Rigged convention, divided party.

• Author: Miller, Carol
• Position: Thinking Politically - Green Party

How did David Cobb become the Green Party presidential nominee against the overwhelming majority of the Green Party? The answer is quite simple. The Green Party followed a policy that is fundamentally undemocratic and allowed the will of its members to be manipulated.

In five states, registered Green Party members who are the rank and file of the party had the opportunity to vote in a presidential primary. These five primaries represented the majority of registered Greens in the country. The five primaries took place in California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Washington DC and Rhode Island. The total number of votes cast for a presidential candidate as recorded by Ballot Access News was 45,733.

The results from these primaries for the leading three candidates are as follows:

Camejo 33,255 72.7% Cobb 5,569 12.2% Salzman 4,953 10.8% Others 1,956 4.2% In the three largest states, California, Massachusetts and New Mexico, David Cobb was defeated. In California he was beaten 6-1 by Camejo, and Lorna Salzman almost tied him for second place. In Massachusetts he was beaten by Lorna Salzman and in New Mexico by Carol Miller. Both Lorna Salzman and Carol Miller endorsed the Nader/Camejo campaign.

In DC Cobb received 37% of all votes cast. The total number of votes cast in the Washington DC primary, including write-in votes, was 374. Cobb faced only one local opponent, yet received only 138 votes. In the Rhode Island primary, the one state where Cobb actually won more than 50% of the vote, only 89 votes were cast. The primary ballot only included Kent Mesplay and Cobb. It did not even include New York's presidential nominee Lorna Salzman. The vote was 71 for Cobb and 18 for Mesplay. Overall, the total primary vote for candidates who supported Nader/Camejo was over 83% compared to Cobb's 12.2%. Where Greens actually were able to vote, Cobb was roundly defeated.

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Nominating meetings: the will of the few

In all other states Green Party delegates were chosen at nominating meetings. These meetings varied in size but were overall quite small. The national Green Party web site never reported the number of votes cast at any of the state nominating meetings. This cover-up, whether intentional or not, hid from Greens the small number of voters that was determining how large numbers of delegates were proportioned between the candidates.

Neither did the web site explain the delegate formula or justify the size of each state's delegation so...