Editor’s Note: The following open letter was put out this week by Kings County Democratic Party Chair and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte and the Kings County Democratic Party.
Dear County Committee Members,
Over the course of our live-streamed organizational meeting last night, we were made aware that the results of the vote on our proposed rule amendments were fundamentally flawed. We set out to have an honest, transparent and inclusive meeting, but what transpired did not meet that goal. While these were unforeseeable circumstances during an unprecedented time, we apologize to you, our county committee members, district leaders, organizers and Brooklyn Democrats.
During the meeting, we realized that data collected from a third-party vendor showed that the number of votes cast exceeded the universe of elected county committee members. As a proud Democratic organization, we wanted to make sure that no votes were suppressed. We released the results of our vote publicly and are working with all sides to find out what went wrong and solutions to how we can solve the problem going forward and in advance of resuming the meeting next week. Preliminarily, we know that the tabulation error is partly due to how meeting attendance was clocked. What happened last night however is not the example of democracy that we intended to set.
This is our first time holding an organizational meeting of this scale virtually, and we are committed to doing it right as we move forward. The meeting will resume on December 23rd, and we will ensure that our results are accurate. We are working with organizers throughout our wonderfully diverse borough, including the New Kings Democrats, to assess what went wrong and find a practical solution before the meeting continues. When it does, we will make sure our chat function is open; we will agree on a parliamentarian; and we will use a neutral third party to tabulate the votes.
We thank you for your continued patience during this recess.
