Green Party on Government Reform Party Platform

Universal voter registration; statehood for DC

• Enact a national "right to vote" law or constitutional amendment to guarantee universal, automatic, permanent voter registration.
• Enact statehood for the District of Columbia.
• Restore full citizenship rights to felons upon completion of their sentence, including the right to vote.
• Make Election Day a national holiday and/or have weekend elections.
• Enact proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state and federal levels.
• Proportional representation systems provide that people are represented in the proportion their views are held in society and are based on dividing seats proportionally within multi-seat districts, compared to the standard U.S. single-seat, winner-take all districts.

Open debates to third parties on sufficient ballots

• Eliminate all ballot access laws and rules that discriminate against smaller parties and independents, and otherwise place undue burden on the right of citizens to run for office.
• Create a publicly-funded People's Commission on Presidential Debates, and open debates to all candidates who appear on as many ballots as would represent a majority of the Electoral College and who raise enough funds to otherwise qualify for general election public financing.
• Any candidate who refuses to participate in such debates would lose public financing.

No religious oaths for public office, juries, or citizenship

We call for:
• Ending discriminatory federal, state, and local laws against particular religious beliefs, and non-belief.
• The US Constitution states that there shall be no religious test for public office. This requirement should apply to oaths for holding public office at any level, employment at all government levels, oaths for juries and witnesses in courts, and the oath for citizenship.
• Prosecution of hate crimes based on religious affiliation or practice.
• Elimination of displays of religious symbols, monuments, or statements on government buildings, property, web sites, money, or documents.
• Restoration of the Pledge of Allegiance to its pre-1954 version, eliminating the politically motivated addition of "under God."
• Ending religiously based curricula in government-funded public schools.
• Ending the use of religion as a justification to deny children necessary medical care or subject them to physical and emotional abuse.

Campaign system enables the wealthy to purchase elections

Vast concentrations of wealth and power that have occurred in recent years are inherently undemocratic. The true owners of the public airwaves are the American people, who today have little or no control over their pooled assets or their commonwealth.

The power of civic action is an antidote to the corporate control of so much of our lawmaking and regulating. The pervasive abuse imposed by corporate power increasingly undermines our democracy, but the Green Party seeks to rekindle the democratic flame. Toward this end, we consider serious reform of campaign funding to be essential, as well as curbs on the influence of corporations on lawmakers and regulatory agencies.

Full public financing of all elections, with free TV time

• Provide full public financing of federal, state and local elections, including free and equal radio and television time on the public airwaves for all ballot-qualified candidates and parties.
• Prohibit corporations from spending to influence elections, preferably by constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood.
• Amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to change the percentage of the presidential popular vote required for a new party's candidate to receive first time General Election public funding from 5% in the previous General Election to 1%; and change the percentage of the presidential popular vote required for a new party to receive public presidential convention funding from 5% for its candidate in the previous general election to 1%.
• Prohibit members of Congress, Governors, state legislators and their staffs from accepting for their own personal benefit any gifts of any amount from lobbyists or the general public.

Caps on campaign spending and contributions

Call for the use of Instant Runoff Voting in all elections

• 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.

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) where voters can rank their favorite candidates (1,2,3, etc.) to guarantee that the winner has majority support & that voters are not relegated to choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Electoral College is an 18th century anachronism

The Electoral College is an 18th century anachronism. We call for a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College and providing for the direct election of the president by Instant Runoff Voting. Until that time, we call for a proportional allocation of delegates in state primaries.

Expand the process of participatory democracy

Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives. Therefore we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations that expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

Opposes Green Party plank to abolish the Senate