Hello, I am Ellen Wedum, newly elected Chair of the Democratic Party of Otero County.
While the tactics used by the people who were running the DPOC prior to our election were in no way as extreme as those experienced in Taos, they were disturbing in some aspects.
1) I was working in Santa Fe during the legislative session. It was well known that I was planning to run for chair, and also I was, and am, a precinct chair (Pct 8A). In spite of this, the County Convention was held on March 6, PRIOR to the end of the session. So I had to take a day off work to come to the meeting-- a four-hour drive each way.
2) The calculations of CCC members for each precinct were done incorrectly, apparently by one of the DPNM field workers. They were NOT posted to our dpoc email list ahead of time, which would have provided me and my supporters with time to correct the error. (One reason I want to be on the Rules committee is to clarify the wording, and intention, of the CCC member calculation process.)
3) I won the election even with the (accidentally, I think) rigged vote, although in one precinct the chair, the sister of one of the candidates, demanded that every vote be cast for her relative. You know that each CCC member has an independent vote. So 2 of my supporters got bullied into casting their votes in opposition to their wishes, and complained to me about this afterward.
4) We used the paper ballots provided by the DPNM, and I have no complaints about them because they were stolen between the evening of March 6 and the morning of March 8 and I never saw them. We worried about this, because according to the DPNM rules we are supposed to have them available for inspection for 90 days, but Matt Farrauto said not to get upset. I think Matt just tries to get along with everyone, as indeed I have, so there have been no accusations by me about either the early scheduling of the election or the stolen ballots, which I carefully refer to as 'missing.'
As a result of #2 and #4, we do not have a valid CCC, and when we revise our County Rules, we will have to hold another convention before we can do so (our rules have not been revised since 1989, and indeed are not even in electronic format, except that I personally typed them into the computer this spring). In our small county we do not pay any attention to the CCC, we are happy to just get people to come to meetings! so everyone who comes gets a vote. However, in order to vote on a major, and much needed, revision of our County Rules, I think we should have a valid CCC.
I add my minor complaints to the very serious complaints of the Taos group, and strongly recommend that Taos County be required to hold another county convention prior to the fall SCC meeting in order to elect properly credentialed officers and delegates.
I also think that more guidance is needed in the election process, and the specific problems experienced in Taos county need to be seriously investigated and an attempt made to take preventative measures prior to the next set of elections.
Ellen Wedum
dpoc chair
www.oterocountydemocrats.org
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