I Ran For Delegate And Won, But It Was Way More Difficult Than It Needed To Be and We Need To Change That
That election process is kinda the dumbest shit I have ever seen
Yes, I did win one of the seats for delegate. Over 1600 people showed up, waited in line from about 9 am to vote for Assembly District Delegate. My slate members and I took 13 of the 14 available seats and our member running for Executive Board won her seat. All good right? Eh, not so much.
We need to change how that entire process works. The immediate need is that VOTING needs to be more accessible. PERIOD. Who the fuck holds an election for two hours on a Saturday, in one city, for an entire assembly district? I felt like I was witnessing a segment on CNN about voter suppression. The line was curved around the building down the entire block, parking was a nightmare, and like I mentioned in my previous article — there are NO ALTERNATIVES TO VOTING IN PERSON. It was honestly very overwhelming and simply put, inconvenient for many. Either we need to hold voting in multiple cities, extend the hours or days allowed to vote, or you allow voting by mail. Maybe all three, but I would be happy with one. Hey, maybe because I am a delegate I can change that now.
People need to be educated about delegates. And when I say educated, I mean a real outreach plan needs to be created and implemented about delegates and their role to the Democratic party. We have contact information of registered democratic voters. They need to be receiving election information so they are aware of this election and who is representing them in these party matters. No more hush-hush elections driven by political insiders. Voters need to know who their delegates are, what they stand for, how to vote for their choices, AND how they can participate if they are interested in being a candidate. I don’t want to represent people who don’t know me and I don’t want the same candidates being recycled forever, it is undemocratic and defeats the purpose of delegates being “community representatives”.
I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with running as a slate, however, I don’t think “elected official/public figure endorsed” slates should be a practice any longer, not because of the obvious benefit, but because of the subtle — -and sometimes overwhelming push back. In my district, many of us running knew or know of one another because of working in the community. All of us are very dedicated to the work we do and are generally kind individuals, even if we disagree on some policies and practices. However, there is some bad blood up above that trickled down into our election and I heard of an instance where people on our “opposing slate” (for lack of a better term) had some untrue, very hurtful statements made about them. It really isn’t fair that when the “higher ups” are battling the folks on the ground get caught in the cross hairs. Y’all have your beef, but keep in mind we — the delegate candidates — are all on the same team. We are all dedicated, progressive community members that should have had the opportunity to be judged on our own merits and I don’t think everyone who participated in this election was.
We have some work to do. Frankly, this election turned out to be a far bigger deal than I imagined, but today is a new day. Today we can begin working together to make this process better for everyone involved so we can have a truly equitable election with the community’s needs put at the forefront.
