Greens hope to steal Mock Election votes

By Merrill Scott Stevens

The Green Party gets a chance to spread their message at the mock election in 2007 at the Western Illinois University campus. The party is one of the two third-party groups to be let into the mock election along with the Libertarians, both trying to make themselves known in an election usually controlled by Democrats and Republicans.

Started in 2001, the Green Party of the United States is the official Green Party National Committee, approved by the Federal Elections Committee. The group’s goal is to help state parties and is in itself a federation of various state Green Parties.

The Greens are democratic, focusing on peace and keeping the environment a safe and healthy place. Unlike the Democratic Party, they refuse to receive donations from corporations.

There are 10 key values for the Green Party, which are basic principles that are changed around from state to state to fit the need. These values are a grassroots democracy, social justice and equal opportunity, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization, community-based economics and economic justice, feminism and gender equity, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility, and future focus and sustainability.

For the mock election, around 20 students were given the task of representing this third-party group, including campaign manager Robert Casey.

Casey, who also is president of the Campus Greens, prefers this group because they don’t accept corporate contributions and therefore are not influenced by these corporations. He also likes their general stance on environmental issues.

Casey said his group’s primary goal is to get their ideas out to the people, hoping that -- because they are given equal time in the main election, their own night to post ideas, and equal footing in about everything -- their ideas will stand on their own. Voters should follow.

The main obstacle Greens face in real life is that they are never allowed equal footing to get their message out, he said.

Casey also hinted that it’s important for Mock Election participants to pay attention to how these parties operate in real life. “When you’re partial to a party, go down that road in real life and get into something past the mock election,” he said.”

The Green Party will hold its convention, including adoption of a platform and nomination of the Green ticket, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in the Lamoine Room at the University Union. Then the Greens will join the Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians for Election Day in Western Hall, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5, a night that will include the popular vote count and the Electoral College vote for president.

For more info on the Green Party of the United States, go to -- http://www.gp.org/about.shtml.

Stevens is a reporter in Dr. Lisa Barr’s “Reporting I” class.