On Thursday July 14th, the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. Club president Nadine Hoffman reported on several party matters, such as the election of judicial delegates and state committee members, and on the recent renovation of the VID clubhouse on Perry Street.
Tony Hoffman gave several reports on election petitioning, the Candles for Clemency drive, and plans to rent buses to travel to Pennsylvania to help in the presidential election in the fall.
There was a surprise visit by Assembly member Deborah Glick to thank the club for its support. Although Arthur Schwartz, who was challenging her in the September primary, recently dropped out of the race, she was still maintaining her plans to run in November and be prepared for any new developments, such as the possibility of new opponents running against her.
The main guest speaker was Doug Kellner, Co-Chair of the New York State Board of Elections. He explained that the poor performance by the New York City Board of Election in recent primaries was partially due to the structure of the board, which requires significant input from the Democratic and Republican Party chairmen in each county along with numerous district leaders. As possible improvements he advocated online voter registration and early voting, although not on-line voting which might be open to hacking and invalid election results.
For too long, the attitude
has been that for-profit consultants or companies, with their money-making incentive and drive, could do a job more efficiently and better than City drudges.
Alec Pruchnicki is a member of the executive board of the VID.
