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After last weekโs news of fraudulent endorsement voting, which triggered the resignation of club president Jeffrey Kwong, members of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club started voting on Saturday at an emergency meeting on the races affected in the compromised vote. They also selected a new interim leader for the remainder of the year.
โWe discovered that several ballots had been cast by people that were counted in our records as being present at our meetings or eligible to vote,โ explained interim president Melissa Hernรกndez at Saturday’s meeting. โWhen we did an audit, we realized several of them were not eligible to vote.โ
Around 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, Harvey Milk club members were rocked by an email informing them of Kwongโs resignation following the discovery of the compromised vote, which affected the following endorsements:
U.S Senate, San Francisco City Attorney, three seats on the Board of Education, three seats on the City College Board, Proposition F (police deferred retirement option program), Prop. K (establishment of a Great Highway Park) and whether to rescind the club endorsement of Sen. Scott Wiener.
Following recommendations from attorney Scott Emblidge, club leaders said they would not share any additional information about the compromised process because there is an open investigation. Hernรกndez said, however, she expects a final resolution within 30 days.
She said it was necessary for the Harvey Milk club to call for the emergency meeting and the new vote after learning the ineligible votes had swung multiple races in a different direction.
โWe called the special meeting to make sure that we can safeguard the integrity of our endorsement process,โ said Hernรกndez.
To ensure the validity of the new vote, the club announced every member was to receive a unique number that would be verified at the time each vote was counted. For those on Zoom, aside from the code, it was also mandatory to keep their cameras on at all times.
Today’s voting also included a contest for the interim president to serve until January. The contestants are current Vice President of Communication Gary McCoy, and HIV/AIDS caucus Chair Brad Chapin.
McCoy, for his part, said that he accepted the nomination, but he made clear he would not hold the office past January.
โI absolutely commit, should I be elected tonight, to only serve as a caretaker interim president,โ said McCoy. โMy primary focus will be our endorsed candidates and positions through the end of January and will be to work with the investigation subcommittee.โ
The new endorsements were as follows:
- No endorsement on the U.S. Senate race, which had previously gone to Adam Schiff.
- No endorsement on city attorney, which had previously gone to David Chiu.
- No endorsement on three seats at the Board of Education, which had previously gone to Virginia Cheung and Jamie Huling.
- No endorsement on three seats at the Community College Board, which had previously gone to Luis Zamora.
- Yes on Prop. K, which turns Great Highway into a coastal promenade, which had previously been a no endorsement.
- No on Prop. F, the police staffing and deferred retirement, which had previously been a no endorsement.
- Yes on a motion to rescind the club’s endorsement of state Sen. Scott Wiener.
The club also elected its Vice President of Communication Gary McCoy to become its new interim president until January.
This story was updated on Sunday, Sept. 8, following the results of the vote.
The fact that these folks would not endorse Schiff over Garvey for Senate is way more concerning to me than any weird voting irregularities they may have discovered. Sheesh
The latest poll has Schiff up +22 over Garvey.
Give the demands for performative genuflecting before a neoliberal warmonger a rest.
Yes, I’m sure Garvey and Schiff will vote the same way on the issues that matter to the Club. LGBTQ rights, abortion, IVF, you name it. 2 peas in the same pod, or something.
The filibuster ensures that there will be no Democrat initiatives surviving the Senate.
When Democrats had supermajorities in 2009, under Obama, Democrats declined to legislate Roe or LGBT housing and job protections.
Belaboring the point that a marginal political group’s failure to endorse a marginal Democrat who’s a liberal Republcan who has a marginal chance of passing any legislation important to Milk is just pointless.
“If anyone should stop clapping if even for a moment, then Tinkie shall surely die.”
When was the last time that a Milk Club endorsement was arguably decisive in an electoral contest in San Francisco?
Campers,
I thought all elections in San Francisco were fixed ?
Breed’s thumb on the Redistricting Scale has already flipped SFB
Campers,
It’s a Feature of SF Politics for god’s sake !!
Breed’s thumb on the Redistricting Process flipped 2 districts from Prog to Mod.
So far.
I’m old enough to remember waterproof tops of SF Ballot Boxes being found floating in the Pacific Ocean from Stinson Beach to the Golden Gate.
I remember when Willie ordered an extra couple of million ballots and poor Elections Director Tammy Haygood took the heat and we only learned of it cause he ordered them from out of state and an SF printer saw they were non union.
We use Dominion voting machines which count our votes with a Proprietary Code when Open Source is safest.
I rode in a car in the rain with a Bayview reporter and Examiner editor following a van picking up people who’d just voted in Hunters Point and taking them to City Hall to vote again under the name of a registered voter who stayed home.
That was the charge.
Amazingly, it seems this is the only case where anyone was able to prove anything.
And, live to talk about it.
But, that’s another story.
Go Niners !!
h.
Eff the Yorks.
Breed did all that by herself? Naw, she doesn’t have the chops. Willie on the other hand….