MOUNT VERNON — Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney stumped in Skagit County on Sunday, seeking votes on behalf of herself and for the party — and hoping left-leaning voters would make a greater showing in 2008 than in previous presidential elections.

McKinney said a Green vote counts, not just for each party candidate, but for the party as a whole. If the Greens receive 5 percent of the vote in November, the party will be qualified to receive federal election funds, and in many states, have a place on the ballot at the next statewide or national election.

“If the Green Party gets 5 percent, then we’ve upset the two-party apple cart,” McKinney, 53, said.

McKinney, her party’s presumptive nominee, wore an orange baseball cap printed with the slogan “Impeach Both” and she spoke to about 20 people on the third floor of the Skagit Valley Food Co-op for about two hours.

McKinney made suggestions and offered support to local Greens and liberally leaning people about how they can affect grass-roots change. She fielded questions about what she would do if elected, her views on a universal health insurance plan, green communities and voter fraud.

McKinney said there is no excuse, not even voter fraud, to not cast a ballot. With enough Green votes, the party could add up to a “third chair” being present when the Republican and Democratic leaders sit down at the “public policy table,” she said.

“Malcom X asked the question: The bullet or the ballot?” McKinney said. “Since the other side has way more bullets, I think it’s prudent, we take the ballot.”

With 285 delegates, McKinney is leading by 148 her party’s race for the presidential nomination, according to the national Green Party Web site’s most recent count. She must obtain a total of 419 delegate votes at the party’s July convention in Chicago.

Washington state has 550 registered Greens, including 25 Skagitonians. Nationwide, 216 Greens hold elected office, according to Maryrose Asher, state party chairwoman.

Sunday’s meeting was McKinney’s second trip to the Evergreen State and her first to Skagit County. She described the Skagit Valley as beautiful.

Formerly from Georgia, McKinney currently lives in Los Angeles.

She served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007 as a Democrat, representing Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District. She was defeated at the primaries in 2002 and 2006 by Republicans crossing over to vote against her in Georgia’s open primary.

Had she been in Congress when the bill to continue funding for the Iraq war had come up for re-authorization, it would not have passed. That’s because had she voted no, the bill would have been one shy of the 218 votes needed to pass, McKinney said.

She said she left the Democrats in 2007, declaring her “independence” from the Democratic Party. She said her former party is beholden to special interests and has not served its members or the American people by failing to act on national single-payer health insurance, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Patriot Act and President Bush’s tax breaks, she said.

“On issues of social justice and political justice the Democratic Party has been AWOL,” she said.

McKinney would like to see more American communities go green, and see the federal, state and local government encourage this.

“There’s only one reason we aren’t doing it, and that’s because it makes sense, and common sense things are very difficult (to get through) Washington, D.C.,” she said.

If McKinney were elected, she said one of the first things she would do is end the Iraq war, bringing the troops home from the Middle East, as well from other countries, such as Haiti, where they are stationed.