Reimagining MDP Rules, Part III: Voting and Running for Party Office
As part of the discussion surrounding the Michigan Democratic Party’s Rules Review, earlier this summer I shared my ideas on how to make conventions run more smoothly while making the Executive Committee and State Central Committee more democratic.
In my concluding part of the series, I look at two essential rights of Michigan Democrats: the right to vote at Party meetings and the right to run for Party office.
Reducing the Membership Waiting Period
If you want to vote at any Democratic Party convention in Michigan, you must have been an MDP member for 30 days before the convention. That 30-day rule is waived, however, for precinct delegates, Democratic elected officials, and the most recent Democratic nominees to partisan offices.
The buzz surrounding any event will increase as that event gets closer. Conventions are no different. Often, by the time many people realize that a convention is about to take place, it’s too late for them to join the MDP and vote. In addition, some have noted that while we in the MDP call for same-day registration for public elections, we don’t currently have same-day registration for voting at conventions.
To that second point, there are a few reasons why same-day registration for public elections makes a lot more sense than same-day registration for Party meetings. For one thing, in a public election, there are thousands of polling places all across the state that could handle new registrations on Election Day; with the MDP, there is only one registration area for all of the state’s Democrats. Second, for public elections, once you’re registered, you remain registered until you move, cancel your registration, etc. This means that few people show up to a polling place without being registered to vote. (Having been a precinct worker in 2016, I can attest to this.) MDP memberships, however, have an expiration date, so you have to renew every year or two.
So there are a number of logistical concerns about the possibility of having so many people sign up and join the MDP right then and there at Convention. However, the current 30-day rule does reduce participation at conventions, along with reducing membership revenue from those who would contribute when joining.
To remedy this, let’s reduce the 30-day requirement to a five-day requirement. This would give MDP staff enough time to verify someone’s residency, while reducing the odds of logistical nightmares that might result from people signing up for MDP membership the day of the Convention.
Advance Filing Deadlines for Candidates
A common complaint is that, in both state conventions and State Central meetings, we often don’t know who is running until it’s almost time to vote. How can voters do due diligence when they don’t have much time to research candidates?
To fix that, the MDP should establish filing deadlines for all candidates for State Convention-nominated offices, State Convention-elected offices, and State Central-elected offices be eight days before the convention or meeting begins. I propose that the filing deadline be 5:00 PM on the 8th day before the beginning of the respective meeting or convention.
I also propose that the names of candidates for Convention-nominated or -elected offices be posted on the MDP website for five days before the convention, and that the names of State Central Committee-elected offices be distributed to State Central delegates and alternates at least five days before the meeting.
Getting Support from Democrats from Across Michigan
If you’re running for a Convention-elected Party office or a statewide public office that’s nominated at Convention, then you’re running for an office in which you’ll be responsible for serving people all across the state. It’s a good idea, therefore, to require candidates to build relationships with, and attain support from, Democrats in various parts of the state.
To require candidates to seek support from a broad cross-section of the state, I propose that candidates for Convention-nominated or -elected be required to get at least 10 signatures from each of at least half of Michigan’s congressional districts. (This rule is modeled after a little-known part of the Michigan Election Law which requires candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate to get at least 100 signatures from at least half of the congressional districts in the state.)
This rule will also have another side benefit. Occasionally, the business of a convention will be slowed by the fact that someone who doesn’t have much support nonetheless wants to run for an office. For example, in 2014 a candidate for Wayne State Board of Governors got only 200 votes, with his opponents each getting nearly 3,000 — but the contest caused the convention to run several minutes longer than anticipated. If a candidate can’t get a relatively nominal amount of support from 7 of the 14 congressional districts (it’s pretty easy to get 10 MDP member signatures from a district), how are they going to get anywhere near a majority on the floor of the Convention?
Exceptions
There should be two exceptions to the filing requirements that I am proposing.
First, while candidates would have to meet these filing requirements in order to seek endorsement at an Endorsement Convention, those who do get endorsed in the spring could be exempt from having to re-circulate petitions ahead of the fall Nominating Convention. They would automatically have their name placed into nomination for the office for which they were endorsed. (There would, of course, be a ‘safety valve’ to allow the Party to nominate candidates other than the endorsees in the event that the endorsee dies, drops out, gets caught in a scandal, etc.)
Second, the gubernatorial candidate’s choice of a running mate would automatically have their name placed into nomination for Lieutenant Governor, without any petitioning requirements.
