What you need to know to participate
— from David Turnoy, Chair, San Juan Democrats —
My previous article explained how voting in the presidential primary will work this year. Your next decision is whether you want to continue on to run to be a national delegate at the May 30 Democratic Congressional District Caucus. You should have already indicated your intent to do this when you first registered to run to be a delegate. You will also be required to submit a letter of intent to stand for election as a national delegate or alternate between March 23 and May 3. This can be found on page 107 of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee’s Delegate Selection and Affirmative Action Plan. Here is the link for your convenience. All those who had been elected as state delegates on May 3 will attend the May 30 CD Caucus to vote for the national delegates. Our Congressional District is allocated six national delegates, so there will be many people running for a small number of spots.
If you want to run at the May 3 county caucus to be a state delegate to the CD caucus and to the state convention, it is advisable to register in advance, preferably by April 20. First, this gives us an idea as to how many people we should expect for the May 3 meeting. Also, it will help those of us running the meeting to take less time with signing up candidates for the delegate position. It is not required to sign up in advance, but I would really appreciate your doing so if you can. To do so, go to the following link: https://wademscaucus2020.azurewebsites.net/. By the way, you don’t have to attend the county caucus to be elected a state delegate to the CD Caucus. If you cannot attend, you will especially need to register at the link just provided, and you can provide a brief statement to be read on May 3 so that you are considered during the selection of delegates supporting your presidential candidate.
If you go to this website to register, which I just did, you will be asked which Legislative District (LD) you are running in—that would be the 40th. As you continue filling out this online form, you will be asked if you want to continue on in the process toward ultimately becoming a national delegate for the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, WI, which runs July 13-16. Note that it could cost you anywhere from $5,000-$7,000; fundraising is usually advisable for this. In addition, apparently because of limited lodging, our Washington state delegation will be staying at the Hilton Hotel at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, about two hours away from the convention. A bus will be provided for transportation to and from the convention, but that is a four-hour round trip each day.
In addition to the state delegate selection at our county caucus on May 3, our county is supposed to work on our platform that day. We have a wonderful platform, which you can find HERE. We will be working on revising it at our monthly meetings as time allows up until the May 3 meeting, so hopefully we won’t be spending too much time on this on May 3. However, if you have a resolution which you would like to submit to us to be considered at that meeting, please let me know. You would also want to plan to attend the caucus on May 3 to introduce your resolution.
Now that we are done discussing the May 3 caucus, the next thing to think about is whether you want to continue on to run to be a national delegate at the May 30 CD Caucus. You should have already indicated your intent to do this when you first registered to run to be a delegate. You will also be required to submit a letter of intent to stand for election as a national delegate or alternate between March 23 and May 3. This can be found on page 107 of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee’s Delegate Selection and Affirmative Action Plan. Here is the link for your convenience. All those who had been elected as state delegates on May 3 will attend the May 30 CD Caucus to vote for the national delegates. Our Congressional District is allocated 6 national delegates, so there will be many people running for a small number of spots.
If you really want to run to be a national delegate but were not successful at the May 3 county caucus, there are two other options You can attend the May 30 CD Caucus without having been elected on May 3, or without having even run on May 3, and still run to be a national delegate. Or, at the state convention June 12-14 in Tacoma, there will be 19 at-large delegates and seven alternates chosen by the state committeemen and women. I am told that especially with the at-large seats, it is helpful if you are a member of a minority group like African American, LGBTQ, disabled, etc. The state platform will also be considered at the state convention.
If this is confusing or you have other questions, feel free to call me at 360-376-4165 or email me at davidgeri@centurylink.net. If you know others who would like to receive this information, have them email me so I can put them on our email list and send them this letter (or you can forward this information to them).
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David you have done an excellent job explaining the new voting system. I think we should all be able to understand it and have a better strategy by which we can make our vote count. Thank you.
Yes, excellent explanations in both your articles!
You wouldn’t have a background in teaching by any chance?
Thank you David. Know that I echo the sentiments of others. I have a question– I read, (or I believe I did) that in order to vote in the primary one now has to choose (to commit) to one of the two major parties, and vote for one of them? Is that correct?
I ask this because I have at times voted for a third-party candidate (Green Party) when Wa. wasn’t a swing state. Will I still have that option under this year’s voting system?
Thank you.
I find all of this very confusing. I want to know what I have to do to make my preferance counted. I only want to
vote. It should be simple. All this info makes me feel that it is too complicated, and maybe my vote has no place or won’t be counted.
PKIS (please keep it simple)
Thank you for the compliments and for the questions.
Michael, I too have sometimes voted third party. This will still be an option in the general election in November, but for the primary, you will have to choose either Democrat or Republican. I would hope that down the road we can have reforms that will open this process to all parties, though there would probably be some kind of threshold required, and it would be great to also have Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) so you could rank your preferences. There is currently a bill in the state legislature to give localities the opportunity to have local elections use RCV, and I encourage people to contact our representatives to support it.
Elizabeth, I provided all this information for people who wanted to know how the whole system would work, especially as it is a bit different from the past. However, if you simply want to vote, all you need to do when you get your ballot is to choose the party you want to vote for, then choose a candidate, sign it, and send it in. No attending a caucus like in the past, just mail your ballot.
Thanks, David, for all your hard and tireless work year after year, and for your explanations on how to go on to run to become a state and national delegate.
SJC Democrats did a fantastic job in representing the people of our county’s preferences – especially considering what happened to Bernie Sanders in the 2016 elections. It’s just that we independents are tired of being excluded and ignored by the national DNC.
If we cannot vote a 3rd party in the primaries, then how do we get candidates on the ballot for real, besides republican and democrat choices? We don’t. This remains my concern and frustration with a choice that isn’t really a choice.
We the People need to push hard for ranked voting in our state, and the permanent end of super delegates; not leave this up to the whims of the DNC.
Some of us have never belonged to a mainstream party since we turned voting age. We’re not going to declare ourselves as either of the mainstream parties ever – except by force, as in these primaries. So what is the recourse for us – and our candidates if they run as independent or some other unrecognized party?
I don’t think we should keep hoping or waiting for reform to happen “down the road.” Like a desert mirage, “down the road” never seems to come. Any ideas on this, David? If so, I hope you will write another article at a later date addressing this issue – (or anyone else who may have thoughts) I think we owe this to our newest voters, those turning 18 in time for this election; and future young voters. Thank you.
Sadie, take note of voter suppression of ‘independents’ occurring now in preparation for the 2020 election as independent voters have been shunted towards an errant party affiliation – including California’s “Independence Party” comprised of reborn Birchers and out of work motorcycle gang members.
Having recently spent time with a gaggle of twenty year olds who support Sanders and Sanders style socialism for what this old guy hears as the right reasons- as in; if America doesn’t go as far left as Trump is pushing it starboard then America will not be worth living in by the time he’s gone – all I can say is, “Forward NMarch!
Sadie, you raise a really good point. I would encourage you to contact any of our state representatives to tell them that we want our ballots to include candidates outside of the Democrats and Republicans. While the DNC controls what happens with the Democrats, they shouldn’t have control of our elections here in Washington state. It seems we should be able to get our elections offices to print ballots with other candidates on them.
Thank you, David; maybe we should have a letter-writing event and some postcards for our representatives; what do you think? i can help; busy with Port and other county stuff so cannot organize it but do you think there is interest in this?