7 Feb 2008

Super tuesday; Nader and McKinney neck and neck

Victories for McKinney, Nader in four Green primaries on Super Tuesday

• Results by state for Green primaries in Arkansas, California, and Illinois; Massachusetts results forthcoming

• Widespread voting irregularities hinder Greens in Illinois

WASHINGTON, DC -- Results from the four states where Green Parties participated in the February 5 Super Tuesday primaries show a landslide for Ralph Nader in California (61%) and a lead among candidates for Cynthia McKinney in Arkansas and Illinois.

The office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, responding to an inquiry, said that his state doesn't post unofficial results, and will not announce the numbers until absentee and overseas ballots are counted. Some early returns from Boston and a few other cities show a near tie for Mr. Nader and Ms. McKinney, with Mr. Nader slightly ahead by a few votes, but too inconclusive to call.

Ms. McKinney, a former Democratic US Representative from Georgia (now a Green), won the Illinois primary with a strong lead (57%).

The Arkansas results currently show that over half (nearly 54%) of the state's Green voters decided to remain uncommitted. Arkansas' totals have been delayed because of power outages after severe storms and tornadoes Tuesday evening while voting was still going on.

Mr. Nader has not declared his candidacy, but recently announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a possible presidential run (http://www.naderexplore08.org).

The Illinois Green Party is currently fielding reports of voting irregularities in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois, with Green voters told by pollworkers on Tuesday that no Green Party ballots were available at their polling places, or that they had to vote on suspect electronic voting machines, even while other parties used paper ballots. More information: http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=21

After the Super Tuesday primaries, Green candidates will compete in the February 12 primary in the District of Columbia. Currently, 21 state Green Parties hold ballot access within their respective states. Some Green Parties chose presidential candidates by caucus voting and by election of national convention delegates at state party
conventions.

The Green Party will hold its 2008 national convention in Chicago from July 10 to 13.

SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARY RESULTS (as of Wednesday, February 6)

ARKANSAS (8 delegates)
Polling Locations Reporting: 893 of 2081 (43%)
Last Update: February 6, 2:47 pm
http://www.arelections.org/index.php?ac:show:contest_statewide=1&elecid=151&contestid=3
• Jared Ball, 55 votes, 10.24% *
• Cynthia McKinney, 117 votes, 21.79%
• Kent Mesplay, 49 votes, 9.12%
• Kat Swift, 27 votes, 5.03%
• Uncommitted, 289 votes, 53.82%
Green Party of Arkansas: http://arkgreens.kk5.org/
Media contacts:
Jim Lendall, Public Relations Co-chair, jelendall@comcast.net
Rebekah Kennedy, Elections Co-chair, misskennedyesq@yahoo.com

CALIFORNIA (168 delegates)
95.4% (22055 of 23109) precincts reporting as of
February 6, at 7:15 am
http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/pres/grn/all.htm
• Kent Mesplay, 562 votes, 2.0%
• Jared Ball, 443 votes, 1.6% *
• Jesse Johnson, 506 votes, 1.8%
• Kat Swift, 842 votes, 3.0%
• Ralph Nader, 16,792 votes, 61.1% **
• Elaine Brown, 1,256 votes, 4.6% *
• Cynthia McKinney, 7,110 votes, 25.9%
Green Party of California: http://www.cagreens.org/
Media contact:
Crescenzo Vellucci, Party Press Secretary, 916-996-9170, greenparty-press@comcast.net

ILLINOIS (44 delegates)
11264 of 11574 precincts Reporting - 97%
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2008/by_state/IL_President_0205.html?SITE=ILCHTELN&SECTION=POLITICS
• Cynthia McKinney, 1,446 votes, 57%
• Howie Hawkins, 438 votes, 17% **
• Kent Mesplay, 369 votes, 14%
• Jared Ball, 302 votes, 12% *
Illinois Green Party: http://www.ilgp.org
Media contacts:
Patrick Kelly, Media Coordinator, 773-203-9631, media@ilgp.org
Phil Huckelberry, Chair, Government & Elections Committee, 309-268-9974, phil.huckelberry@ilgp.org

3 comments:

Jim Jepps said...

hanks for this - this is really useful.

Something I don't understand though... people are voting for Nader even though he hasn't said he'd stand as a green. Doesn't that mean if he chooses not to stand or go it alone and he's been elected the green candidate the greens have created a massive problem for themselves?

Leaving aside Nadere's pro-s and con's I can't understand why someone would vote for Nader in the primary without a commitment from him that he was willing to be the green party candidate.

Chris Hyland said...

I think it's because the nomination is mostly decided at the conference in July so if Nader does decide to run the result will be a big help for him. What I don't quite understand is why the Greens aren't allowed to have primaries in most states, or what will happen to Nader's votes at the conference if he doesn't run.

Derek Wall said...

its complicated stuff...nader ran with Camajeo as an independent last time....

I still think either Cynthia or Ralph would make fine candidates but Cynthia has my backing.

any thoughts on the psuv program Jim and Chris?

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