By Jesse Elliott

The Daily Iowan

Ralph Nader may not have received his goal of 5 percent of the national vote in Tuesday's election, but with the help of activists across the state of Iowa, he did win a small victory for the state's Green Party.

By garnering 2.1 percent of Iowa's popular vote, Nader secured official party status for Greens. This means citizens will now have the option to identify themselves as members of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, Green Party or none on their voter-registration cards. The Green Party will also now be eligible to receive state funding paid for by citizens who check off the box on their state tax forms that indicates they wish to donate a part of their income to state-party campaign funding.

UI junior Peter Reed, a member of UI Students for Nader, said that in addition to the official benefits this status provides the Green Party, the recognition also works in more subtly supportive ways.

Reed

"This is the first step toward establishing a movement not considered a mere fringe phenomenon by the more mainstream public," Reed said.

Nader himself stated a similar view throughout his presidential campaign.

"Trying to challenge the entrenched two-party system -- this is what the campaign was about," he told supporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Tuesday evening.

The chairman of Students for Local Politics and UI sophomore Matt Blizek said he is excited about the 27,898 votes Nader raked in statewide to put the candidate over the 2 percent mark.

"It's a good thing for politics in Iowa -- to have a strong third party keeping the two major parties under close watch," Blizek said. "People need alternatives."

Of the total Iowa votes, 3,170 came from Johnson County -- this total was second only to that of Polk County. These votes were 6 percent of the Johnson County total, which Reed said helped balance out parts of Iowa that may not have voted Green as heavily.

Reed said he was "extremely proud of (the) group," which he feels contributed to Johnson County's strong Nader vote.

"They sent Jesse Jackson at us, and still we could hang in there. That's headway," Reed said. "We've done so much with so little in terms of resources. It's an encouraging step."

The group's next step is the institution of a student group called the College Greens, for which Reed is now filling out the paperwork, he said.

"We'll be back," Nader vowed Tuesday.