Green Party Watch

Aware of the odds stacked against them, it was reported that 35 people met to formally organize the Kentucky Green Party last weekend.

Kentucky’s laws for becoming a “Political Party” rather than a “political organization” requires obtaining 20% of the vote in a Presidential Election, a nearly impossible task.

Presumably the next step for the Kentucky Greens will be to become a formally accredited and recognized state chapter of the Green Party of the United States.

This article from the Courier-Journal covers the Kentucky Green Party’s organizing meeting and the state of third party politics in Kentucky:

Tired of Democrats and Republicans who don’t speak to the issues or solve the problems important to them, about 35 people gathered Saturday in Anderson County to form the Green Party of Kentucky.

But if that group’s experience is anything like third parties that have struggled for recognition in Kentucky before them, the Greens will learn that the state political system is stacked against them.

The problem according to John Longmire, who was the state chairman of the Reform Party when it formed in Kentucky prior to the 1996 presidential election, is a state law that requires that groups that want to be certified as parties get 20 percent of the vote in a presidential election.

He said the system is “slanted to keep down the advent of third parties.”

Under the law, all parties that can’t get 20 percent of the presidential vote are officially designated as “political organizations” and “political groups,” which means they aren’t allowed to conduct primary elections and their candidates often must spend thousands of dollars obtaining signatures on a petition just so they can file to run.

Before Saturday’s vote to become a state chapter, the Green Party had 498 people registered as members, according to the state Board of Elections — possibly the residual effect of past efforts to form the party in Kentucky, members who have relocated from other states or as a result of support for presidential candidates

Read the entire article here.

This news comes from kygreenparty.org:

Kentucky Green Party Founding Convention – Don’t Miss It!

The first and founding statewide convention of the Kentucky Green Party

When: Saturday, July 23, 2011, Registration & snacks starting at noon.  Decision-making time from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Where: The home/farm of Susan Carson Lambert,  1317 Pigeon Fork Road, a few miles northwest of Lawrenceburg, KY  40342   (phone: 502-839-4811)

The convention will be open to all, including the media, but only Kentuckians who are registered members of the Green Party will be able to vote on decisions, and there are several important decisions to be made!  read more »

In a message to supporters of the McKinney/Clemente ticket, National Party secretary Holly Hart reported that eight people in Kentucky have signed paperwork so that write-in votes for our candidate will be counted in that state.

The Green Party does not have a state chapter in Kentucky, but the McKinney/Clemente ticket is doing what they can to have their supporter’s votes count. As a write-in candidate, the campaign still needs to list the electors who would cast the votes if our ticket wins that state’s votes.

If you live in Kentucky and are willing to sign up as a McKinney/Clemente elector, please write: secretary at gp.org. or post a reply here.