Ballots were sent out at 5:35pm on Tuesday Dec 14, 2021 and remained open until 11:59pm Saturday, Dec 18. 2610 members were sent a ballot, with 346 casting a vote. The December ballot contained our elections for the local 2022 steering committee, nine questions for electoral endorsements, and six considerations for chapter priority campaign status.
Metro DC 2022 Steering Committee Election (Question 1)
The MDC DSA Steering Committee consists of three officers positions and eight at large positions. All candidates were required to be members of MDC DSA in good standing and to receive five nominations in order to be eligible to run. The three officer positions were all uncontested and were elected by acclamation under our standing rules. There were ten candidates running for the remaining eight at large seats. Votes were counted using approval voting method.
The results are as follows (candidates with an * indicate winner):
- Aparna R: 239*
- Kareem E: 238*
- Philip B: 197*
- Dieter L.M: 190*
- Hayden G: 186*
- Carl R: 171*
- Karishma M: 146*
- Abel A: 135*
- Kristen B: 122
- Diego J: 115
The were 290 valid votes, and 56 empty votes. Steering candidate diversity requirements were satisfied.
Chapter Electoral Endorsements (Questions 2-10)
Nine candidates were considered for Metro DC DSA electoral endorsement in 2022 primary elections. Electoral campaigns required two-thirds votes in the affirmative out of votes cast for a specific contest in order to receive chapter endorsement.
The results for each vote are as follows:
Q2: Should MDC DSA endorse Saqib Ali for Maryland House of Delegates, District 15?
Yes - 47 (16.5%)
No - 238 (83.5%)
Abs - 61
The chapter does not endorse Saqib Ali.
Q3: Should MDC DSA endorse Max Socol for Maryland State Senate, District 18?
Yes - 296 (98.0% of votes cast)
No - 6 (1.9% of votes cast)
Abs - 44
The chapter votes to endorse Max Socol.
Note that on the official ballot, Max Socol was listed as running for Maryland House of Delegates. This was an error - but given the results of the election, we expect most, if not all of voters understood and overlooked the error.
Q4: Should MDC DSA endorse Gabriel Acevero for Maryland House of Delegates, District 39?
Yes - 302 (99.0% of votes cast)
No - 3 (0.9% of votes cast)
Abs - 41
The chapter votes to endorse Gabriel Acevero.
Q5: Should MDC DSA endorse Adam Cunningham for Maryland House of Delegates, District 39?
Yes - 19 (6.8% of votes cast)
No - 260 (93.2% of votes cast)
Abs - 67
The chapter does not endorse Adam Cunningham.
Q6: Should MDC DSA endorse Brandy Brooks for Montgomery County Council At Large?
Yes - 292 (96.1% of votes cast)
No - 12 (3.9% of votes cast)
Abs - 42
The chapter votes to endorse Brandy Brooks.
Q7: Should MDC DSA endorse Mckayla Wilkes for US House of Representatives, MD District 5?
Yes - 89 (30.9% of votes cast)
No - 199 (69.1% of votes cast)
Abs - 58
The chapter does not endorse Mckayla Wilkes.
Q8: Should MDC DSA endorse Lisa Burnam for Prince George’s County Council, District 9?
Yes - 44 (15.8% of votes cast)
No - 235 (84.2% of votes cast)
Abs - 67
The chapter does not endorse Lisa Burnam.
Q9: Should MDC DSA endorse Oye Owolewa for Shadow US Representative, District of Columbia?
Yes - 50 (17.9% of votes cast)
No - 228 (84.2% of votes cast)
Abs - 68
The chapter does not endorse Oye Owolewa.
Q10: Should MDC DSA endorse Zachary Parker for District of Columbia Council, Ward 5?
Yes - 291 (95.4% of votes cast)
No - 14 (4.6% of votes cast)
Abs - 41
The chapter votes to endorse Zachary Parker.
Metro DC DSA Priority Campaigns for 2022 (Questions 11-17)
Voters were asked to vote on chapter priority campaigns for 2022. A quarter of Metro DC DSA’s budget is allocated explicitly to priority campaigns. Priority campaigns are also afforded preferential access to other limited chapter resources in policies established by the Administrative Committee. New members will be encouraged to join priority campaigns by member mobilizers and other representatives of the chapter, and priority campaigns are requested to regularly provide an updated list of individuals who are currently willing to provide assistance to new members in becoming active in their work.
A maximum of five campaigns can be designated as priority campaigns. Campaigns must receive two-thirds of votes in the affirmative—out of all of the votes cast on the question—in order to be designated a priority campaign. If more than five campaigns reach the two-thirds affirmative vote threshold, then the top five priority campaign proposals in order of votes received would be designated priority status.
Results are as follows:
Q11: Should Defund MPD be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 252 (79.2% of votes cast)
No - 66 (20.8% of votes cast)
Abs - 28
The chapter votes to keep Defund MPD a priority campaign for 2022.
Q12: Should Electoral Organizing be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 245 (80.1% of votes cast)
No - 61 (19.9% of votes cast)
Abs - 40
The chapter votes to make Electoral Organizing a priority campaign for 2022.
Q13: Should the Internationalism Working Group be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 98 (33.7% of votes cast)
No - 193 (66.3% of votes cast)
Abs - 55
The chapter votes against making the Internationalism Working Group a priority campaign in 2022.
Q14: Should the Labor Working Group be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 303 (94.4% of votes cast)
No - 18 (5.6% of votes cast)
Abs - 25
The chapter votes to keep the Labor Working Group as a priority campaign for 2022.
Q15: Should Stomp Out Slumlords be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 312 (96.0% of votes cast)
No - 13 (4.0% of votes cast)
Abs - 21
The chapter votes to keep Stomp Out Slumlords as a priority campaign for 2022.
Q16: Should We Power DC be a priority campaign in 2022?
Yes - 250 (82.8% of votes cast)
No - 52 (17.2% of votes cast)
Abs - 44
The chapter votes to make We Power DC a priority campaign for 2022.
Additional Notes
2610 ballots were sent, but 32 bounced. 1588 ballots were opened (60.8% of total sent). 437 ballots were visited (27.5% of opened ballots). 346 votes were cast (13.3% of total ballots sent).
Three voters reached out noting a glitch in voting through OpaVote which caused their ballot to go through despite their voter not confirming the ballot and not selecting choices or affirming votes. Two of these voters provided their ballot choices to the Internal Elections Department prior to election closure on request from the IEFD. The IEFD’s intent was to remove two completely blank ballots from the OpaVote count and replace them with affirmed votes in an official count. However, given that these votes would not affect results in either direction, due to unforeseen limitations of the OpaVote interface the IEFD has decided to add these votes unofficially to the results through disclosure here.
For record, inclusion of these two ballots would affect final results in the following:
- Steering election: Abel A (+1), Aparna R (+2), Carl R (+2), Diego J (+1), Dieter LM (+2), Kareem E (+2), Karishma M (+1), Philip B (+2), Hayden G (+1)
- Endorse Max Socol (Yes +1)
- Endorse Brandy Brooks (Yes +1)
- Endorse Mckayla Wilkes (Yes +1)
- Endorse Lisa Burnam (Yes +1)
- Endorse Zach Parker (Yes +1)
- Defund MPD priority campaign (Yes +2)
- Electoral Organizing priority campaign (Yes +1)
- Labor priority campaign (Yes +1)
- Internationalism priority campaign (Yes +1)
- We Power DC Priority (Yes +1)