If you were registered in Green-Rainbow Party in 2012 you received a postcard recently that said that ‘your voter registration has been updated’ because the Green-Rainbow Party is no longer a ‘political party.’  It sounds rather ominous, but it is meaningless from a practical point.  What a waste of taxpayer money!  One Green-Rainbow Party member called the postcard a ‘rude intrusion.’

I suggest ignoring the postcard.  Despite the obtuse wording there is no change at all for how Green-Rainbow Party members will vote in elections.  We just won’t have our own primaries, as we did in 2011 and 2012 until we grow more.  We’re still here and you are still registered to vote in the Green-Rainbow Party!

So let’s grow rather than be intimidated.

The post card is misleading.  It was mailed to you by the Massachusetts Elections Division, which is under the control of a partisan Democrat.

If you are a voter in Massachusetts who 1) believes in the ten key values of green political parties around the world to guide government and public policy and 2) who chooses to affiliate with a political party that refuses to solicit or accept corporate lobbyist contributions, then you continue to have the option to register to vote in the Green-Rainbow Party.  The Green-Rainbow Party remains the Massachussets affiliate of the Green Party of the United States, as it has been since the Massachusetts Green Party merged with the Rainbow Coalition Party a decade ago.

Your registration as a Green-Rainbow Party voter remains meaningful, valuable, and it makes a public statement both of disaffiliation from other parties and for the ten key values.

The wording of the postcard erroneously implies that there are major differences governing how our members voted in 2011 and in 2012, when state election law compelled the Elections Division to consider the Green-Rainbow Party as a ‘political party,’ from how the same voters will vote in 2013, when the Elections Division is compelled by law to consider the Green-Rainbow Party as a ‘political designation.’  While the difference in these two election law terms have meaning to candidates and to party officers, the fact is that to individual Green-Rainbow Party voters there is no difference at all.

The wording of the postcard even led some party members to wonder if the Green-Rainbow Party and its committees no longer existed.

Election law in Massachusetts states that a ‘political party’ is recognized for the purposes of administering party primaries if one of its candidates receives at least 3% of the vote in the most recent state-wide election or if at least 1% of registered voters formally affiliates with it.  In 2010, Nat Fortune received over 3% of the vote in his bid for State Auditor.  Thus, in 2011 and in 2012 the Elections Division was compelled to recognize the Green-Rainbow Party as a ‘political party.’

For Green-Rainbow Party candidates, in both 2011 and 2012 the Commonwealth administered Green-Rainbow Party primaries for which candidates needed to specially qualify.   These primaries occurred in advance special general elections such as that in the 3rd Berkshire District, the presidential election that also elected State and Town Committee members, and regular state elections.  In these primary elections Green-Rainbow Party candidates such  Jamie Cahillane, Holley Linscott, Eric John Los, Judy Merritt,  Kent Mesplay, Harley Mikkelson, Mark Miller, Sonya Sadoway, Jill Stein, Mark Woodward and myself needed to qualify for a primary ballot by collecting signatures from fellow Green-Rainbow Party voters or from voters who are Unenrolled (i.e. not affiliated with any party).

Green-Rainbow Party member have never been given primary ballots for other parties.  (Just as voters in other parties are not given Green-Rainbow Primary ballots when the GRP has primary elections).  The postcard did not change that fact.

The fact that the state will not administer primary elections for Green-Rainbow Party candidates only means that Green-Rainbow Party candidates will not need to qualify for a primary ballot; they can qualify directly on general election ballots instead by collecting the same number of signatures as they would have needed to qualify for a primary election ballot.

There is no reason to change party affiliation unless you no longer wish to empower the Green-Rainbow Party.  As co-chair of the party’s Candidate Development Committee I hope that is not the case for most Green-Rainbow Party members who received the postcard.