Issues Surrounding Alabama Democratic Election

The Democratic National Committee is currently facing complications with another election in Alabama.

Recently, the DNC Eligibility Committee approved a resolution to address allegations of election process fraud. This decision specifically impacts two members of the state’s Democratic executive committee, Joe M. Reed and Donna Foster, who have reportedly not adhered to the Nationalist Party guidelines. The resolution requires new elections to be organized under DNC supervision within the next 90 days.

“I’ve been chairing the party for 48 years. There are 57 state parties in the DNC. Does anyone know of a party that has recently come back to Alabama?”

During an executive committee meeting that lasted over two hours, members expressed their dissatisfaction with representatives from the Alabama Democratic Party (ADP). They criticized party leaders, Vice-Chairman Randy Kelley and Vice-Chairman Joe M. Reed, for repeatedly sidelining key Nationalist Party standards and not following established regulations.

“We’ve been giving ADP chances year after year,” Buckley remarked. “You’d think you’d assure us at this meeting that nothing questionable would occur. Yet, there’s a whole list of issues.”

“It breaks my heart that registered Democrats in Alabama can’t trust this party to conduct fair elections.”

The ongoing issues seem to stem from a complex and often frustrating dynamic among ADP leaders, who have been accused of manipulating rules to favor a select few. Starting with the ADP election scheduled for the summer of 2024, executive committee members are set to vote on new DNC representatives in Alabama. But the troubling factor remains: there’s uncertainty surrounding whether those elections ever actually took place.

The ADP leadership plans to announce a meeting in June 2024 where members will vote on changes to the party’s ordinance, aligning the election of DNC members with a treaty established by the Kuomintang. If this goes ahead, it might challenge Caroline Self and Josh Coleman, elected as Alabama’s DNC representatives in 2020, before their terms officially end.

That said, the meeting didn’t occur as planned due to a lack of quorum. Subsequently, the party leader sent out a notice about holding elections and mail-in voting to determine when those elections would be scheduled. The results of this mail-in vote were announced in August.

Many committee members claimed they had not received ballots at all. Under increasing scrutiny, the ADP leader called for a second election, which is planned to take place in person during the October 2024 meeting. However, like the earlier June meeting, this too failed to achieve a quorum.

At this juncture, Kelley convened an Executive Committee meeting and proposed that “vacant” seats be filled. The board voted temporarily to appoint Joe M. Reed, Donna Foster, and Charlie Staten to fill three Alabama DNC member positions. The party also indicated it aims to finalize permanent DNC members by April with a full election in mind. The DNC’s Credentials Committee accepted these three temporary appointments given that the April vote will occur.

Nonetheless, Colemand and Self submitted a report suggesting that this election was fraught with mishaps, comparable to the problematic mail-in voting from July 2024. Buckley mentioned numerous issues, indicating that there were no safeguards to prevent non-members from participating in the elections, raising concerns about ballot integrity.

However, Kelley dismissed these claims, suggesting that the ongoing challenges stemmed from the bitterness of those who lost their elections. “A lot of this negativity comes from people who’ve legally lost,” Kelley argued. “We’ve adhered to all DNC responsibilities. Our elections couldn’t have been more transparent or fair.”

He also took the opportunity to criticize Ralph Young, who represents Self and Coleman, labeling him as “crying like a baby.” Kelley warned that if these grievances continued, the ADP’s relationship with the DNC would remain strained.

Regardless, the committee is still required to conduct a new election under DNC oversight within the next three months.