Delegate Inconvenience by Design in New Mexico

There is something that needs fixing. It involves the Democratic Party of New Mexico, and is probably a problem nation wide. It is the lack of knowledge of the most basic processes of the Democratic Party by its members coupled with the parties failure to address that problem effectively, for whatever reason. With the behaviour of the leadership of the Democratic Party over the course of this presidential campaign, would it be unreasonable to ask if this is by design?

I had complained that the ward meeting place to vote for delegates for my ward was totally inappropriate. The closest a city bus gets to the meeting place was a mile away. After complaining to the the County Chair, they agreed to put out notice that if anyone can't get to the meeting, they would help them get there.

Okay, now on to the meeting. During the meeting we had to nominate someone to be a delegate. We could nominate ourselves, or someone else. That someone else did not have to be in attendance. There was a lot of going on about if that was allowed. The Ward Chair kept stating that last time there could be a list of people nominated who were not there. Finally it was allowed for him to add the name he had in mind, his wife. The thing is, the justification for nominating people who were not there was this. To make it more convenient for people who might not have been able to make it.

So I'm going to have to say, WTF? I know what the Ward Chair was up to. Last time there was a ward meeting he had all his kin folk there ($hillary supporters). That one family had filled up the Ward and Precinct Chairs and the delegate slots for this Ward, save two. Those two were filled by newcomers who are Bernie supporters. I think the Ward Chair thought he would walk into an empty room, write all his kinfolk down as candidates for delegate, then walk out of the room with a Ward owned by one family.

Ward 16C Meeting Place Too Far

No, the nominating of people for delegate who are not in attendance was not designed for the convenience of the voter. Indeed, the voter was never expected to show up. The nomination of absentee persons I suspect was designed for the convenience of the party. The writing down of people's names facilitates the disenfranchisement of the rank and file voter who knows nothing about this process. As usual, the avarage voter's convenience had little to do with that choice. If they did, the party would not be putting meeting places in remote locals with no bus service.

I don't want to hear anyone say people need to look for the information for themselves. I'm sick of that lame excuse. How about instead of blaming it on the people like normal, do something extraordinary. Start blaming the process, and fix it. We all know darn good and well that few people read the classified ads in print newspapers. Few people use Yahoo. We are in the 21st Century with 21th Century methods of mass communication. If we can get the word out to people that they should register to vote, and vote, we can get the word out that people should go to the Ward meetings. This is clearly a failure of the party, not the people.

All this, and more telles me one thing in a booming voice. We need new blood in the Democratic party from Ward level on up. We need to overhaul the party, placing each party rule under the microscope of scrutiny. Enough is enough!