After a little hiatus for the ServiceNation Summit, I’m back at it.  More on the summit later, including pictures. While I was in NYC,  the post-election drama continued.   I will try to provide with a time line from the articles that have been written in the Post and the City Paper.   First,  the Board of Election & Ethics (BOEE) went on a communication blackout. This was actually not a bad idea, since their attempt to provide an explanation on election night was pathetic.  No offense to Dan Murphy, BOEE spokesperson.  When the BOEE came out of its self-imposed blackout, it provided some clarifications on the election night debacle but mostly blamed the irregularities on the equipment. However, California-based Sequoia Voting systems asserted that “there is absolutely no problem with the machines in polling places.” Instead, the company brought up possibility of  human error.  Despite the assertion by Sequoia, BOEE stood by the results on primary night. As it now become the tradition in DC after a scandal,  Mayor Fenty fired someone and launched an investigation but not before the Ward 2 ANC  passed a  resolution calling for an investigation.  Maybe something will come out of this one.  In the middle of all the all this, Cary conceded. He thanked his supporters and staff.  He also called on BOEE “take all steps necessary to restore trust in the election results.”  Cary concession essential ended the post-election drama.  However as the post put it,

SO ELEMENTAL to government is the conduct of elections that there can be no excuse for failure. It’s important, then, that D.C. officials not minimize the problems with Tuesday’s primary. The chaos surrounding the results suggests that there may be bigger issues that need fixing and that, if left unresolved, could undermine voter confidence.

The only good thing that came out of this drama is my debut on YouTube thanks to LooseLips Columnist Mike DeBonis.

Last night, I was nominated to go to DC board of the election to wait for the result of the primary.  I thought it  would be a cool experience/; so I accepted.  Another volunteer and I headed down there  for what we thought was going 30 minutes then off to the victory party.  Little did we know that the DC Board Of Election & Ethics (BOEE) complete incompetence would keep us there till the wee hours of the morning.  To make a long story short,  when first set of result came in, everything looked fine.  Evans was up 66% to 33% and .54% write-in with 14% of the precincts reporting.  When the second set the report came in, something didn’t add up.  Evans was up 48% to 34% and 17% write-in with 94% of precincts reporting.  The second set of numbers estimated that 9000 people voted in our Ward, more than doubling the numbers from 2004 ( a mayoral election).  Having walked around the city throughout the day, I knew there was a low voter turns out.  Additionally, we were not aware of any write-in campaigns going on in our race. Therefore, 17% write-in made absolutely no sense.  My suspicions were confirmed by Evans’ Campaign manager. We went upstairs along with Mara’s campaign manager and Schwartz’s campaign manager (They were having the same problem).  Meanwhile, The AP called the race, then the Post based on the AP the numbers.   Things went downhill from there.  Lawyers came, WaPo came, CityPaper came, Washington Times was called, I think the AP had take back calling the race and people at the BOEE just looked really really really really really bad.  The lawyers that were present requested precinct by precinct report.  The BOEE put out three sets of numbers after that but the damage had been done.  Everyone was dissecting the numbers and the whole thing was just a mess.

Needless to say, this was an eye opening experience for me.  I’m deeply troubled by the city’s inability to handle such a small election.  By all accounts, the primary in February had a much larger turnout and the city failed to properly handle that election as well.  As of this moment, I’m shocked, angered, and disappointed.  If I had any power, no one at the board of election would have a job this morning (except maybe nice security guards from last night).  I really hope Mayor Fenty and the rest of the council take a good look at this.  It’s ridiculous that the capital of the free world can not manage to run an election smoothly.

As of the writing of this post, we have not yet conceded.  we are waiting for the precinct by  precinct report and results from the absentee ballots (if they can count them correctly.)  I’m headed to NYC for the ServiceNation Summit with Senators Obama and McCain, more on what I learn in this campaign when I get back from NYC.

DC PRIMARY RESULTS NIGHT COVERAGE

CityPaper – Live from the Clusterfuck

BOEE “Official” results

Washington Post

DC Wire

DCist

p.s.  I did not cut my hair for the next POTUS… whoever he is.

Today, the DC Examiner endorsed Cary saying:

Cary Silverman promises open, competitive bidding for all city projects and a fully Freedom of Information Act-able financial reporting system. And more accountability and transparency is exactly what this city needs.

Read the entire article here .  I wish they did this last week so we would have been able to take advantage of it a bit more.  But hey an endorsement is an endorsement.  That marks our first endorsement by  a local paper. 

Now for all your Ward 2 (which includes Shaw, Dupont, Logan, Mt Vernon Sq, Gtown, Foggy Bottom, West End, Downtown, Chinatown) Residents go out and Vote!

It’s down to the wire. Since June (actually a lot longer than that for Cary), we’ve been working hard to make the case to Ward 2 Democrats that it’s time for change on the City Council. We’ve had three debates; one in Foggy Bottom, another in Dupont, and another on the Kojo Show on WAMU. We’ve had tons of candidate forums, some at 8 AM and others at 8 PM. We filled out more questionnaires than I care to remember, attended neighborhood picnics, block parties, tenants association meetings and what seems to be every ANC meeting in the ward.  Supporters hosted countless meet and greet events as well as fundraisers. We played the endorsement game – got some and lost some.  We met some fun people, some interesting people, some skeptic supporters, some enthusiastic supporters and people didn’t care much for us. We’ve walked through part of the city that I never knew existed and rediscovered parts that I had not visited in a while. And of course there was the parade. Everywhere we went and to everyone we met, we made the case for Cary. I think we’ve made a compelling case and put ourselves in a position to win on Tuesday. With a strong GOTV effort, I believe that we can seal the deal. I’m very excited about the election on Tuesday. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could vote. Oh well, can’t have everything at once. If you’re registered to vote in DC, Vote Cary Silverman on Tuesday!

Technorati Tags: Cary Silverman, DC City Council, DC politcs, Ward 2

My first video. Enjoy. Leave any feedback. Sorry for the cheap camera. If I follow through, I will upgrade.

As many of you know, I now volunteer to Cary Silverman who is running to be full-time DC council member for Ward 2.  Yesterday, we had a chance to compete for the much coveted endorsement from the Ward 2 Democrats.  Going  into the voting meeting last yet, I felt that we had a good chance to win.  We had a good turn out from our supporters and they had brought friends with them.  However, as the night continued I began to think we weren’t going to win but at least make a good showing. And that we did.   Cary lost the Ward 2 endorsement 105 – 67.  But in order to win the endorsement, our opponent “bused” people as well as provided Fried chicken for his “supporters”.   As one of my co-workers put it:

I don’t care if you give ALL your voters an incentive to come out and vote.  However, I do have a HUGE problem when you give selective incentives and it appears to cut across racial lines.  I am under the belief that voting should be its own reward.  The carrot should not be chicken dinners, but civic duty and pride.  It got fuzzy for me when the people with the dinners went in and voted for him.

Moreover, the process was completely screwed up.  People presenting themselves were not not even asked for IDs when they came in to vote.  So basically there was no way for people to check if the people voting the endorsement were indeed Ward 2 residents.   From talking to one person that was bused in by our opponent , she said she was a resident of “ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 3 and Ward 4… Whatever you want me to be.”  Something like that should have easily caught. What’s the point of calling it a ward 2 Endorsement, if people from around the bused in?

The most frustrating part of last night was the realization I can’t vote while  people who don’t care about this election and would gladly give their vote for a KFC dinner are allowed to participate in the election.

Despite all of this there is a silver lining to last night meeting.  We can win this election. Had we convinced 15 more people to show we would have blocked him from receiving this endorsement.  So despite our opponent’s questionable tactics, we can still win on Sep 9th.

You read comments from other frustrated voters in the dcwire blog post.

Someone once said all politics is local.  I don’t know who that person is (I suppose I could Google it) or why that they said that, but it turns out they must have been right because people have been repeating it ever since.   Since I enjoy politics and all politics are local, I figured it’s about time to get involved in local politics. I have thus decided to join the campaign of Cary Silverman running for Ward 2 DC Council seat.  We are looking a unseat current 17 yr Council member Jack Evans.. what can I say? Go  big or go home. I’m not going to seat and tell you why my candidate is better Ward 2 residents than Mr. Evans, nor am I going to tell you that He will solve every issue facing Ward  2 and the rest of the city.  What I will tell you is that he is a person dedicated to the DC neighborhoods and it is reflected in the involvement the years.  His presence on the council will be a breath of fresh air and new ideas to what has become an old boys club serving developers instead of citizens (yes I’m talking about the DC council). One thing I’ve learned so far is that local politics isn’t sexy but it matters. It matters because it affects our daily lives, from recycling to schools, from liquor licenses to gentrification and from sidewalk construction to zoning restrictions.   The campaign currently  has a small staff thus my role will vary greatly. Regardless, I look forward to meeting many of the residents of Ward 2 and making the case why it’s time for change in Ward 2 Seat.  If you’re in DC and would like to meeting Cary Silverman, please join us at a Happy Hour this Wed at Wednesday 6/4  at 1625 17th Street, NW from 5:30pm – 8 PM.  If you have any other questions about the Campaign feel free to e-mail henri at caryforcouncil dot org.