As an observer on the Green Party of the United States discussion lists, I get to read dozens of emails a day from Greens from all over the country. One post today really struck me. A delegate from Alabama relayed that his state is a “non-partisan registration state, with 4.5 million people scattered over several piddly-sized metro areas, plus severely impoverished rural regions that could hold several New England states. Adult illiteracy is between 20 and 25 percent. The ballot access rules there are among the worst in the nation. They have no real tradition of democracy here: The Democratic Party oligarchy only ended in the 1980s, and its legacy is still with us (in a two-party wrapper).”
In its two years of existence, according to this delegate, Alabama Greens have “learned that organizing this state is going to be kind of like organizing Indonesia, only with less of a language barrier. (Also, Indonesia has more experience with democracy.)
It made me appreciate the fact that Utah has fair voting laws compared to some.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 