In post-election articles in the Detroit News by Berman
and Eggert,
accusations were made that the Green Party cost the Democrats the
Michigan Senate. The Green Party has a solution which enhances
democracy that was raised during the election campaign and ignored
by the big business media, including all of the Michigan TV
stations and the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. The
post-election articles in the Detroit News represent the only articles in
the Detroit News that covered the Green Party Campaign!
Below are links to the Green Party position on elections:
From the Green Party of Michigan Platform:
"We believe
Instant Runoff Voting and
Proportional Representation would
allow a greater variety of views to be expressed in elections."
From the Lynn Meadows, Green Party Candidate for Secretary of
State, website:
Vote for your
1st, 2nd, 3rd ... choices and stop the "Spoiler"
threat. In elections with more than two candidates, voters should
be able to vote for the person they truly want to do the job and
rank their additional choices in order of preference. Instant
Runoff Voting (IRV)or Rank Voting assures that the winner has
support of the majority of the people, not just "more votes" than
any other candidate as in our current "winner take all" system.
(www.fairvote.org)
And from the national Green party platform:
8. We demand choices in our political
system.
This can be accomplished by proportional representation voting systems
such as
- Choice Voting (candidate-based)
- Mixed Member Voting (combines with district
representation), and
- Party List (party based);
and semi-proportional voting systems such
as
- Limited Voting, and
- Cumulative Voting.
All are used throughout the free world and by U.S.
businesses, and community and non-profit groups to increase democratic
representation. We call on local governments to lead the way toward
more electoral choice and broader representation.
9. We believe in majority rule and reject
the
present method of election without a majority. Accordingly, we call for
the use of Instant Runoff Voting
in chief executive races, (mayor,
governor, president, etc.) where voters can rank their favorite
candidates (1,2,3, etc.) to guarantee that the winner has majority
support and that voters are not relegated to choosing between the
lesser of two evils.