (IMO) makes the party pretty much doomed to fail. With their internal problems leaving no hope of success, and driving people like us away in large numbers, they do their cause more harm than good.
Maybe transformation is possible– but more likely it’ll take an alternative incarnation to get Greens off the ground.
All things considered, I believe the Green Party in Illinois is very well organized. We have several dozen candidates advancing to the general election in November. Our primary this year was largely an exercise in making sure election workers become accustomed to presenting voters with three choices. Our strategy in Illinois is working just fine and I am looking forward to future electoral success.
As it stands now, in Illinois we have a state central committee with the ability to slate candidates after the primary, county committees in key areas of the state, and a few locally elected precinct committeepersons.
Regardless of the acutal number of voters last February, the foundation for future success in Illinois is there.