Ballots arrive like moths To the flame of democracy
Hi, If you are a subscriber to WBAI radio (99.5 FM) in NYC metropolitan area, you should have received a ballot in the mail listing 25 candidates for 9 “listener” seats on the new Station Board -- the FIRST democratically elected station board in the country!
I am one of the candidates, and I am asking for your vote.
Here are my five top choices:
Alice Shields Mitchel Cohen Berthold Reimers Patty Heffley Alex Steinberg
Please keep reading, I'll be explaining how this works, and list more candidate selections as well. (Thanks!!!)
I just received my ballot in the mail, and it is probably the most ridiculous and unnecessarily complicated ballot I've ever seen. There are around 20 different ways to make very easy mistakes, including putting the tear-off sheet upside-down in the windowed envelope, as I did at first. Had I not caught the error, the ballot would never have made it to the station. It would have, at best, been returned to ME, and I would have lost my vote.
I expect that that is going to happen to many people.
Also, quite likely to happen is that people will fill in little boxes in the same column -- big mistake! Or they'll fill in boxes for the same candidate over several different columns. I don't know who designed this ridiculous ballot, but they clearly did not meet with any of us. Isn't that typical? We would have pointed out these easy-to-make errors and directed them to change it. Too late now; it's one of those things we're going to have to change in the future. But PLEASE, don't let their carelessness discourage you from voting! This election is very important.
With so many qualified candidates running -- and with many of them forming themselves into slates -- it is difficult for many listeners who have not been fully involved in the doings around WBAI to know who are the best candidates. That's why I'm writing this.
Listeners fought hard to ensure that a wide diversity of perspectives would get elected to the Local Station Board. That is why WBAI is using Proportional Representation and Single Transfer Voting (STV) -- to expand that diversity.
In this form of voting, we are asked to Rank the candidates in the order we prefer -- our favorite candidate would be #1, next would be #2, and so on, for as long as the ink flows out of your veins, through your pen and into the tiny boxes on the page.
It is important, in this form of voting, to rank all of those you would like to see on the Board (including those you may not fully agree with but who are at least better than others), because a portion of your vote is transferred to the next candidate on your list when your favorite candidate wins a seat or is eliminated. On the other hand, DO NOT RANK CANDIDATES THAT YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO SEE ON THE BOARD. You can find additional information about all the candidates, their slates, their positions, at <http://www.wbai.org/elections/index.php?option=content&task=category§ionid=17&id=276&Itemid=29>http://www.wbai.org/elections/index.php?option=content&task=category§ionid=17&id=276&Itemid=29 . (You can also look in the booklet sent to you with your ballot, but the booklet leaves out pictures of the candidates, such as the one of me -- one of my favorites -- being dragged away by the police while blocking South African Airways at Kennedy Airport during the fight against apartheid in the mid-1980s. You can find that one at www.List-Prog.org, along with lots of other info about the candidates, and programs.)
As you know, I am deeply involved in this struggle and make no pretense that I am impartial. I support the hard work of the LIST-PROG (Listeners and Staff for Progressive Elections at WBAI) candidates, and I want to enable us to complete the work that we started last January, during the last election. I also like some of the Independent candidates, and even several candidates from the Justice & Unity caucus. So I am going to list the candidates that I think best represent the interests of progressive listeners, and I hope that you’ll vote for those candidates too. (If you’d like to hear my reasons, feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll get back to you.)
Note: These are my personal recommendations -- the Greens have not discussed this. Feel free to forward this to whomever you feel may be interested.
- Mitchel Cohen
Here are my five top choices. All of them (except for me) are already serving on the Local Station Board and are doing ENORMOUS amounts of work. It is CRUCIAL that we re-elect them.
ALICE SHIELDS -- a member of the No Spray Coalition and a powerful musician -- was elected to the Pacifica National Board, and is working desperately -- some 40 to 50 hours per week (all unpaid!) -- to stabilize the finances of the station. WBAI management has been throwing good money after bad for years now, and the station finds itself in a terrible financial crisis that may lead management to make severe cutbacks unless some of our creative suggestions are implemented. Please give either Alice or myself (Mitchel Cohen) your number one vote, and vote the other as #2.
MITCHEL COHEN -- co-founder of the No Spray Coalition, and a member of the Brooklyn Greens / Green Party of NY, Art-Rage, Direct Action Network to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, NERAGE (North-East Resistance Against Genetic Engineering), and many more environmental and social justice groups.
BERTHOLD REIMERS -- elected as Chair of the Local Station Board, Berthold has presided with dignity and diligence over extremely stressful meetings. He has been working with management to codify the station's practices, which are in a chaotic mess, making business records transparent, improving programming, and expanding the listener base. Berthold has been instrumental in representing the interests of listeners, and in fighting for listener democracy at WBAI.
PATTY HEFFLEY was a plaintiff in the “listeners’ lawsuit” filed by Carol Spooner in California, that won an end to the self-appointed boards that came close to wrecking the network and destroying WBAI. Last February, Patty was elected Secretary of the local station board and has been diligent in posting accurate minutes for all of WBAI's listeners to access --something that had never before been done on a systematic basis (although Andy Norris had taken some steps in that direction last year). Patty and I wrote some of the original leaflets in 1995 exposing the attempts to corporatize Pacifica and WBAI, at a time when few others were interested. (And some of them STILL could not care any less.)
ALEX STEINBERG now chairs the Programming committee and has been attempting to involve listeners in improving the programs on the radio. He is also a member of the National Programming Commttee.
You may vote for these five in any order you choose, but please make sure to rank all five of us. I recommend:
1. Alice Shields 2. Mitchel Cohen 3. Berthold Reimers 4. Patty Heffley 5. Alex Steinberg
The next group I recommend in the following order. (Remember, the ORDER is all-important!)
6. Pat Logan 7. Jamie Ross 8. Luanne Pennesi 9. Shohreh Tehrani 10. Dr. David S. Goldman 11. Andrea Fishman 12. Sharon Davis 13. Lisa Davis 14. Robert Owens 15. Paul Zulkowitz 16. Omawale Clay 17. Rolando Bini 18. Cheryl Ife-Griffin 19. Berta Silva 20. Harry Lichtenstein
Wow! What a great collection of worthy candidates! We are blessed with a plethora of progressive-thinking folks who would, hopefully, all work together after the elections, win or lose, to make WBAI great!
ALL are eloquent and passionate individuals who would bring different qualities to the table. I’ve ranked them here according to three criteria: 1) those who have been active on behalf of listeners over the long haul, and are not just flash-in-the-pans; 2) their skills and creativity, and ability to work with others with respect, even when disagreeing; and 3) the fact that candidates from other slates will undoubtedly win election to the Board (through Proportional Representation), thus the need to provide for ideological and programmatic balance. Some of these folks are especially known for their ability to work with others and create bridges to all factions; others are known for focusing on details that a strong functioning Board needs. They are an exceptional group of people:
There. I’m sure I've pissed off ALL of my friends. I can hear them muttering, "How could you recommend so-and-so?" (Whoops, I hope they still vote for ME, too! :-)
Well, I can, and I did. I chose people based NOT solely on their slate affiliation but on whether they would make good board members, in my opinion, and protect WBAI as the precious resource it is with ideas for bettering it and making it more inclusive and powerful.
Hope you found this helpful.
- Mitchel Cohen
PS. Your ballot must be RECEIVED by November 29, so please mail it back within the next few days.
If you want to know more about STV, the following is a link to a good technical discussion. <http://www.fairvote.org/consulting/stvtechnical.pdf>http://www.fairvote.org/consulting/stvtechnical.pdf
If you do not get a ballot by Nov. 12, these are the instructions for what to do to make sure your vote will count:
Anyone who does not receive a ballot by Friday, November 12 should call and request a replacement at 877 217 6928 x205 (or 849 2590 x205 locally). The replacement will be mailed by first class mail within two business days.
Kenny Mostern Pacifica Foundation National Elections Supervisor 510 849 2590 x 205 510 849 2617 (fax) elections at pacifica.org