Don't Fault the Green Party for Bush


By Glen Mowrer
Published March 24th 2003
Re "Antiwar Stance Risky for Democrats," March 20: George Skelton repeats the simplistic canard that the Green Party is responsible for putting George W. Bush in the White House. The argument is that had Ralph Nader voters not voted for him in the Florida election they would have voted for Al Gore. What Skelton and others refuse to acknowledge is that, absent the option of voting for a true progressive, the Green voters would most likely have not voted at all.

Remember that the voter turnout in the last presidential election was among the lowest ever. It is the failure of the Democrats and Republicans to offer thoughtful and substantial candidates that has turned off the voters. One of the benefits of "instant runoff" voting is that it will attract
voters who otherwise refuse to participate in choosing between candidates who offer no meaningful choice. And, yes, having come to the polls to vote for a candidate they believe in, they probably would vote for the lesser of the remaining evils as a second option. It is for this reason that the major parties should support instant runoffs.
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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