FAQs
en espanol
The Maryland Green Party is determined to provide an electoral alternative to a corrupt, corporatized two-party system. We believe that the policy-making processes that affect our quality of life belong in the hands of the people. The current two-party, money-controlled political duopoly effectively deprives ordinary citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to representative government. The Green Party believes in empowering citizens and communities.
Our Party's first priority is to value-based politics. We believe the most effective strategy for this is through serious, alternative-party challenges at the polls. Our national Green Platform makes the case that we intend to change the way government operates while we act to improve the quality of our environment and people's everyday lives. We are supporters of social justice and equal opportunity, nonviolence, and healthy local economies. The Maryland Green Party offers a politics of hope and a future that is not dominated by politics- or business-as-usual. With the Green Party, you are working to realize your best hopes, not despairing about your worst fears.
Can I register as a Green in Maryland?
Yes! Since August 17, 2000, the Maryland Green Party has been an officially recognized political party in the state. This means that Marylanders can register as Greens. In order to change your registration you will need to fill out a voter registration form, which you can get from any post office, MVA office, your county Board of Election, or online from the State Board of Elections. In order to register as a Green, check the "Green" box where it asks for party affiliation. Voter registration applications should be returned directly to your county Board of Elections. We also will need help registering voters across the state. This is very important to our maintaining ballot recognition and being able to be an effective party. If you would like to help us register voters, please get in touch with your local chapter.
What sorts of projects are Greens working on in Maryland right now?
In addition to running a number of candidates for public office in local, state, and federal elections, local chapters of the Maryland Green Party are currently undertaking a wide array projects affecting local communities and statewide initiatives. These range from supporting single-payer universal healthcare in the state, to efforts aimed at clean campaign financing, Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), and paper trails for electonically-verifiable balloting. Because the members of each local Green chapter select where that chapter's resources will go, Greens are able to work on the issues that interest them. For instance, the Baltimore Greens have been investigating the prospects for a public power initiative, and have spent much of their time working of behalf of laborers in Baltimore to try to improve their wages and working conditions. The Montgomery Greens have held a teach-in on police brutality, and are examining ways to make the criminal justice system in the county more responsive to citizen feedback. The Anne Arundel Greens have held a number of conferences on sustainable economics, and are working on several projects aimed at stopping sprawl in Maryland's suburban counties. Other local chapters are pursuing similar goals.
What sorts of issues do the Greens focus on beyond environmental concerns?
We have been fighting for a living wage for everyone, universal health care, redirecting the billions of dollars in corporate welfare and excessive military spending to provide citizens and their communities with greater economic security and dignity, affordable housing for all, affirmative action, ending the brutal war on drugs and the racial violence our judicial system inflicts, and much more. The Greens are diligent and tenacious in organizing to protect the environment upon which we all depend. Greens also see the interconnection between the environmental struggle, the struggle for social justice, and a more democratic and less militarized society. For instance, poor minority communities have often become the sites for waste dumps, incinerators, and other toxic pollution. You cannot solve the environmental problems unless you also solve the poverty and racism which underlie them. Environmental problems are most effectively dealt with when citizens are the ones influencing the political process through a robust grassroots democracy.
Greens want to restore the health of the democratic process in America through tough campaign finance reform which breaks the corporate/wealthy special interest influence on politics, through public financing of our elections. This also includes forcing the media who are using the airwaves which we own to provide free air time for candidates to explain their positions and thereby break the corporate-controlled, sound-bite tyranny which chokes our democracy. Greens also believe that since the airwaves belong to the citizens that we must wrest control back of those airwaves from large corporations to use a portion of the airwaves to create real public, community-controlled media alternatives which can keep us better informed, and allow people of all backgrounds access to their airwaves.
Why is it important for me to register Green?
In Maryland, minor parties must fulfill taxing petition requirements to
re-gain ballot access every four years. Our status is currently secure until December of 2010, but we must collect 10,000 signatures to re-gain access after that. By getting at least 1% of the voters in Maryland (~30,000) to register Green, the Party will be able to maintain its official Party status in the state without having to collect signatures again. Registering Green helps strengthen our base and secure our position in the state.
El Partido Verde de Maryland tiene como objetivo el proporcionarles a los ciudadanos una alternativa electoral a la corrupción que muestra el sistema presente de plutocracia bipartidaria. Sostenemos que el sistema legislativo que afecta nuestra calidad de vida debe quedar en manos del pueblo. La plutocracia bipartidaria actual le priva al ciudadano de su derecho, constitucionalmente garantizado, a un gobierno representativo. El Partido Verde quiere devolverles el poder legítimo a los ciduadanos y a las comunidades.
El Partido sostiene, más que nada, una política basada en valores. Creemos que la estrategia más eficaz para realizarlos consiste en montar campañas electorales que les proporcionen a los ciudadanos con una verdadera alternativa al presente duopolio político. Nuestra Plataforma Verde muestra que buscamos transformar la manera en que opera el gobierno a la vez que actuamos para mejorar, tanto la calidad del medio ambiente, como la vida diaria de los ciudadanos. Apoyamos la justicia social, la igualdad de oportunidad, el pacifismo, y la prosperidad económica al nivel local. El Partido Verde de Maryland ofrece una política positiva y esperanzas para un futuro que no se encuentre dominado por la política empresarial de siempre. Un miembro del Partido Verde obra para realizar el futuro deseado, y no se deja sucumbir a la letargia del desanimo que ocasionan las injusticias actuales.
10 Valores Principales