North Coast Democratic Delegates Worried as Eureka Voting Place Eliminated.
Democrats living on the North Coast and inland may now have to travel up to 7 hours one-way to vote at the upcoming California Democratic Party ADEM (Assembly District Election Meeting). In a recent surprise move, CADEM Regional 1W Chair Debra Broner notified local State Central Committee members that voting will be held in Santa Rosa only – at the southernmost boundary of District 2. “Sonoma County has 50 % of registered democrats in AD 2 and has not had a location for the ADEM since the redistricting in 2011,” explained Broner.
ADEMs are held every two years to elect 7 women and 7 men to be Assembly District Delegates to represent the Assembly District in which they are registered as a Democrat. AD Delegates are elected by registered Democrat voters and vote on behalf of the community they represent at CDP Regional Meetings and the California Democratic Party Convention.
A sole meeting site is a radical departure from the two polling places we have come to expect in our large district – the 2017 election was held simultaneously in Ukiah and Eureka. Our Assembly District is one of the largest in California – reaching from the Oregon border to Santa Rosa, and east to Trinity County. Thus, Party bylaws specifically allow multiple meeting sites for “good cause” including “the necessity of traveling very long distances, traveling in heavy traffic through dense population centers, or traveling in hazardous weather conditions.”
“We all know how difficult and unpredictable travel in January can be – and climate change isn’t making our winters any milder. What happens if the passes are closed or there are slides? Who can afford to drive to Santa Rosa and back in a day? Once again, rural California is left behind and rural voters disenfranchised.” Helene Rouvier, AD-02 delegate (Eureka).
All Democrats are called to action to let our Regional Chair Debra Broner [email protected] know that we need a meeting and voting place up here in Eureka. Our Democratic Party must provide easy access to voting and not put roadblocks in the way of our more rural communities and citizens. As Humboldt County Central Committee member Michele Walford noted in reply to Regional Director Broner: “Hi Debra, You only have one location listed for AD 02. With a District so large physically, surely there will be one in Humboldt County as usual? I am hoping this is an oversight. We certainly don’t want to be the Party that disenfranchises our own, do we?”
Helene Rouvier
AD-02 delegate
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She’s right. Yet the irony of a Democrat, typically believing in the rights of a majority to impose laws about morality on a minority, complaining that the place with the most voters gets consideration over areas with lower population, is not lost those believing in individual rights.
I suggest a center of mass of Democrats be determined and the meeting be held there. That would mean that almost no one will be conveniently close but the largest number of Democrats will have less distance to travel. If they all have to meet at Gus’s Discount Gas and Food on the highway and eat 2 week old convenience store hot dogs, so be it.
We here in western Trinity County have been voting by mail for years; no polling place available for a very long time and I haven’t missed a single time to vote. The only thing I miss about a polling place is not being able to visit with people that I haven’t seen for a while, otherwise, not an issue at all. Democrats are just so quick to find offense at everything and anything.
This is an Assembly District Election Meeting, not the general election. This is something else. There is no vote by mail for this.
Thank you Kym for reading and understanding the comment you wrote. Dems just want to argue for no good reason and this shows it perfectly.
There’s some crazy projection and lack of self awareness going on here.
WTF, GOP?!? ⁉️ Kym was being awfully nice and attempting to enlighten you Republicans, to no avail apparently, because somehow your inability to grasp the subject material here is somehow the Democratic Party’s fault? Yeah, right. Why not blame the Greens or Libertarians while you’re at it, Republicans! 🐘🤪
Keep it up. Alienate just as many as you can lest they forget why they saw Trump as the lesser of two evils in the first place.
Suppression of representation…is generally thought of as Republican strategy. I am astounded that democrats find this acceptable, particularly at this level. SHAME ON THEM
Jaw dropping ! You only think that because Democrats rule in California therefore see little need for vote diddling. Where the margins are closer Democrats are notoriously inventive at suppressing unfavorable votes and creating favorable ones out of thin air.
As Mayor Daily was reputed to say “Vote early and often.” https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/10/27/2-investigators-chicago-voters-cast-ballots-from-beyond-the-grave/
IMHO: People in rural counties don’t ‘count’ for much in political processes.
People in Southern California/SF/Sacramento ‘count’ a lot.
And why not, when one City out of the entire country can decide a popular vote because of sheer numbers.
That’s not applicable here. Close, but no cigar. What’s at play is one COUNTY (Sonoma) dominating the district vote.
Counties don’t vote. People who live in counties do, so THC is the one who understands.
One can not vote by mail in this election. One can not insult people on this site, but that does not prevent people like you from making uneducated and false statements.
Or people from berating other posters over nothing because it satisfies their egos.
No such thing as conspiracies, just policy. We can beat the fascists easy. Beating the “democrats,” who are trying to shut out the “Radical Left,” is going to be way more difficult. Not to imply that’s the situation here. But the moderate-republicans in the democratic party are going after progressives all over the country.
The radical left has always failed as soon as they are expected to organize a working government or pay the bills. They then turn on each other, accusing each other of being not being far enough left. Until then they just are stuck in adolescent angst and acting out. Good at destruction but never construction. Sounds good to angry people until then though.
Cough…Tea Party…cough…(Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Both ends have trouble playing nice with the middle. Doesn’t make them wrong. Just makes them difficult.)
Rocket Surgeon????
To be brutally honest, the progressive ADEM slate winning up here (and throughout California) in 2017 caught the old guard by surprise. Additionally our elected delegates have been both working inside the Party to effect positive change and have also spoken truth to power. Disenfranchising local voters will help shift power back to the establishment Dems; they will be running their own slate this time around and their power base is in the south of our assembly district. The game is all too obvious.