Any other Democrats out there having an IMPOSSIBLE TIME trying to vote in the ADEM election? And here people were SO EXCITED feeling like they had a say in the direction and philosophy of their State Party! Some of my progressive friends who’d already been disappointed with the Party, and gone NPP or Green, had just re-registered to have a say in things, and are now re-disgusted with all the hurdles and incompetence.
But it’s not just them, this is happening to lifelong Democrats too. First, many of the ballots came too late for anyone to vote by the original deadline January 27. Well, the Party dealt with that by moving the deadline to Feb 3 (tomorrow.) Okay, fine, one fuckup and dealt with properly.
But now we find that some voters, such as my wife Donna, were sent ballots FOR THE WRONG DISTRICT. We live in the Fighting 69, and my wife specifically wanted to vote for our friend Bulmaro “Boomer” Vicente. But when she opened up her ballot over the weekend, there was no Bulmaro “Boomer” Vicente to be found on it at all. On closer look, it was a ballot for the 25th district, a district known, among other things, for the total lack of any Bulmaro “Boomer” Vicentes.
Post up a complaint like that on Facebook and you’ll hear from OTHER people with similar problems – at least ONE other guy who got a ballot for the wrong district (but he discovered the mistake early enough to get it taken care of.) And we also heard from a household of FOUR Democrats, most of them lifelong Democrats, who never got a single ballot although they applied for them in time.
The CADEM folks tell you, if you have a problem, to just e-mail ADEM@cadem.org. DOESN’T WORK. E-mails to that address don’t appear to be read – you just get a lame-ass automated response, to wit:
So, Donna went ahead and mailed her faulty ballot yesterday, with Bulmaro “Boomer” Vicente written in. What else could she do, and who knows if it’ll be counted? Today someone gave me this number for the California Democratic Party:
916-442-5707
…but so far nobody has answered it all day, or returned my messages, even though it’s supposedly their office hours. Maybe that number needs to be called harder, and by more of us. How many of YOU have gotten faulty ballots, or none at all?
One more reason the new delegates should vote for Delaine Eastin to run the State Party!
UPDATE 7pm: Donna finally got a human e-mail from the Party, which apologized and told her to do what she’d already done – to just write in Boomer’s name and mail it in because there’s no time to send out a new ballot. None of this is any help to the (by now) a dozen OC Democrats I’ve heard from who never received a ballot even though they requested one in time and have proof of it. #FAIL
This typical incompetence belongs on the tab of Chair Rusty Hicks — and, of course, the county parties and individuals (DPOC and its members prominent among them) who elected him before and will soon be trying to do so again.
Hey yeah! I should put a plug for Delaine into the end of this story!
Done.
In the couple of days I posted this piece around Facebook Democrat sites, I heard back from at least a dozen Democrats who had requested their ballots in time, and even gotten back an e-mail confirming that … but still never received their ballots.
I got a phone call back from the Party last night at 7, around 36 hours after I left a message. The lady was as polite as she could manage but you could tell she’d been dealing with complaints for days. She repeatedly blamed everything on “The Post Office,” and the fact that so many people had requested ballots very late in the process, and claimed that the Party had extended the deadline twice (though as far as I know it was extended once, to Feb. 3.)
And then today I got this e-mail:
Democrats,
Together, we’ve worked to adapt to a series of unprecedented circumstances and implemented an ADEMs process that prioritized the health and safety of every Democrat.
In light of safety concerns associated with the ongoing pandemic, the Executive Board approved a “all-vote-by-mail” ADEMs process for 2021. Under extremely tight timelines, CADEM staff worked incredibly hard to support a record level of participation in the ADEMs process. In 8 weeks, we’ve responded to more than 7,000 inquiries and organized the distribution of nearly 170,000 requested ballots – 75% of those were requested in the last seven days of registration.
The high number of ballots requested very late in the process required additional printing, processing, and mailing. To ensure the greatest opportunity for participation, the Statewide Officers unanimously agreed to extend the deadline to receive ballots to Wednesday, February 3, 2021 – an extension of a full week beyond the original deadline.
CADEM is proud of the record-breaking activism in this year’s ADEMs election. Here are the next steps CADEM will take to finalize the results:
Now through February 8 – Complete the tabulation of the results
On February 9
Post the results – and a digital copy of all counted ballots – on our website
Release the 2021 ADEM Post Analysis
Share an online survey prepared by the Rules Subcommittee on ADEM Elections soliciting feedback to begin the full assessment process to improve the ADEMs process for 2023.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact adem@cadem.org.
In Solidarity,
-California Democrats