Bylaws Recommendation from the Rules & Bylaws Committee

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Annabelle Backman

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Feb 15, 2019, 10:26:08 AM2/15/19
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Hello PCOs of the 43rd Legislative District!

The Rules & Bylaws Committee has completed our work, and I am here to present you with the bylaws amendment proposal that the Committee recommends for adoption at the February General Meeting of the 43rd District Democrats.

The proposal is presented as a revised Bylaws document, and is available in both plain and annotated formats. We have also produced an Explanation of Changes and FAQ.
You may find additional information on the 43rd District Democrats' Bylaws & Rules page. Over the next few days we will be kicking off discussion threads on the unofficial 43rd District Democrats Forum Facebook group, and will be holding a webinar session to walk through the major changes and answer questions (date and time TBD).

Please review the proposal in preparation for the vote on Tuesday, and don't hesitate to contact byl...@43rddemocrats.org with any questions, comments, or feedback that you may have.

Thank you, we hope to see you on Tuesday!

–
Annabelle Backman
Vice Chair for Technology | Washington State 43rd District Democrats

Annabelle Backman

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Feb 15, 2019, 11:17:46 AM2/15/19
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Annabelle Backman
Chair, Rules and Bylaws Committee | Washington State 43rd District Democrats

Annabelle Backman

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Feb 15, 2019, 11:35:40 AM2/15/19
to Scott Forbes, 43rd District Democrats Executive Board, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Is this in reference to the change to remove the "registered voter" requirement?

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Annabelle Backman
Vice Chair for Technology | Washington State 43rd District Democrats



On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 8:16 AM Scott Forbes <sc...@scottforbes.net> wrote:
Hi all,

One quick note on the proposed bylaws changes—it looks like there’s a lot of good work in here, but I wanted to make sure the Rules & Bylaws Committee was aware that it’s a federal crime for a “foreign national” (i.e., someone who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident) to donate to “a committee of a political party,” which I think the 43rd District Democrats still qualifies as. It would also be a crime for the 43rd to solicit or accept such a donation. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/30121) I am not your lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc.

Thanks,
— Scott

On Feb 15, 2019, at 7:30 AM, Annabelle Backman <abackm...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello PCOs of the 43rd Legislative District!

The Rules & Bylaws Committee has completed our work, and I am here to present you with the bylaws amendment proposal that the Committee recommends for adoption at the February General Meeting of the 43rd District Democrats.

The proposal is presented as a revised Bylaws document, and is available in both plain and annotated formats. We have also produced an Explanation of Changes and FAQ.
You may find additional information on the 43rd District Democrats' Bylaws & Rules page. Over the next few days we will be kicking off discussion threads on the unofficial 43rd District Democrats Forum Facebook group, and will be holding a webinar session to walk through the major changes and answer questions (date and time TBD).

Please review the proposal in preparation for the vote on Tuesday, and don't hesitate to contact byl...@43rddemocrats.org with any questions, comments, or feedback that you may have.

Thank you, and I'll see you on Tuesday!

–
Annabelle Backman
Vice Chair for Technology | Washington State 43rd District Democrats

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Bradley Bell

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Feb 15, 2019, 12:51:18 PM2/15/19
to Scott Forbes, Annabelle Backman, 43rd District Democrats Executive Board, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Thanks Scott, any idea how or why the democracy voucher program doesn’t run afoul of this?

-Brad

On Feb 15, 2019, at 9:07 AM, Scott Forbes <sc...@scottforbes.net> wrote:

Yes, and it’s mainly in reference to the statement in the FAQ that the change to Section 2.1 “would have the effect of allowing those who are not eligible to vote, because of lack of citizenship or other prohibitions, to join the 43rd Democrats.” Removing the “registered voter” requirement from our bylaws wouldn’t be a violation of federal law per se, but it’d still be illegal for the 43rd to solicit or accept membership dues (or anything else of material value) from foreign nationals, or to give foreign nationals any power at all over 43rd expenditures. Removing the “registered voter” provision from the bylaws might make it easier for the 43rd to accidentally violate these laws.

I spent several years in Democrats Abroad while living overseas, which sensitized me to the many exciting ways that foreign nationals and local Democratic Party branches can run afoul of U.S. federal election laws—we were surrounded by Aussies who were just as eager as we were to throw Dubya out of office, but we couldn’t even charge them admission to listen to Howard Dean speak. 

—S

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Angyl

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Feb 15, 2019, 6:58:44 PM2/15/19
to Bradley Bell, Scott Forbes, Annabelle Backman, 43rd District Democrats Executive Board, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
32nd has a special category of nonvoting Member for nontegistered voters with bounds to avoid running afoul of federal law. Might this fit your intent, or could it roll into the current 43rd nonvoting Member?

“Section 3.3 Associate Members 

Associate Members are persons who pay dues but are not eligible for General Membership. Upon payment of dues, they shall be given the privilege of participating in debate, serving on committees, and receiving the District Newsletter. They shall not have the right to run for District Office, serve on the Executive Board, make or second motions, nor to vote.”



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Tara Gallagher

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Feb 15, 2019, 7:36:27 PM2/15/19
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First, is there somewhere in our bylaws we could use the phrase “The privilege of…serving on committees”?


Seriously--I come back to the question I had months ago when this first came up: Do we have any indication that there are many, or any, non-citizens clamoring to be voting members of the 43rd?

I’m really comfortable with limiting membership to those registered or pre-registered* to vote.
*allows for 16-17-year-olds 

Tara


Angyl

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Feb 15, 2019, 8:12:30 PM2/15/19
to Scott Forbes, Bradley Bell, Annabelle Backman, 43rd District Democrats Executive Board, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Ahhhh, I see, it’s a deeper problem than just voting on things that LD money could go towards, it’s taking the money at all. Thanks!

I think I agree with you that this could be super fraught .

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On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 5:08 PM, Scott Forbes <sc...@scottforbes.net> wrote:
I’m still not your lawyer, etc., but we'd still be running afoul of campaign finance law if we accepted “associate member” dues (or anything else of monetary value) from someone who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

It might be worth stepping back to ask what problem we’re trying to solve with the proposed bylaws change. I raised a flag because the committee's stated reason for making the change included “so that non-citizens can join the 43rd,” which, um, they still can’t (unless they’re green card holders), and I think that taking this rule out of the bylaws might put us at greater risk that some future Treasurer won’t be familiar with 52 U.S.C. § 30121, will inadvertently break that law, and some future Glen Morgan will have a field day with it. So I wanted to make sure the committee knew.

Amy Madden

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Feb 16, 2019, 7:10:04 AM2/16/19
to Angyl, Scott Forbes, Bradley Bell, Annabelle Backman, 43rd District Democrats Executive Board, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Scott, thanks so much for flagging this. Could foreign nationals join our organization if they do not pay any dues? I guess if they also weren't able to vote on anything related to how we spend our money, that could get dicey.

It's my understanding that the 46th LD Dems' bylaws states: "any other resident of the 46th Legislative District who declares himself or herself to be a Democrat may become a voting member upon receipt of a membership application," which is one reason I felt okay about proceeding with this bylaws change. It sounds like this is an issue we may want to flag for the "LD in A Box" committee, so they can ensure all KCD LDs aren't inadvertently allowing foreign nationals to sign up as dues-paying members.

For the final draft of this rule, I think it might be helpful to link or point to the law, to explain why our undocumented or foreign national neighbors aren't eligible to vote as members of our org. I think part of the intent of this bylaws change was to be more inclusive than the greater elections system. And to allow for those who may not get to vote in elections to at least have a voice in party policies and endorsements. We should make it clear in this bylaws that both U.S. citizens and permanent residents are allowed to vote.

Scott's reference:
U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. https://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/i-am-a-seattle-resident/apply-now

--Amy

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/43rd-bylaws/P-6CDYPMNvInsWwpVFuwTamPwiFZYcRJh-IVAax9QZnBNvFoDlTmOToG2z7RMmCkaL_XWgJibe7-ROeJ7Ppx9YI0Xc-hB48oN6iUBRhsYEg%3D%40protonmail.com.

Tara Gallagher

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Feb 16, 2019, 11:20:10 AM2/16/19
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I would like to go back to the language from four years ago: "Registered voter or within two years of registering to vote,” which picked up both 16-17 year old citizenss and people who had applied for naturalization (if you take an optimistic view of processing time)

Tara


On Feb 16, 2019, at 6:06 AM, Scott Forbes <sc...@scottforbes.net> wrote:

As an aside, the reason why lawyers preface everything with “I am not your lawyer” and “this is not legal advice” is to prevent forming an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship places all sorts of obligations on the attorney, including an obligation to give good advice backed by research, which means poring over relevant court cases to see how judges have ruled on these issues rather than just skimming the text of the law. With that in mind, again, (a) I’m not your lawyer and this is not legal advice, and (b) I am not an election lawyer, so asking me for advice on these topics is the legal equivalent of asking an eye doctor about your foot.

That said: My understanding is that we can't allow foreign nationals to become members of the 43rd, even in a non-voting capacity. The most a foreign national can do for us is to phone-bank, doorbell, or perform other activities that have no monetary value (i.e., activities that people do for us without any expectation of pay).

Also, I don’t really think there’s an issue with the proposed bylaws change itself—the issue is more with the committee’s stated reason for the bylaws change. If the stated reason was/is “we’d like to open up membership in the 43rd to U.S. permanent residents and to citizens who aren’t registered voters,” then I think that's fine. (I’m a little skeptical as to whether there are any non-hypothetical people who fit that description and are clamoring to become voting members, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.)

—S


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Scott Alspach

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Feb 16, 2019, 5:14:16 PM2/16/19
to Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Catching up on my emails, glad that this issue was caught before the vote. As Amy mentioned the inspiration for this change was the 46th's bylaws.

If lawful permanent residents are allowed under the law to join then I hope our bylaws going forward can allow that.  I know there are many permanent residents who live and work in the 43rd, and while we haven't done a great job of welcoming them previously I hope that our bylaws could allow them to join in the future.  I will also note that tying membership in our organization to the ability to register to vote seems dangerous in an era when the right to vote is consistently under attack.

That being said, I realize we have limited time to set this straight.  Can we modify the FAQ or annotation now?  If we need to amend the proposal on Tuesday we should get that ready to go, could we just add "is a United States citizen or permanent resident" as a requirement to become either type of member?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/43rd-bylaws/2A9E2C84-47A5-483E-8847-818DFD16A2FA%40tara-jamie.net.

Annabelle Backman

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Feb 16, 2019, 6:08:22 PM2/16/19
to Scott Alspach, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee, Tara Gallagher
I updated the FAQ and Explanation of Changes this morning. Will provide some alternate text this afternoon. We could revert to the previous text as Tara suggests, but I agree with Scott regarding voter rights and accessibility. Washington State may be in a good place there, but that could change, or be overruled.


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Tara Gallagher

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Feb 16, 2019, 6:19:13 PM2/16/19
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It seems more in keeping with our mission to get people are experiencing difficulty to be registered to vote;  not just worry about tucking them into our warm folds so they can vote on resolutions.

Specifying voting membership for “lawful permanent residents” seems more boldly exclusive of the undocumented than does specifying registered or near-registered voters--which is also more in keeping with our status as an arm of a political party.

Scott Alspach

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Feb 16, 2019, 6:51:33 PM2/16/19
to Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
One specific group that can't register to vote in Washington is felons.  They must complete their entire sentence, including any parole or probation, before being able to register.  While I don't have any particular intention to run a felon recruitment campaign, I do think it is important that the 43rd live our values in this respect.  Our platform calls for full voting rights, even for the incarcerated, and I believe we should provide for that in our own bylaws as well.

  "2. Vigorous enforcement of the right to vote for all citizens, including those who are or have been incarcerated " 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/43rd-bylaws/7A25EA96-3979-4360-BECC-64A2B2A75672%40tara-jamie.net.

Angyl

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Feb 16, 2019, 7:03:21 PM2/16/19
to Scott Alspach, Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Seeing how common it is for LDs to take inspiration from each others Bylaws and also that Glen Morgan exists, I'm leaning the Scott/Tara direction of failing in the direction that stays very carefully far away from federal lawsuits. I'd advise the Tara suggestion old version for immediate case.

- Angyl

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Annabelle Backman

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Feb 16, 2019, 7:04:36 PM2/16/19
to Angyl, Scott Alspach, Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
After reading the law that Scott reference, I think we could address this more generally with a provision in "Article 11 Budget and Expenditures" along the lines of:

11.X Pursuant to Federal Law, the 43rd District Democrats may not directly or indirectly solicit, accept, or receive any membership dues, contribution, or donation of any kind from a foreign national. For the purposes of this subsection, the terms "contribution" and "foreign national" shall have the meaning assigned to them under 52 U.S. Code § 30101.

–
Annabelle Backman
Vice Chair for Technology | Washington State 43rd District Democrats


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Tara Gallagher

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Feb 16, 2019, 7:08:04 PM2/16/19
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Most parolees could fit under the “within two years of eligibility” rules…

My main concern is that we are trying to fix something that isn’t broken, and in doing so leaving ourselves open to big Unintended Consequences. (For example, we are fortunate to have Scott F raise the foreign-nationals issue. What else are we unaware of until it’s too late?)


Tara






Brad Bell

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Feb 16, 2019, 10:27:31 PM2/16/19
to Scott Alspach, Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
I agree, full voting rights is really the goal here. Any solution that doesn't allow us to go as far in that direction as the law will allow is a problem for me.

Amy Madden

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Feb 16, 2019, 10:34:07 PM2/16/19
to Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
I am aware of both green card holders and people with felonies in my precinct (not just in the city, in my precinct specifically). I've talked with some of these folks about using their Democracy Vouchers, and I've heard excitement around being included. (My own mother is a green card holder who cannot vote, but it sure would be cool if she could consider joining her local Dems or use Democracy Vouchers.) It sounds like the current bylaws proposal would allow for these individuals to become members, but it also sounds like we may need to make clear that the law prohibits us from granting foreign nationals membership status. I'm open to Annabelle's suggestion of just making this clear in Article 11.X, but am also open to considering  stating this in the membership section, as well, to make sure it's clear.

It looks like this is our current proposed language:

2.1 “Member” means and includes any individual who (a) at the age of 16 or above; (b)
resides within the 43rd Legislative District; (c) declares themselves to be a Democrat;
24 and (d) has paid applicable dues or is a PCO or is a Precinct Coordinator.

I would like to add to in something about specifically being open to green card holders and those with felonies who have not yet had their rights fully restored, and also make it clear that the law prohibits us from granting membership to foreign nationals. I'm not sure exactly how to word this.

Side note: I still wish we could edit 2.1.c (see my previous email on this), and I'm wondering if the current 2.1.d language allows for folks who are working through some kind of sliding-scale dues process to be included.

Amy

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/43rd-bylaws/F3DFD06C-37D0-4B09-BBD2-A008CA02B8E3%40tara-jamie.net.

Brad Bell

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Feb 16, 2019, 10:40:59 PM2/16/19
to Amy Madden, Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
On Sat, Feb 16, 2019 at 7:34 PM Amy Madden <amye...@gmail.com> wrote:
I would like to add to in something about specifically being open to green card holders and those with felonies who have not yet had their rights fully restored, and also make it clear that the law prohibits us from granting membership to foreign nationals. I'm not sure exactly how to word this. 


I feel like the simplest change would be to insert "a citizen or lawful permanent resident" before "at the age of 16" and not worry about adding any other references. It would be nice if we could waive the donation and allow them full participation, but I believe that is also prohibited (https://www.fec.gov/updates/foreign-nationals/ says they are banned from any party decision-making)


Amy Madden

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Feb 17, 2019, 8:27:47 AM2/17/19
to Brad Bell, Tara Gallagher, 43rd District Democrats Rules and Bylaws Committee
Another piece of info for this discussion. I spoke with a few colleagues on the SCC, who shared with me that the 5th LD Dems' bylaws have similar language to the 46th's bylaws, in that they do not limit green card holders and people with felony records who have not yet had their rights restored. Their age limit is also lower than ours.

5th LD language: "District residents who are at least fourteen (14) years of age who declare themselves to be Democrats and pay dues to this organization."

Here are the rest of the 5th's bylaws, for reference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LDMD5eV7ue-hdWVyUWgPM1Bm1jgBBvVrLddCaSW2DYc/

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