Ever since 1920, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives has published a booklet after each congressional election, listing the election returns for each candidate for Congress in the general election. Starting in 1930, the booklet also has a table in the back, listing the national vote total for U.S. House, and for U.S. Senate, for each party. The national vote totals for U.S. House by party are of particular interest these days, because it has become known that Democrats in 2012 polled 1,600,000 more votes in the nation for U.S. House than Republicans did, yet Republicans won the most seats.
Unfortunately, for many years, the federal employees who prepare the book have given inconsistent treatment to the Green Party, relative to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party of Minnesota is on the ballot as “Democratic-Farmer-Labor” and the Democratic Party of North Dakota is on the ballot as “Democratic-Non-Partisan League.” The booklet always includes Democratic votes from Minnesota and North Dakota in the “Democratic” column in the table in the back.
But the Green Party also has a different name in certain states, and the booklet in recent years does not include Green votes in the “Green” column from those states. Instead those votes are put in the “other parties” column. Therefore, the Green Party votes from Maine, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Oregon are generally omitted from the national Green Party column and the national totals are artificially low.
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has now received a formal certification from the Green Party national office, certifying that the Mountain Party of West Virginia, the Statehood Green Party of D.C., the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, the Pacific Green Party of Oregon, and the Green Independent Party of Maine, are all members of the Green Party national committee. It is believed Congresswoman Pelosi will help to fix the problem with the Clerk’s booklet, hopefully in time for the 2014 version. Generally the Clerk takes about five months after an election to finish the book.
Glad to see the Democratic Party outperforming all others in cross-partisan cooperation here in this article.
While many will say “I don’t understand” how cooperation is done, right around election time all eyes are on small gestures such as this.
What’s the saying? “Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.”
Who cares whether the election results for a 3rd party is published in any federal government document. The objective is to win.