The Green Party is aiming to become a national political force.
Consumer activist Ralph Nader is the Greens’ nominee for
president and is polling 7 percent nationally, according to a
recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll.

Nader and his running mate Winona LaDuke, however, are not on
the ballot in Oklahoma.

Not yet, anyway.

Oklahoma members of the Green Party are out in the field with
petitions, trying to get 36,000 signatures by July 14 to get on the
state ballot.

The party has collected over 20,000 signatures so far, said
Thomas Keck, OU assistant professor of political science and
co-chair of the Central Oklahoma Green Party.

About 200 people are collecting signatures throughout the state
and most are volunteers, Keck said.

The party needs to collect more signatures than required because
some will be challenged as not being registered voters, and some
will simply be ineligible, he said.

“We’ve got to get at least 40,000 to be safe,”
Keck said.

“That’s an extremely high signature
requirement,” Keck said. “Per capita, the Oklahoma
signature requirement is the highest in the country.”

The state law is intended to discourage third-party activities
in Oklahoma, Keck said.

Keck is confident the Greens will be on the ballot in November.
“But it’s going to be very close,” he said.

Drama junior Danielle Coody said the state should not make it so
difficult for other parties to get on the ballot. Voters should
have more choices, she said.

Bijiibaa Garrison, a student in the OU Headlands Indian Health
Careers program, said Oklahoma should ease its ballot laws for
third parties because it is good for voters to have a choice.

“You shouldn’t have to just pick between two,”
said Rosette Stabler, also a Headlands student.

LaDuke is an American-Indian activist who lives on the White
Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

Her American-Indian heritage is helpful in Oklahoma because of
the state’s large American-Indian population, Keck said.

Stabler, an Omaha Indian, said she would be more likely to look
into the Green Party because of LaDuke.

Keck has been involved with the Green Party since its first
Oklahoma meeting in December 1998, he said.

“The Green Party is a progressive third-party that stands
for the principles of social and economic justice,
environmentalism, grassroots democracy and peace and
non-violence,” Keck said.

The two-party system does not give Americans enough choices, he
said.

“On too many issues, the Democrats and Republicans are too
much alike,” Keck said. “I think that’s
particularly apparent this year.”

If any party receives 5 percent of the national vote, it
qualifies for federal matching funds in the next presidential
election cycle, Keck said.
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