What does Grassroots Democracy mean to you locally?
As a Green, I Agree Immediately That...
- We enact Rank Choice Voting (Instant Runoff Voting) which allows voters to rank candidates in their order of preference (1,2,3, etc.) This ensures that the eventual winner has majority support and allows voters to express their preferences knowing that supporting their favorite candidate will not inadvertently help their least favored candidate. Rank Choice Voting thus frees voters from being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, and saves money by eliminating unnecessary run-off elections. In New Jersey, we have a bill in the state assembly A1801 which addresses the local races and A5205 for the congressional, gubernatorial and Presidential races. We also work towards proportional representation as well.
- We 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.
- We support the right to initiative, referendum and recall at all levels of government. Enact signature gathering standards that empower volunteer collection efforts and financial disclosure requirements that identify the sources of funding behind paid signature efforts.
- We 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.
- We develop publicly-owned, open source voting equipment and deploy it across the nation to ensure high national standards, performance, transparency and accountability; use verifiable paper ballots; and institute mandatory automatic random precinct recounts to ensure a high level of accuracy in election results.
- We establish independent and transparent non-partisan redistricting processes to stop partisan gerrymandering and protect minority rights and representation. The NJ League of Women Voters has been working on a model similar to the one in California.
