Writing on Facebook, LNC Secretary Caryn Ann Harlos said:
A lot of states are going to learn this year just how badly their bylaws suck. And unfortunately are going to waste people’s money on false hopes they are legitimate delegates when they are not. I hope credentials deals with early so they can get refunds.
I suggest that everyone read RONR 59:21 for some context. To quote:
59:21 Cases of contested seats in a delegation will seldom arise except in political conventions. In the rare event of a contest between two delegates or groups of delegates and serious doubt as to which is entitled to be seated, the committee should omit both from the list and report the fact of the contest to the convention as explained below. If, on the other hand, after hearing the facts, the committee thinks the contest is not justified, it should enter on the list only the names of the delegates whose claim it finds to be legitimate. The same rules apply to the more common case of delegates chosen by a local unit that is not entitled to representation or has chosen delegates in excess of its entitlement.
What that means is that if there’s a dispute over specific delegates for a state, and there will be, the CredComm should not list any of the disputed names and report that out to the Delegates on the floor in the Credentials Report. But they also can determine there is no real dispute for some names and list them. It’s a case-by-case basis, and the CredComm has the option to make the call or punt it to the Delegates, from one name to all of them.
So, no, there is no threat by Ms. Harlos here. She’s simply stating a personal opinion *and not in an official capacity* (people tend to forget when hats are worn). Nor is there any weaponizing of the CredComm. What there is here is commentary on what may happen as they do their jobs, by someone who has seen this play out before multiple times. It is on the states to get their Bylaws and delegate selection processes sorted out. CredComm is tasked with making sure the Delegates are both who they say they are, and whom they actually should be, but that first falls to the states to get their own houses in order.
And frankly, there states where their Bylaws do in fact, suck. In this case it’s because the state Bylaws have not been cross-checked against national Bylaws regarding delegates, credentialing, and seating. But there are other cases, too. Weaponization of Bylaws happens because the Bylaws are poorly-written, and that creates the holes and opportunities to exploit them. Fixing that is a never-ending process.
And, BTW, to understand the credentialing/seating process at the Convention itself, read Article 10, Section 4, subsection e, paying close attention to the voting threshold required. Also RONR 59:22-26. Adoption of the report is a main motion with a majority vote, as are amendments to it before adoption, but afterwards A10S4SSe comes into play.
Rather than complain about people and not understand the processes, learn the processes.
That’s just the process.
Thank you, Mr Seebeck, for the drill down on the rules.
That is much more helpful than the incumbent secretary’s threatening-sounding posts, which did little more than inspire fears.
It’s still quite vague what those bylaw conflicts are, why they’re such a problem now, as opposed to earlier conventions, and why the problem is only brought up with a month to go before the national convention, long after those bylaws could have been repaired.
If you’re going to run for Secretary, then you should know the answer to your own question about Bylaws conflicts. The Secretary has copies of every state’s Bylaws and has perused them to sort out any issues. I do similar for my state regularly. They’re problems now because previous CredComms didn’t understand or enforce them. This one is.
And you also need to learn how to read what is posted on a personal account, not what you want to see and think it’s on an official account. They are different.
Add it to the hypocrisy pile. (See the last pre takeover LPPA convention, wherein MC leadership griped about MC friendly members who had been in the party for less than 48 hours not being credentialed because of LPPA by laws.
They proceeded to chant down the Chair, kept returning to points over and over dillatoriously, and otherwise broke the flow of the meeting whenever possible for most of the first day. CAH, apparently now an advocate of weaponizing
bylaws to disenfranchise constituents, made an appearance at the following annual convention to gripe in person about the act of ‘member suppression’.)
When it comes to credentialing delegates, the credentials committee’s job is to receive lists from state affiliates and issue credentials to the people on those lists, full stop.
It is neither the credentials committee’s job, nor the LNC secretary’s job, to determine whether the state affiliates’ delegate selections are in accordance with those state affiliates’ bylaws. Such determinations belong to the state affiliates themselves prior to the opening of the convention, and to the body after the opening of the convention.