The Stranger: Vote Uncommitted Delegates for the Presidential Primary
By the Stranger Election Control Board
If the two genocidal geriatrics leading the polls this primary season do not excite you, then you’re in good company. Most Americans do not like the top choices in 2024, since they’re the exact same choices we had in 2020, except now they’re that much older.
Feels bad.
…we draw no equivalence between the openly fascistic Republican party and the corporate-friendly but socially progressive Democratic party.
We’re just kinda wondering: In a country of more than 330 million people, is the Democratic party’s answer to American fascism really a guy who bent over backwards to help Israel displace and annihilate Palestinians, flout International Court of Justice orders to prevent genocide, and continue apace with an illegal occupation? A guy who lurched hard to the right on immigration, using Trump-era rules to limit asylum-seekers and promising executive action to limit access to asylum even further? A guy who failed to fully cancel student debt, who rejected court reform even after Dobbs and multiple corruption scandals, who let US Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema take his job for the first two years? A guy who’s older than Pop Tarts and credit cards?
A quick glance at the sane side of the ballot reveals that, yes, in fact, that guy, President Joseph R. Biden Jr, is the best that Democrats think they can do against former President Donald Trump this year.
…Writing in “Ceasefire” or “Mickey Mouse” simply amounts to throwing away your vote–according to state law, officials only have to tally write-in votes from candidates who filed “timely declarations” of a write-in candidacy and who also exceed the number of votes earned by the second-place candidate. In other words, no one is going to see your write-in vote.
But the Washington State Democratic party did provide an option… “Uncommitted Delegates.”
What are “uncommitted delegates?” Um, give us two short paragraphs to explain.
To win the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, a candidate must rack up 1,968 delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August. Washington State will contribute 92 delegates to that national tally, and the state party will award a certain share of those delegates to any candidate that wins more than 15% of the primary election vote.
Uncommitted delegates simply do not have to cast a vote at the convention for a specific presidential candidate during the first round of balloting the way delegates who pledge to vote for a certain candidate do, so they can make noise in a very public way if the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians hasn’t stopped by then.
And Washington’s uncommitted delegates likely wouldn't be alone. In Michigan, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib launched an informal campaign asking people to select uncommitted delegates to support the call for a ceasefire. With about 200,000 registered voters who identify as Muslim in a state that Biden only won by a little more than 150,000 votes in 2020, he will be paying attention.
Campaigns to vote uncommitted in other states, including right here in Washington, are revving up as we speak….unlike a protest vote for Phillips or a throwaway write-in vote, voting for “uncommitted delegates” delivers a message to Biden in a language he can hear and understand.
…the potential benefits of pressuring Biden to do the right thing on the global stage outweigh the potential benefits of backing him outright in the primary.
…Trump and Biden are basically tied in the polls right now. In a race with margins that tight, Biden needs everyone
…A Trump victory would set back those goals indefinitely, and a Biden victory keeps them in reach. But right now, it’s the primary. And if we can’t push the likely Democratic nominee to do what we want now, then when can we push him?
Vote uncommitted delegates.
