Election (Local)
Dear Electors:
I have a few observations on yesterday’s election. First and most
importantly, with the defeat of Carol Schwartz the District of Columbia
has probably elected the last Republican to a partisan elected office
for many years. Just as Hilda Mason was the last officeholder from the
Statehood Party, and her retirement ended that party’s chance of
electing a councilmember, Carol’s defeat means that Republicans will
face being shut out of the council for decades into the future. Our city
is in for a long spell of not just one-party rule, but of unchallenged,
completely uniform one-party rule.
Second, Dorothy spent most of yesterday traveling from polling place
to polling place. From her observations, from press reports, and from
your Citizen Precinct Survey forms, it seems that the voting process
went well, with few major problems at the polls, despite some long lines
in the early morning. (Please continue to send in your precinct surveys,
however, especially if you did experience any unreported problems; it’s
at http://www.dcwatch.com/election/survey.htm.)
However, that smooth voting process ended yesterday night at the offices
of the Board of Elections and Ethics, where releasing vote tallies took
an unreasonably long time. The first count, of only twenty precincts out
of 143, wasn’t released until after 10:30 p.m., and the Board didn’t
release the final count of the total vote until 1:30 a.m. today. Below,
Dorothy writes about some other aspects of the Board’s operations last
night.
Is that vote count accurate? Questions are already being raised about
one result, Dorothy Douglas’ victory in the Board of Education race in
Ward 7. The City Desk blog asked today whether it was the biggest
surprise of the night, and the answer is probably yes. Douglas didn’t
campaign actively, but she got more votes than her two opponents
(Cameron Poles and Ralph Chittams) together, and she is listed as having
won every precinct in the ward. Likely?
There have been additional reports of misprinted ballots with races
missing, or with the wrong races listed. Below, the Republican party
complains of the failure of the Board to mail absentee ballots in a
timely fashion, so that they could be returned in time for the election,
and of absentee ballots that were missing local elections races. The
ballot printing and proofreading process seems to be another area that
has to be examined closely. In addition, I’ve received a report of a
voter’s having been given a ballot that was premarked, with the arrow
for Obama having been filled in; that’s not systematic error, but it’s
serious. Has anyone else been given a ballot that was partially filled
in or was tampered with?
On another of my favorite subjects, Comcast has added a ringer in its
latest notice of reduced services at a higher cost. Over a year ago,
Comcast pushed hard to persuade its customers to set up automatic bill
payments through their banks, something that is very convenient for the
company. Now Comcast is going to charge its customers who have automatic
payments set up two extra dollars a month as a “convenience fee.” If
you want to save twenty-four dollars a year, log into your account at
comcast.com and withdraw from the automatic payment plan.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Observations on Observing
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
As I wrote earlier in themail, the DC Board of Elections and Ethics
agreed to allow citizen observers of the vote counting process last
night. Earlier today, I sent an E-mail apology to the volunteer
observers: “I feel that I must personally apologize to you for the
difficulties that we encountered at the BOEE. On October 22, at a public
meeting of the Board, I secured the BOEE’s approval for the first time
to allow representatives of nonpartisan civic and citizen associations
to serve as citizen observers of the vote counting process. On October
29, in a meeting with the Board’s chairman, Errol Arthur, and public
information officer, Dan Murphy, I confirmed this agreement and provided
them with a preliminary list of organizations that I intended to invite
to send observers. I reconfirmed this agreement in a series of E-mails
to Dan Murphy and Kenneth McGhie, the Board’s general counsel, on
October 30, 31, and November 3, and I provided them with the final list
of organizations that had agreed and their representatives. I was told
that the process would be as I described to you in my E-mail yesterday
morning. As I wrote, we were expected to arrive in the lobby of One
Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, NW, at 8:00 p.m. At that time, ‘Kenneth
McGhie, the general counsel to the Board, or a member of his staff, will
be issuing observer credentials for our project in the lobby of the
building. Your name is on this list, which should have been provided to
the security guards in the building. You will need these observer
credentials to get access to the second floor. If you encounter any
problems gaining admission to the building, please ask a Board official
in the lobby to find Mr. McGhie. . . .’
“It is against that backdrop that I was completely shocked when the
Board’s chairman and general counsel tried to renege on their promises
and their commitment to allow independent citizen observers at the BOEE’s
offices as votes were being tabulated. Moreover, I was completely taken
aback by how badly we were treated and by the heavy handed police
presence. Although we were supposed to be admitted to the counting room
at 8:00 p.m., Mr. McGhie did not make himself available in the lobby
until 9:30 p.m. Then he insisted that he had to “interview” each
member of our group to determine whether he would admit us. And then he
insisted that there was limited room for observers, that they would
provide only sixteen chairs in total, that most of those chairs were
being occupied by members of the League of Women Voters, and that we
would have to be admitted in groups of four and rotated in and out of
the counting room. As you saw when we entered the room, no
representatives of the League of Women Voters were in fact present, and
there was no reason why all eight of us could not have been admitted
immediately, and at the 8:00 p.m. time that had been agreed upon.
Unfortunately, once we were all admitted to the counting room, we
continued to be treated with indifference at best and with open
hostility at worst. I regret that this happened, and I would have warned
you about it had I had any reason to believe it would happen. (We can,
however, take some comfort in the fact that the Board treated all its
visitors in the same manner last night. At 10:30 p.m., when the Board
had still not released the voting results even from the first twenty
precincts, Councilmember Cheh wanted to speak with the BOEE’s
chairman, general counsel, or executive director to get an explanation
of the long delay. She did not know where they were, so I led her to the
Board’s conference room, next to the executive director’s office,
where they usually meet on occasions like election days. She was
challenged and blocked from going to the conference room or from
speaking with any of the Board officials, until she insisted that she
was not there as an individual councilmember but as a representative of
the entire council. Then, and only then, did a BOEE staffer agree to see
whether Mr. Arthur would consent to meet with her to offer an excuse for
the delay. [He did, by the way.])
“As you may know, the BOEE has been severely criticized this year
because of problems that arose during the February presidential primary
and the September local primary. The DC city council has established a
special committee, chaired by Councilmember Mary Cheh, to investigate
the BOEE, and the Office of the DC Attorney General is also conducting
an investigation into the operations of the BOEE. By encouraging
citizens to fill out a survey regarding their experiences at the polls
on election day, and by having citizen organizations observe the Board’s
tabulation of election returns, I had hoped that citizens would get a
useful insight into the workings of the Board and that the current Board
could demonstrate an openness to citizens and a transparency that had
marked its operations in previous decades. Unfortunately, that did not
happen. Although by all reports most precincts operated smoothly, even
though there were long lines at the beginning of the day, the counting
procedure at the Board’s office was unnecessarily slow and
inefficient, and we still have no explanation of why that was so.”
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DC Board of Education
Robert Bobb, President, DC State Board of Education, sent
by Sean Greene, sean.green2@dc.gov
We became the DC State Board of Education in June 2007 under the same
law that gave Mayor Fenty control of DC Public Schools. We are no longer
the “school board.” We have policy authority and responsibilities
similar to those of education boards in every other state. Ours is the
“big picture” view that applies to all learners — from toddler to
adult — in traditional, public charter and post-secondary schools. For
example, the State Board determines: what should every third grader know
and be able to do in math or social studies? How many years of foreign
language must high school students take to graduate? How can we weed out
weak teachers by making “effectiveness” part of licensing
requirements?
Moreover, the State Board provides one of the few public forums where
District residents can share their views at hearings and meetings with a
responsive elected body that is focused solely on education. Parents,
teachers, students, and other community members helped shape our
first-ever learning standards for health and physical education
standards, which are critical in our city’s battle against childhood
obesity and teen AIDS. Public input also helped us craft more sensible
rules on home schooling and teacher quality standards, as well as
world-class standards for arts education so our students will receive a
balanced education. Most recently, the State Board unanimously approved
new learning standards for world languages, which will help our students
compete in the global marketplace.
So let’s not be too quick to write off the significance of the DC
State Board of Education. No, we can’t fix your school’s roof or
reinstate a teacher. But our work does have direct, positive impact on
classrooms and students. We all have a stake in the education of our
children, and on election day, voters in each of the District’s eight
wards will had the opportunity to choose the representatives who will
best further our common goal of building a world-class public education
system in the nation’s capital.
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Different Responsibilities of DCPS and OSSE
Ashaki Goodall, ashakigoodall@aol.com
Thank you, Ms. Butler-Truesdale, for your curiosity when you wrote:
“While I would be interested in knowing more about the possible
contractual relationships which could equate to a conflict of interest,
I am more curious about the reality and clarity between the operations
and responsibility of the state education agency and the local education
agency. To avoid future accountability lapses we need more public
information about the operational relationship and comparative objective
functions of the two agencies before the relationship crashes and they
begin to play the blame game” [themail, November 2].
I am in total agreement that there needs to be more public
information that clarifies the relationship between the SEA (now known
as the Office of the State Superintendent of Education) and the DCPS
LEA. While there was a definite need to separate the two entities, and
the DC Education Reform Act did just this, I think that it is imperative
that city council and the general public ask more questions about the
ways in which these two agencies interact and the role of the Deputy
Mayor for Education. And these questions should begin to be asked as
soon as possible, for Ms. Butler-Truesdale’s E-mail is certainly
foreshadowing unfortunate circumstances to come..
While I am personally aware of many, many instances where the
relationship needs to be clarified, just last week I began to see public
instances in which it appears that the “blame game” has already
begun. Last Thursday, October 30, when the Chancellor was before the
city council to address questions regarding the budget, she clearly
avoided answering some questions, deferring responsibility for clear
answer to the OSSE. Councilmembers were steered towards the OSSE when
they asked about 1) tracking student academic achievement (the
Chancellor’s answer implied that the OSSE’s data warehouse
eliminated the DCPS LEA’s need to track); 2) teacher certification
issues (the Chancellor’s answer was in response to questions about
DCPS LEA teacher student classroom ratios); and 3) special education
budget pressures (the Chancellor responded that because the OSSE is now
in charge of transportation and nonpublic placement, this will no longer
be an issue for DCPS LEA).
We all know that education reform is top priority for all of us.
However, can true education reform really be achieved in the District if
everyone, including the key players, is not sure who is accountable for
what?
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DC Vote Victory Looks Promising
Jaline Quinto, jquinto@dcvote.org
DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka released the following
statement: ““With a historic election just hours behind us,
supporters of DC voting rights are optimistic about a victory in 2009.
DC Vote is greatly encouraged by the results of the presidential
election and the election of new senators in several states. We have
gained two crucial allies in the White House: President-elect Barack
Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are on the record as strong
supporters of DC voting rights. Additionally, a number of potential
supporters of DC voting rights defeated senators who opposed the DC
Voting Rights Act (S. 1257).”
“For the first time in a generation, we may have enough votes to
secure passage and enactment of DC voting rights legislation. However,
we have a lot of work to do to educate new members of the 111th Congress
and to ensure that this critical issue gets priority consideration. To
begin, we are organizing a Veterans Day rally on November 11. DC
residents have fought and died for our country in every war while being
denied voting representation in Congress. Together with DC’s veterans,
we will send a clear message to the new administration and the new
Congress that it is time to bring democracy home to America’s capital.”
“While the new Congress is most likely to pass the existing DC
Voting Rights Act, we will also explore the possibility of additional
steps that Congress could take to provide even greater democracy to DC
residents. We are meeting with our board, coalition partners and members
of Congress to discuss the implications of the election and our strategy
for 2009. We look forward to a big turnout at our Veterans Day rally on
November 11 and to working with our allies in the new Congress to pass a
DC voting rights bill.”
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Several District Republicans Did Not Receive
Absentee Ballots
Paul Craney, press@dcgop.com
There were repeated reports that District Republicans did not receive
their absentee ballots. The latest example of this comes as the son of
Republican US Senate candidate Nelson Rimensnyder, who is a West Point
graduate and on his second tour in Iraq, received his absentee ballot
over the weekend and his ballot did not include the local candidates.
This means that Captain James Rimensnyder will not have the opportunity
to vote for his father, Nelson Rimensnyder, for US Senate.
We are finding a consistent pattern that DC Republicans are not
getting their absentee ballots that they requested. Captain James
Rimensnyder, who is serving his second tour in Iraq, was be able to vote
for his father. This is not an isolated incident, but rather a larger
problem that I fear will taint tomorrow’s [November 4th’s] results.
The DC Republican Committee has a list of DC Republicans who did not
receive their absentee ballots after numerous attempts to obtain a
ballot.
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Metro Searches Are a Big Deal
Will Grant, wsgrant@his.com
I beg to differ with Carolyn Long’s assertion that the new random
Metro searches aren’t a “big deal” (“Bag Search on Metro,”
themail, November 2). She compares them to searches made in going into
museums, libraries, state and federal buildings, and airports, but the
comparisons are not valid ones. In all of those cases every
entrant/passenger gets searched. There is no way to enter those places
without getting your bag and/or your person checked for contraband.
Metro, on the other hand, will only be searching selected, random
passengers, who have to right to refuse the search and leave the
station. If all passengers on Metro aren’t searched, and those who are
selected can leave at will, this is nothing more than security theater.
It will do nothing to increase actual security past catching those few
fools who consent to the searches and are found with some bit of
contraband. She was correct in asserting that it won’t “deter any
smart would-be terrorists” — any terrorists worth their salt would
simply leave the station and go to another one, especially in the
downtown area where stations are frequently separated by only a few city
blocks. So if everyone knows the program won’t meet its stated goal of
deterring terrorism, why are we putting up with it? This is an
ineffective waste of taxpayer dollars which will do nothing to increase
the actual security of the Metro, and is another encroachment by a
governmental agency on our fourth amendment rights (and while Metro has
and will continue to cite the Second Circuit’s decision regarding New
York City’s subway’s random search program, last I checked DC was
not within the Second Circuit).
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YouTube Video of Book Talk at Google’s DC
Office
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
I happened to spot this interesting book talk video on YouTube and
thought it might be of interest to some folks here in themail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyMln5GVyag,
I’ve been down to Google’s new DC office, which is near where the
old Greyhound station used to be. It’s a nice office, although the
atrium (where they have such events) looks like it could accommodate no
more than one hundred people — roughly 8,241,812 smaller than the
population of the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area. (http://tinyurl.com/5gd7tt).
Incidentally, I don’t see any info on YouTube on how to stay posted
on future tech talks at Google’s DC office. If anyone happens to spot
info about that, thanks for sharing that info here. And if you happen to
work for Google and subscribe to this civic discussion forum, do please
raise your virtual hand. We welcome you to this online community, born
about the same time as Google was born, ten years ago.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC State Board of Education Hearing on Early
Learning Standards, November 12
Sean Greene, sean.greene2@dc.gov
The District of Columbia State Board of Education (DCSBOE) is
postponing the public hearing scheduled on Wednesday, November 5, to
Wednesday, November 12. The DCSBOE will receive input from the public on
the proposed Early Learning Standards. The meeting will begin at 6:00
p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, at 441 4th Street, NW, in the District
of Columbia State Board of Education Chambers, located on the lobby
level of the building. The meeting will air live on DSTV Comcast Channel
99 and RCN Channel 18.
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Department of Parks and Recreation Events,
November 12-13
John Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
Saturday, November 12, 1:00-4:00 p.m., Lamond Recreation Center, 20
Tuckerman Street, NE. In collaboration with the Washington Performing
Arts Society, Recording Artist Changamire returns to Lamond for her
second free jazz concert. For more information call, Tiffany Johnson at
576-9541.
Wednesday, November 12, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m., THEARC, 701 Mississippi
Avenue, SE. Music Ali T Live Performance: DPR’s Sassy Seniors will
observe a performance that will consist of a musical tea arty and dance.
Light refreshments will be served. Ages 50 and over. For more
information, call Henry Moton, Site Manager, 645-4550.
Thursday, November 13, 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m., Bald Eagle Recreation
Center, 100 Joliet Street, SW. “Great” 8 Senior Luncheon: seniors
will enjoy a fun afternoon of socializing while enjoying a specially
prepared lunch. Ages 55 and up. For more information, call Margie
Robinson at 645-3960.
Thursday, November 13, 12:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m., Trinidad Recreation
Center, 1310 Childress Street, NE. Seniors Thanksgiving brunch: 12:00
p.m.-2:30 p.m. Seniors gathering together to give thanks with friends
and have a fun time. Ages 50 and up. For more information, call Anthony
Higginbotham, Site Manager, at 727-1293.
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Historical Society of Washington, DC, November
13-14
Ed Bruske, euclidarms@yahoo.com
Thursday, November 13 through Saturday, November 15, Historical
Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street, NW, at Mt. Vernon Square.
Washington Studies Conference. The thirty-fifth Annual Conference on
Washington, DC, Historical Studies is a gathering of everyone, from
scholars and students to collectors and history buffs, who shares an
abiding fascination with the local history of Washington, DC. This year’s
conference kicks off on Thursday, November 13, when Dr. Peniel Joseph of
Stony Brook University presents the Annual Letitia Woods Brown Memorial
Lecture. Dr. Joseph will present a talk based on his research into
Stokely Carmichael and the context for the 1968 civil disturbances
following the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Joseph is author of Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative
History of Black Power in America.
On Friday, November 14, and Saturday November 15, the conference
continues with wide-ranging concurrent sessions examining, among other
topics, the recent history of The Washington Post; the influence
of Freemasonry; faith-based social services; Bowie and Rockville as
suburban innovations; 19th-century prostitution; the controversy over
the Albert Einstein statute; and the 1961 attack on anti gay federal
policy and subsequent development of gay activism. Two films looking
back at the disturbances of 1968 will be offered, as will original
walking tours. Sponsored by the Historical Society of Washington, DC,
and the DC Public Library, the conference is open to the public.
Admission is $10, $5 for students and seniors. All sessions will take
place at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street, NW, in
the old Carnegie Library building. For more information call 383-1850 or
see http://www.historydc.org.
The DC Fiscal Policy Institute will release “Bridging the Gaps in
DC: Strategies to Support Low-Income Working Families,” on November 14
at 9:00 a.m. at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW, Room 120. Did you know that one in three working families in DC has
trouble making ends meet, and that many of these families don’t get
support from public benefit programs such as child care or housing, due
to restricting eligibility rules or limited funding? With rising food
and energy costs and a slowing economy, it’s important to help working
families bridge the gap between low wages and resources they need to
make ends meet.
You are invited to a discussion of a new report by the DC Fiscal
Policy Institute with Councilmember Tommy Wells and speakers from the DC
Fiscal Policy Institute, the Center for Economic and Policy Research,
Capital Area Asset Builders, and DC Hunger Solutions. Please RSVP to
Katie Kerstetter, kerstter@dcfpi.org
or 408-1080.
The Washington, DC, Economic Partnership is a proud sponsor of the
Second Annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Economic
Development Summit, being held in the District of Columbia on November
15, from 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at the Washington Plaza Hotel (10 Thomas
Circle, NW). The goal of the summit will be to ensure that GLBT business
leaders and entrepreneurs continue to play an important role in leading
the economic and creative development of the city. The summit will kick
off with a keynote address by Dr. Alice Rivlin of the Brookings
Institute on the future of economic development in Washington, DC. Dr.
Rivlin is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at Brookings
and a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown
University. She directs Brookings Greater Washington Research. Before
returning to Brookings, Ms. Rivlin served as vice chair of the Federal
Reserve Board (1996-99). She was director of the White House Office of
Management and Budget in the first Clinton Administration. She also
chaired the District of Columbia Financial Management Assistance
Authority.
Additionally, workshop and panel sessions at the summit will include
information on doing business with the city, registering your business
as a Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) for inclusion on the supply
schedule; mastering media relations; choosing a location for your
business; online marketing; managing the business of life; networking
for new businesses, and more. The conference is planned by the
Washington, DC, Economic Partnership, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for
Planning and Economic Development, the Mayor’ Office of Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) Affairs, the Department of Small and
Local Business Development and PEN-DC, Metro DC’s LGBT Chamber of
Commerce. To register, please call 727-9493 or visit http://www.glbt.dc.gov.
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