Yesterday's calculations for the committeepeople vote may not be the numbers used when the 4^th Senate Legislative District meets to choose their nominee.

 

When I’ve done these calculations in the past (for example when there were rumors that Maida Coleman would find an appointment last year), I’ve assumed every committeeperson receives 1 vote and additional votes for every 1,000 votes cast for governor or faction thereof.  A ward where 999 votes were cast would receive 1 vote.  And one where 1,001 were cast would receive 2 votes.

 

But my attention was pointed to the Democratic by-laws which use a little word – “major” – with potentially big implications.  Here’s the verbiage: blah, blah, blah “shall be entitled to one vote for each one thousand votes or major fraction thereof cast for the Democratic Governor in the last gubernatorial election in the Ward or township within the Senatorial District.  Every member shall be entitled to at least one vote.”  (The language for House Districts is the same except it’s one vote for every hundred votes cast).

 

Now there's an interpretation of “major” to mean that if a ward had 499 votes they would not reach a “major” fraction of 1,000, but at 501 they would.  In short: you round up or round down.

 

Using this definition, the total number of votes is reduced from 144 to 132.  And - in what may make the matter contentious - the racial breakdown goes from a 72-72 split (according to yesterday's calculations) to 67-65, favoring the white committeepeople.  Although voting rarely breaks completely by race, it is the best predictor for how the votes will mostly split. 

Here is the vote count using this definition of major:

Ward      CommitteePerson  Votes                                                                                      132 total votes.  

1              Talib El-Amin         5

1              Sharon Tyus            5

 

4              Norma Leggette       5

4              James Clayborne     5

 

8              Cara Jensen             4

8              Jack Stelzer             4

 

10            Bill Hill                   5

10            Antoinette Poole      5

 

12            Jim Murphy            1

12            Janet Sullivan          1

 

14            Carol Howard         1

14            Harry Kennedy        1

 

15            Jan Clinite               4

15            Greg Christian         4

 

16            Thomas Hayes        4

16            Louise Tonkovich   4

 

17            Valerie Petty            1

17            Bob Hilgemann       1

 

18            Ellen Todd               5

18            Jesse Todd              5

 

19            Cecelia Grant           1

19            Mike McMillan       1

 

21            Anna Tyler              2

21            Arthur Washington 2

 

22            Nora Neal                5

22            Andre Williams       5

 

23            Francis Slay            5

23            Sharon Carpenter    5

 

24            John Corbett            5

24            Marie Waterhouse   5

 

26            Angela Newsom     5

26            Joe Palm                  5

 

27            Chris Carter             4

27            Pamela Boyd           4

 

28            Betul Ozmat            4

28            Joe Keaveny            4