JC Dems Minutes – Sept. 3, 2019
In Attendance: Greg Haas (P), Jim Shell (T), Lois Petersen (S), Bob Day, and Kathie Day (SCW)

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
Agenda for this meeting and minutes of our Aug. 6th meeting were approved as written
Treasurer’s Report: Jim reported a current balance of $2028.23. Jim shared a record of donations given to JC Dems through ActBlue Network. Lois will write a thank you notes.

Announcements:
Greg noted that our website domain name ( jcdemswyo.org ) is expiring. Payment of $15.99 was approved to renew it.
Greg updated us on the Aug. 17 meeting of the State Central Committee that took place in Lander. Three resolutions were presented and passed there:
1) RESOLUTION URGING CONGRESS TO PROVIDE THE RESIDENTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WITH STATEHOOD AND FULL DEMOCRACY
2) A RESOLUTION REGARDING WYOMING DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUPPORT OF DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DURING THE 2020 PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION CYCLES
3) A RESOLUTION URGING THE WYOMING STATE LEGISLATURE TO ADOPT LEGISLATION TO MAKE ALL COUNTY-LEVEL POLITICAL RACES NON-PARTISAN This resolution, submitted by JC Democrats, was presented by Greg and was passed unanimously. Greg will report on this resolution and its passage at the state level to the Buffalo Bulletin. IMPORTANT: The Johnson County Democrats will host a letter-writing session at our next scheduled meeting (Oct. 1st), sending information about this resolution proposal to our state legislators and asking their support for it. Please plan to come to the meeting and help with this effort.

The next State Committee Meeting will take place in February of 2020. Park County was selected as the location for the 2020 Wyoming Democratic Party (WDP) Convention taking place on Saturday, June 6, 2020 – mark your calendar.

Greg summarized other documents related to state party politics and activities sent by Joe Barbuto, WDP Chair.

Greg demonstrated Instant run-off or ranked choice voting.

New business:
We need to start conversing with fellow democrats, help people get registered to vote, and recruit precinct chairs. There was discussion about possible ways to use voter rolls for this effort.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20.
Next meeting is on Tues., Oct. 1, 7:00 pm, Bomber Mountain Room 108.

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting
Sept 3, 2019
Agenda (proposed)

7:00 p.m. Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance
Sign in sheet and introductions

7:10 p.m. Reports

• Secretary’s presentation of the minutes of the last meeting. https://jcdemswyo.org/2019/08/minutes-august-6-2019/
• Treasurer’s summary of financial activity.
• Announcements from the Chair, including reports from SCC on August 17 in Lander, WY (three resolutions, WDP, DNC, ASDC, and further discussion in New Business)

7:25 p.m. Old Business:

• Precinct Committee People – Names, Precincts

7:35 p.m. New Business:

• Discussion about objectives and planning for next several meetings, especially leading into Primary/Caucus 2020.
• Discussion time regarding ranked-choice (instant runoff) voting.
  (Chair will share a sample ballot at the meeting)

8:00 p.m. Adjournment

For the record, here’s a copy of the resolution passed by the WDP State Central Committee in 2019.

Click link for WDP PDF –> Resolution Urging Non-Partisan County Races

Click link for JCDems PDF –> Resolution-County-Elections-Signed

Regarding the partisan nature of county elections in Wyoming, JC Dems passed the following on second and final reading July 2, 2019:

WHEREAS hundreds, if not thousands of voters, without switching party affiliation, are unable to vote in Municipal and County partisan primary elections for their candidate of choice and,

WHEREAS partisan primaries and “party switching” creates significant increases in record keeping for election officials and,

WHEREAS “party switching” results in increases of costs and difficulties faced by state parties when attempting to accurately reach out to their members and,

WHEREAS “party switching” leads to inaccurate counts of party membership, especially in smaller jurisdictions and,

WHEREAS voters who change parties in order to vote in a local primary election are inadvertently locked into affecting a state-level primary race and,

WHEREAS many municipal elections in Wyoming are already non-partisan,

THEREFORE we hereby RESOLVE that the Wyoming elections statutes be amended to state that “all municipal and county elections in Wyoming” shall be non-partisan.

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting
August 6, 2019
Agenda (proposed)

7:00 p.m. Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance
Sign in sheet and introductions

7:10 p.m. Reports

Secretary’s presentation of the minutes of the last meeting.
Treasurer’s summary of financial activity.
Announcements from the Chair.

7:15 p.m. Old Business:

Precinct Committee People – Names, Precincts

7:30 p.m. New Business:
WDP Summer events Schedule Review

7:45 p.m. Adjournment

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting
June 4, 2019
Agenda

7:00 p.m. Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance
Sign in sheet and introductions

7:10 p.m. Reports

Secretary’s presentation of the minutes of the last meeting.
Treasurer’s summary of financial activity.
Announcements from the Chair.

7:15 p.m. Old Business:

Precinct Committee People – Names, Precincts
Resolutions – County elections (Chair would entertain a motion to, for example, accept the resolution as written on “second and final reading”.)

7:40 p.m. New Business:

Parade 2019 – Updates, Discussion, Budget Requests

8:00 p.m. Adjournment

Video Presentation – Lois Petersen

Regarding the partisan nature of county elections in Wyoming, JC Dems passed the following on first reading June 4, 2019:

WHEREAS hundreds, if not thousands of voters, without switching party affiliation, are unable to vote in Municipal and County partisan primary elections for their candidate of choice and

WHEREAS partisan primaries and “party switching” creates significant increases in record keeping for election officials and

WHEREAS “party switching” results in increases of costs and difficulties faced by state parties when attempting to accurately reach out to their members and,

WHEREAS “party switching” leads to inaccurate counts of party membership, especially in smaller jurisdictions and

WHEREAS voters who change parties in order to vote in a local primary election are inadvertently locked into affecting a state-level primary race and,

WHEREAS many municipal elections in Wyoming are already non-partisan

THEREFORE we hereby RESOLVE that the Wyoming elections statutes be amended to state that “all municipal and county elections in Wyoming” shall be non-partisan.

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting
June 4, 2019
Agenda

7:00 p.m. Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance
Sign in sheet and introductions

7:10 p.m. Reports

Secretary’s presentation of the minutes of the last meeting.
Treasurer’s summary of financial activity.
Announcements from the Chair.

7:15 p.m. Old Business:

Precinct Committee People – meeting three or four times/year?
Parade 2019 – Updates, Dates, Entry ideas, committee?
Resolutions – County elections (Chair would entertain a motion to, for example, accept the resolution as written on “first reading” and have a second reading at next month’s meeting.)

7:30 p.m. New Business:

Recurring donations
Resolutions – Presentation of “Vouch for Freedom” text.

7:45 p.m. Adjournment

Video Presentation – Lois Petersen

Johnson County Democratic Party
May 7, 2019
Agenda

Call to order
Pledge of allegiance, sign in sheet, introductions

Reports
Secretary, Treasurer, Chairman, State Central Committee, Will and Bob re: county level partisan offices

Old Business
Entertain motions on information from Will and Bob’s work on county level partisan offices?

New Business
Recurring donations, venue for caucus

Other Business and Announcements
Wyoming Promise, report and short video – Lois Petersen

Adjourn