46th LD Blog
Reminder! May Candidate Forum Weds., May 19th - 7pm! Environmental Caucus 5:30pm!
Reminder of the Candidate Forum Wednesday, May 19th, 7:00pm and the Annual Endorsement Meeting on Sunday, May 23rd, at 11:00am
(2021 Candidate Forum Night #2)
- 5:30pm - Environmental Caucus at
- 6:30 - 7:00pm - Voting Orientation for the endorsement meeting on May 23rd
- 7:00pm - Candidate Forum starts at
It’s an exciting time of year when our meetings turn to evaluating and eventually endorsing candidates for office!
Our May regular meeting time is focused on these activities, with a candidate forum for the races on the ballot in November that we did not feature in April.
Reminder of the May 2021 Candidate Forum sponsored by the 46th LD Democrats
To save your seat, and register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEldemvqD4jHtZT6cpWobWZPK-D1_6CduKU
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
- 5:30pm: Environment and Climate Caucus (same link)
- 6:15pm: User Orientation for the voting methods to be used on May 23rd
- 6:45pm: Check your Tech / Meet and Greet / Get Some Snacks Break
- 7:00pm: Candidate Forums begin!
Run of Show for the May 19, 2021 Candidate Forum:
2021 Candidate Night #2
7:00pm: Let's Begin!
- Native Lands Acknowledgement
- Reminder: 2020 lapsed members have until Sunday morning to renew and vote in the endorsement meeting!
7:05pm: King County Executive Forum
7:40pm: Seattle City Attorney Forum
8:00pm: Introduction to Kenmore candidates
8:15pm: Introduction to Lake Forest Park candidates
8:30pm: Seattle City Council Position 9
9:30pm: Goodnight!
Save the Date - Thursday Evening (5/20): Do you want to help stress test the voting interface and programming for the endorsement meeting? We'll be asking for volunteers to join us on Thursday evening for a stress test of the system. If you are free on Thursday, consider joining in for the testing team! Details at the May 19th gathering.
Don't forget! Sunday, May 23rd is our Annual Endorsements Meeting!
Please register early for the meeting - we must build voting credentials for everyone, and we would like to avoid delays at the start of the meeting.
When: May 23, 2021 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sduGurj8jE9f48ga17glBn769VcO42fzU
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We will start at 11:00am with a brief orientation on the voting methods we will employ, we will formally ratify our new Treasurer, and then move directly into the races. Generally, the races will be in the order they appear on the ballot:
All races where a Democrat is unopposed by another Democrat (as a group)
- Metropolitan King County Proposition 1
- King County Executive
- King County Council, District 1
- Port of Seattle Races (Port races are Countywide)
- Contested Judicial Races (if any)
- Kenmore Races
- Lake Forest Park Races
- Seattle City Races
- Northshore School District
- Shoreline School District
- Seattle School District has no districts in the primary
- Special Purpose Districts
Voting in the endorsement meeting is a bit more tightly controlled than in regular meetings.
You must be a member in good standing to vote.
You must be in the Zoom meeting to vote, and we do check before every single vote (so you can't register, and have someone in the meeting send you the ballot - that will not be valid, and we will catch you.)
Members in good standing, we hope to see you on Sunday, May 23rd!
We need your help ballot chasing this weekend!
Our next-door neighbors in the Shoreline portion of the 32nd LD will be chasing ballots with signature issues this weekend, and up to May 6th.
They need our help!
Signature curing/chasing is easy work, as you are providing a service to the voter and getting their ballot counted by refreshing their signature. It's mostly a matter of reaching someone at home.
If you are willing to do some socially distanced in-person canvassing to cure signatures this weekend, you can connect one of two ways:
1. Volunteers are gathering at the Starbucks at 185th St N and Midvale Ave N (just off Aurora) at 10am on Saturday, May 1. Come grab a cup of coffee and a handful of voters' names to cure! Instructions provided.
2. If you cannot join the group start on Saturday morning, please contact 32nd LD Democrats' Chair (and Shoreline City Councilmember) Christopher Roberts at [email protected] to help ballot chase on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.
Why do they urgently need to cure signatures?
The situation is both interesting and urgent - our neighbors in Shoreline are in the midst of a tight race where every single ballot will count for an unexpected reason.
Currently, Shoreline's Proposition 1, which is a bond measure for Parks and Recreation funding, is currently failing.
However, Proposition 1 is failing due to turnout, as opposed to due to actual support. The vote is at 72.7% YES for the bonds, but there just aren't enough actual total ballots cast and valid to be counted to meet the requirement of 40% of the votes cast in the previous general election. (This is one of the few downsides of an extremely high turnout election, such as the one we just had in 2020 - it makes the voter turnout validation requirement for bonds and certain other measures extremely high for the next year.)
Currently, they are 127 ballots returned and able to be counted short of the number needed for validation. The measure has 120 ballots pending with signature issues that can be chased, and they need an additional 7 ballots beyond that to be returned right now overall.
We expect that there will be an additional 15-20 ballots delivered tomorrow, and possibly as many as 10 delivered on Monday. With 30 ballots, there may be as many as five that are rejected for signature issues or a late postmark.
That would add about 25 ballots, and bring Shoreline within about 102 needed valid ballots, so the 32nd District Democrats are going to be sig chasing door-to-door this weekend. They are going after all ballots, not just folks with a reasonable Dem score, because in this case, they don't need the ballot to contain a "yes" vote. They just need the ballot to be counted.
So, I hope you will join me in ballot chasing for the 32nd District Democrats in Shoreline this weekend. Many hands will make light work!
Julie Anne Kempf
Chair, 46Dems