Members of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, one of the city’s largest and most consistently left-leaning, were jolted this morning by a communique announcing “compromised and potentially fraudulent” endorsement voting and the abrupt departure of the club’s president.
“We’ve got unfortunate news to tell you,” reads the statement sent to members at 8 a.m. on Saturday. “ It has come to our attention this week that a number of our recent endorsement votes … have been compromised and potentially fraudulent, and through the process of identifying the various related issues, we’ve also found other irregularities in our systems. Overnight on Friday, most of our operational accounts for a number of committees had been deleted.”
Following a Friday Executive Board meeting, Jeffrey Kwong, the Harvey Milk Club president, resigned. “As President during these systems compromises,” reads today’s statement, “Jeffrey thought it best for the credibility of the club and our endorsed candidates to remove himself.”
Reached for comment on Saturday, Kwong deferred to Harvey Milk Club communications chair Gary McCoy, the contact listed on today’s statement.
McCoy said the club has allocated money to retain an attorney. He said this potential hiring, and the progress of an ongoing investigation, will be discussed at a Sept. 7 special meeting.
The nature of the compromised votes in the most recent endorsement meeting does not appear to follow any discernible pattern. The club disclosed that seven races were affected, including uncontested contests such as U.S. Senate and San Francisco City Attorney.
Also affected were the races for the Board of Education and City College Board, the vote on whether to rescind the endorsement of Sen. Scott Wiener, and Propositions F and K:The police deferred retirement measure and the Great Highway park measure.
The club, in its compromised vote, took “no position” on either Prop. F or Prop. K.
The club’s endorsements on the supervisorial and mayoral races, however, were unaffected. Also unaffected were the endorsements in the District Attorney race, 13 other local propositions, and all state matters.
While the Harvey Milk Club remains tight-lipped about the nature of the breach, the voting process for a the scheduled Sept. 7 special meeting to elect Kwong’s interim successor is notable:
“In light of recent events, virtual members attending will be required to verify their identity, and will need to have their cameras on for the duration of the meeting for their votes to be considered valid,” reads the notice.
The club pledged further updates about the compromised votes and subsequent investigation at the Sept. 7 meeting.
I read this as a good thing for the Milk Club because it is a sign of actual self policing and a recognition that errors can and do happen. They are coming clean, folks are resigning, and a major effort is underway to make corrections that will increase the integrity of their process.
Kudos to the Milk Club and thanks Joe for another excellent report!
I’m twiddling my thumbs but this can be a nothing burger.