Pinal County Greens Attend Official Drawing for Arizona Presidential Primary Ballot at the Historic Senate Chambers at the State Capitol

Apache Junction, Ariz., Jan. 10 -

Today the Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, attended the official drawing for the Arizona Green Party presidential primary ballot at the Historic Senate Chambers at the State Capitol. Here is a report by presidential candidate and Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson:

This morning we were again at the Arizona State Capitol

in downtown Phoenix for the official drawing for the Arizona presidential preference primary ballot order

for the Green and Republican parties.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett presided as candidates or their representatives drew lots

from a historic trophy, given by the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1915 to the USS Arizona in 1915,

and announced the results. We went up first of all the candidates because we were the first Green to file,

and had our campaign manager, Bunny Greenblatt, draw for us.

She handed the paper to Secretary Bennett and he announced that we got ballot position five out of the six candidates in the February 28 primary. We had made sure to wear all Green for luck, but it didn't work.

Neither did evil Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who drew number 17 out of 23 for Texas Governor Rick Perry on the Republican ballot.

Many of the candidates are part of Project White House 2012,

a civic project of the Tucson Weekly newspaper, which has encouraged ordinary people to get on the ballot.

All of Secretary Bennett's staff worked hard to make this a great event and were extremely helpful to everyone.

Secretary Bennett himself, using white gloves, drew for those candidates who weren't there, and one of his staff members, as he said, "played Vanna White" and put up the candidate's name in the proper ballot order. (Bunny and I did it ourselves.)

It was a tense moment as Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin went to draw for Mitt Romney, who got ballot position number 9, which the Speaker hopes was good enough to get him a job as undersecretary of something.

When Sheriff Arpaio went up to draw for Rick Perry,

he apparently noticed Bunny sitting next to me. The next we thing we knew, a deputy asked her for proof that she wasn't in this country illegally.

Actually more annoying to Bunny was news radio station KFYI getting her name wrong:

Arizona's lax requirements to get on the ballot leads to colorful candidates on the ballot. Green Party candidate Richard Grayson brought his stuffed animal, Bunny Green Black, who he claims is his campaign manager to pick his ballot number.

This is presidential candidate Gerard Davis of Phoenix, who was accompanied by his wife Sonya and their child. He is number 6 out of six on the Green Party ballot, but the last shall be first, according to Rick Santorum (whose representative, a really nice man, was wearing a sweater vest just like his candidate).

This is Kip Dean, one of the Republican presidential candidates you've never heard of, perhaps because unlike Romney, Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, Santorum, Bachmann, Cain and the serious ones, Kip actually knows that we're not in the 1950s anymore and he's not running for leader of Leave It to Beaverland.

Kip wrote this and posted this pic on Facebook:

Favorite part of my day--the rolling of Sheriff Joe's eyes and his comment of "gawd" when he saw Richard Grayson's campaign manager (the bunny hand puppet pictured in the middle of us) pull his ballot spot slip for the Green Party Presidential Primary. My thoughts were different as I thought the bunny puppet was smarter than John Huntsman's campaign staff and Rick Perry's racist jackass slip puller (Joe himself).

These people in the back looked like politicians and seemed out of place.

The press was really interested in why former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China did not make the ballot when all anyone had to do was sign a simple declaration of candidacy and get it notarized. Secretary Bennett said that if Gov. Huntsman was going to challenge his not being on the Arizona ballot, he'd better do it fast because Maricopa County planned to start printing their ballots tonight.

Arizona Green Party co-chair Angel Torres drew for both of the presidential candidates officially recognized by the Green Party of the United States, Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay, and at the end of the drawing took photos of the ballot so the Arizona Green Party will know which of its own candidates it will sue to kick off the ballot this year.

Bunny and I were grateful to everyone at the Secretary of State's office and to all the fine candidates running in the Arizona presidential preference election.

It was wonderful to see American democracy at work, sort of.

Pinal County Greens Ask for Support from Flying Spaghetti Monster Party and the Zombie Hunters of America Party

Apache Junction, Ariz., August 30, 2011 -

The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution asking for support from the Flying Spaghetti Monster Party and the Zombie Hunters of America Party.

Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, said he has been a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster since attending a Phish concert somewhere or other in the 1990s. Grayson also said that he and other members hunted zombies in their spare time and claim responsibility for the almost total eradication of zombies in Pinal County, apart from the Sheriff's office.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett noted the popularity of these new parties in a recent blog post:

For some, choosing a political party is a straight forward process. But what happens when someone indicates their political party preference as the Flying Spaghetti Monster Party, or Zombie Hunters of America Party?

As most of us are aware, Arizona has five officially recognized state parties. Americans Elect, Green, Democratic, Libertarian and Republican. And out of the 3.2 million voters in Arizona, these parties encompass 2.1 million voters. That leaves 1.1 million unaffiliated voters who have chosen not to indicate a party preference, or listed a party which isn’t one of the five recognized parties.

Since 2002, the state’s online voter registration system (EZ Voter) has processed hundreds of thousands of registrations. The web application verifies your eligibility to vote by comparing your driver license number to that of your residential address in real time. To complete the process, the system requires you to designate a recognized political party, or list a party preference in the “Other Party” field. If the registrant lists something other than one of the state’s recognized parties in that particular field, they are placed into the “Other” category of active registered voters.

In addition to reports on voter registration figures, EZ Voter provides our office with a listing of “Other Party” preferences where a few people have taken the opportunity to express themselves in humorous ways, which brings us back to the Flying Spaghetti Monster Party.

In a recent report spanning nearly a year’s worth of EZ Voter registrations, we had several entries which captured our attention. The Awesome Party, Charles Barkleyism Party,

Dance Party Party, Democrasaurus Rex Party, Galactic Empire Party,

Pants Party, Jethronomics Party and several listings of the Pirate Party to name but a few.

While many of these party preferences are funny, they offer us a glimpse of how people view their participation in the process. As we’ve seen, some view it lightheartedly.

Others view the opportunity to list a party preference as a chance to make political or ideological statement by declaring themselves a member of the Constitutionalist, Conservation or Tea Party. Some voters quite clearly indicate their discontent by calling themselves Apathatarians, or members of the Disaffected Party.

Whatever the reason, these voters do not feel compelled to designate a party preference or align themselves with formally recognized parties. Regardless, the responsibility to perform our civic duty remains. And that’s why we must continue to encourage Independent voters to participate in the process.

Many parts of Arizona have an election on August 30th. So whether you are a member of the Klingon Party, Coffee Party, the Honest and Competent Party, Awesome Party, or the Good Decision Maker Party, exercise your most basic of rights. Vote!

The Pinal County Greens welcome all members of these parties in the America's second-fastest-growing county to join them.