Have you voted yet? DSA-LA is electing delegates for National Convention!
This is already shaping up to be the most competitive election in our chapter’s history. After weeks of promotion broadcast to all members, 2 public informational events, and a lot of member-to-member organizing, we ended up with nearly 150 candidates applying to run for delegate to the National Convention. That’s far more people than have ever ran in a DSA-LA election and more than double the number of delegate candidates that ran in 2019.
48 hours in, it appears we may be on track to have more votes cast than in any previous election. Our members are speaking up about who they want to represent us at the convention, make sure your voice gets heard! (Scroll down to learn more about why this election matters.)
Because of the amount of interest and attention, we want to share this post as a clear resource for all Members in Good Standing who may have missed their ballot or other email communications. Read on to learn about how to participate in this election, and remember, the deadline to vote is May 20th! (This is one day later than originally announced because ballots were released later than expected.)
How to vote
Check your inbox for an email from OpaVote – That’s your ballot to participate as we elect 77 delegates and 15 alternates to represent our chapter at the national convention this summer!
Every DSA member should participate in this important election! The national convention is the highest decision-making body in the organization. You can vote for as many members as you would like to see considered.
Go vote by the deadline – next Thursday, May 20 at 11:59pm!
Join the Discussion Board + Read Candidate Statements:
Have you joined our new discussion board yet? There’s a lot of conversations beginning to develop there. It’s going to be our new home base for member-to-member announcements and communication.
The primary way to submit and read candidate statements for our Delegate Elections is via this thread on our Discussion Board. If you haven’t logged in yet, here’s how you can access it:
- Click this link, you’ll be prompted to log in.
- Click “Don’t Remember Your Password?”
- Type in your email. You’ll get sent a link to create a new password, and you can use that to log in.
If that doesn’t work, please contact [email protected]!
Please note — the Discussion Board is only accessible to Members in Good Standing. If you are unsure of your membership status, click here.
There’s also an alternate way to access candidate statements if you are still struggling to get on the board and want to cast your ballot. If you are a member in good standing and prefer that option, please email [email protected] to request the “statements document”. Our amazing election volunteers have gone above and beyond to create a doc containing all submitted statements.
Why does this election matter?
The DSA National Convention only occurs once every two years. Members who participate as delegates comprise the highest decision-making body in the organization.
“Democratic” isn’t just a nice sounding word in our organization’s name, it is a description of one of our most fundamental values. Every single position that the organization takes and every area of work that we throw ourselves into is informed by the decisions made at the convention. And that means that members electing delegates have a crucial say in who gets to be in that room.
There’s a lot of people running this year! And a lot of slots to fill. But if you don’t feel like you know enough people, don’t worry! You don’t need to rank every candidate — just the ones you want to. And if you’re interested in learning more about the individuals running (and the slates they’ve organized), you can follow the instructions above to get onto the Board and read statements.
Thank you for participating in this democratic process, and please email [email protected] if you have any questions that aren’t answered here!