Leach Questions The Process That Enabled Cappelletti Endorsement, But Delco Dems Insist They Followed The Rules.
Phillymag reported today that State Senator Daylin Leach told them that “They [The Delaware County Democratic Committee] changed the rules to get the endorsement,” but we are going to fight that.”
Here’s what actually happened at the Delaware County Democratic Committee (DCDC) Convention on Sunday at the Springfield Township Building, when committee members met to endorse a candidate for the 17th District State Senate Election.
128 Committee People from Haverford and Radnor voted. In addition to their first choice, they were given the option of recording their second, third and fourth choices for which candidate they wanted to endorse.
These are the first choice votes of the committee members:
Amanda Cappelletti 54
Daylin Leach 47
Linda Fields 17
Parthenia Izzard 1
The second choice of the one person who voted for Izzard, was Fields.
So Izzard as the lowest vote-getter was dropped, and her vote was redistributed. Now the vote stood at:
Amanda Cappelletti 54
Daylin Leach 47
Linda Fields 18
Among committee people who chose Fields as their first choice, 14 went with Cappelletti as their second choice. One Fields voter picked Leach. One Fields voter had Cappelletti as a third choice. And one of Fields voter only voted for Fields, and nobody else.
Now Fields was the lowest vote-getter, so she was dropped, her votes were redistributed, and the vote now stood at:
Amanda Cappelletti 69
Daylin Leach 48
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Three of Leach’s First Choice Voters listed Cappelletti as their second choice, and those three votes were added to Cappelletti, giving her a total of 72 votes. There were a total of 128 votes.
72/128 = 56.25%
Minimum needed to endorse = 55% Cappelletti is endorsed!
Phillymag spoke to DCDC Chair, Colleen Guiney. She cited an email that was sent to committee members on January 7. That email said, “Tabulations will be sequentially performed by computer — eliminating the candidate with the least votes each round and reallocating those votes according to the voter’s ranked preference until two candidates remain. Then, as long as the winning candidate is also listed on at least 55 percent of ballots cast, they will receive the endorsement.”
What was the intent of the three committee people who picked Leach as their first choice, but swung the endorsement to Cappelletti by designating her as their second choice?
Were they saying that Leach was their first choice, but they could be happy with Cappelletti getting the endorsement? Or were they saying that were as confused as the voters in Palm Beach County who in 2000 thought they were voting for Al Gore, when in fact they voted for Pat Buchanan?
We’ll never know, and It doesn’t matter. As committee people, it’s their job to understand the process. They’re the ones who are supposed to explain the process to the voters. So if they got confused, they weren’t doing their job.
What happened on Sunday at the DCDC Endorsement meeting – is that Cappelletti won the endorsement fair and square – on what appears to be a technicality.
The whole process has absolute unethical implications towards the Delco Democratic Committee……brings us all to question the integrity of the Committee and the Chair…