The Green Party of New Jersey Applauds
Tabling the Redistricting Bill and
Calls for Additional Changes to the Way
New Jersey Conducts Elections
For Immediate Release For Immediate Release
December 20, 2018
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“The Green Party of New Jersey (GPNJ) applauds the efforts of many New Jersey residents who spoke out against the gerrymandering bill, as how we draw our voting districts is an important issue of democracy. In the process of opposing this new plan, many challenged members of their own party” said Madelyn Hoffman, former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate.
“The recent debate and discussion over redistricting and gerrymandering raises many questions about the way elections are run, here in New Jersey and around the country,” said Craig Cayetano, member of GPNJ and delegate to the Green Party of the United States. “At this time, the emphasis of any changes should be about increasing representation, inclusion and democracy, not limiting it. This is an opportune time to consider other changes to the way we conduct elections, including ranked choice voting and proportional representation.”
Some experts believe that proportional representation solves the issue of gerrymandering all together. Instead of a winner takes all system, one that encourages states to draw oddly shaped districts to try to ensure that it remains controlled by either Republican or Democrat, all political parties, including those not named Republican or Democrat, will wind up being represented based on the percentage of votes they receive.
While we wait for proportional representation to be implemented, the Green Party of New Jersey supports the calls for reshaping the composition of the Redistricting Commission. In addition to representation from the Democrats and the Republicans, the Commission should include members of good government watchdog groups, and members of independent political parties, such as the Greens and Libertarians, who have run in statewide races and for U.S. Congress. All such political parties have an interest in how Congressional districts are drawn.
“The current political climate makes it clear that people are ready for an opening up of the political process to include more choices, not less,” added Craig Cayetano. “Breaking through the two-party duopoly’s control of our elections process is key to allowing other voices to be heard and bringing about more wide-ranging discussions about issues of concern to voters, such as the Green New Deal, improved Medicare for All, tuition-free college, the creation of a living wage and much more.”
“While we’re discussing plans for changing the way Congressional districts are drawn, let’s also address the way we vote,” added Madelyn Hoffman. “It is time to implement Ranked Choice Voting, a way to allow voters to rank their top two or three choices for a particular office so they don’t have to continue to vote for the ‘lesser of two evils.’ There were many voters (and newspapers) who said ‘hold your nose and vote for candidate x’ or even ‘choke it down and vote for candidate x.’ This is a terrible distortion of democracy that could have been addressed by allowing voters to rank their choices. When votes were then counted, no candidate would win until one candidate received more than 50% of the votes. Maine does it — why can’t we?”
