Regarding changes in Green Party voter registration numbers (not just for Sacramento county, but for the Green Party in general, including most counties) -- the decline from October, 2014 to late May of 2016 was overwhelmingly due to Greens registering either "No Party Preference" or even "Democrat" during the first 5 months of 2016 in order to vote in the Democratic Party primary (mainly for Bernie Sanders).  The increase from late May of 2016 until this past February was primarily due to voters registering during the couple of months before the November, 2016 election, including those who "returned back" to the Green Party.  (For example, although the registration numbers for all parties increased during that period, the percentage increase was higher for all "third parties", than it was for either the Democrats or Republicans).  To get more precise numbers, you can review registration counts from 1999 to 2017 (including party breakdowns for all cities and counties) here:  http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/voter-registration-statistics/  

Greg Jan
Oakland, CA



On Saturday, October 7, 2017 12:04 AM, Nicole Castor <nmcastorsilva@gmail.com> wrote:

To Jeff, and others,
 
The SGA administrators were able to correct a previous error which excluded my name from the ballot for open seat (female) Coordinating Committee.  Since this question was addressed to those such candidates, I am taking the liberty to chime in as my name is now on the ballot.  Thanks, again, for fixing the error, admins.

“What can our party do to grow our party’s membership aside from running candidates in elections? Your ideas?”

What a great question!  It’s one my County Council and I ponder quite frequently.  In my own opinion, the single most important factor in drawing in more Greens is to set a good example as a Green yourself.  Seems simple, but this involves having integrity in beliefs and actions, while still having enough flexibility to recognize when it's time to expand from existing beliefs or biases.  This means representing Green Party according to our Ten Key Values, and making sure statements reflect this, whether they are made online, in person, or through other media channels.  What we say and do should be consistent with the Ten Key Values, as well as our Party Platform. Of course, this becomes possible only by knowing and completely understanding the meaning and implications behind our Four Pillars and Ten Key Values. 
 
Since helping to re-activate the County Council for Green Party of Sacramento, I have participated with the other members of our council, in various events and media spots.  The idea is to establish a presence.  We work together as a team to achieve this, for encouragement and to help each other avoid burn-out!  If there is a march or rally which relates to our key values, you can bet a Sac Green will be there, representing with a banner, or other Green Party regalia.  We have been mentioned in our local news (Sacramento Bee/ Fox40) for just simply being there!  Whether we are tabling at events, or volunteering in the community, we are wearing a GP button, and often have registration forms with us. We are in constant contact with non-partisan groups and coalitions and frequently place our endorsement of Green-valued events, in order for others to see "Green Party of Sacramento County" on different invites. This all helps tremendously just to get the party name out there.  

There are typically at least a couple Greens attending City Council meetings on any given Tuesday, and these meetings are televised.  Speakers from the council will typically introduce themselves as being associated with the party, if they choose. Before speaking on an issue, we always make sure to check the platform to ensure our speech is consistent with the party's stance.
 
I had the pleasure of guest hosting three weeks in a row on the student radio station for UC Davis (KDVS), where I was given the opportunity to speak as a Green on different issues. This station is a popular choice to left-leaning people in our area.

We make ourselves available for contact to our county Greens on social media and through our email list-serve.  I had also recently obtained a county voter list and am in the process of divvying up the tens of thousands of names with the rest of the council, so that we can reach more of our county greens (if you'd like to know how to get info for your county, contact me).    
 
Having an active County Council also seems to help tremendously.  Looking at older voter statistics from my county, it seems Green registration was at a high during the count in Oct. 2014 (3,942) and then fell off by quite a bit in later counts. This might coincide with the timing of the last council becoming inactive. Please see the images below, gathered from the California Secretary of State website.  We have seen significant Green Party growth over the process of last year’s election cycle in our county, and had almost 10,000 votes for Jill Stein in the General Election!  Although this may or not be attributed to what we have been doing, having an active council seems to have a positive effect on registration.  We are proud, regardless, even if we are just playing catch-up for now. 
 
In sum, I feel having a local presence, letting the community know you are there, being available for contact, all while presenting a positive and accurate reflection of the party, is the way to grow.  I, personally, do not like the idea of recruitment and feel that it seems dishonest to go “running after people.” People should come to the party by their own accord when they see we are doing good things and that our ideology reflects theirs.  I feel that many voters/potential voters see through gimmicks and the advertisement-like nature behind the "Bernie Movement" and are looking for more substance. And if they are looking for more substance, we should be looking for them!
 
Nicole Castor
Co-Coordinator, GP Sacramento County
Candidate for GPCA Coordinating Committee (female)
 

Sacramento County Greens 2014: 3,942 (0.58%)



Last Count Before the Primary 2016: 3,111

​
​
​Two Months Before Election 2016: 3,397
​


​Most Current Official Count 2017: 3,890 (0.50%)



2016 Presidential Election Results Sacramento County: 9,846 (1.8%) Jill Stein

​
​
​
​

On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 10:04 AM, Erik <erikrydberg34@gmail.com> wrote:
Spam detection software, running on the system "gateway.dolorespark.org",
has identified this incoming email as possible spam.  The original
message has been attached to this so you can view it or label
similar future email.  If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.

Content preview:  Implement Ben Emery's AP Political Science outreach program.
   Go to all your local high schools and set up a day with the AP political
  science teachers to speak to the classes. Many of the students are required
   to volunteer time for campaign to get their college credits. Make them do
   table and voter registration for the Green party. [...]

Content analysis details:   (5.6 points, 5.0 required)

 pts rule name              description
---- ---------------------- ------------------------------ --------------------
 0.2 FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT Envelope-from freemail username ends in
                            digit (erikrydberg34[at]gmail.com)
 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM          Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider
                            (erikrydberg34[at]gmail.com)
 3.0 HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_28     BODY: HTML: images with 2400-2800 bytes of words
 0.2 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
-0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU          Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's
                            domain
 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED            Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid
-0.1 DKIM_VALID             Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
 0.0 UNPARSEABLE_RELAY      Informational: message has unparseable relay lines
 1.0 FREEMAIL_REPLY         From and body contain different freemails
 1.2 T_REMOTE_IMAGE         Message contains an external image

The original message was not completely plain text, and may be unsafe to
open with some email clients; in particular, it may contain a virus,
or confirm that your address can receive spam.  If you wish to view
it, it may be safer to save it to a file and open it with an editor.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik <erikrydberg34@gmail.com>
To: GPCA Discussion List for SGA Votes <gpca-votes@sfgreens.org>
Cc: 
Bcc: 
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2017 17:04:01 +0000
Subject: Re: [Gpca-votes] Party growth
Implement Ben Emery's AP Political Science outreach program.  Go to all your local high schools and set up a day with the AP political science teachers to speak to the classes. Many of the students are required to volunteer time for campaign to get their college credits. Make them do table and voter registration for the Green party.

On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 7:03 AM Jeff Lebow <jlebow@socal.rr.com> wrote:
Deatra,
What can our party do to grow our ranks that we are not doing today?
Jeff Lebow
Orange County GP

Sent from my iPhone
--
gpca-votes mailing list
gpca-votes@sfgreens.org
https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi- bin/mailman/listinfo/gpca- votes
--
Erik Rydberg
Green Party of California(GPCA) Spokesperson

                cagreens.org




--
gpca-votes mailing list
gpca-votes@sfgreens.org
https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi- bin/mailman/listinfo/gpca- votes