The Vote, The Debates, The Banquet

Well, we've had another jam packed day! I will cut to the chase and let you know that Elisabeth MacNamara won the election for President with 2/3 of the vote.  ( I've also realized that I've been spelling her name wrong throughout this blog, it is with an s and not a z) I'll start with the election and then do my best to summarize the rest of the day.

Election Day

631 delegates headed to the credentials table to get their ballots ( at least I hope everyone voted!) What a fantastic way to see democracy in action! After our morning plenary session, which went late by 40 min, we dashed out in the hall to cast our vote for LWVUS President. Most of the process seemed to have been well planned out but as in most elections, I think it could have gone smoother.

The table with the ballots was divided alphabetically by state.  My issue was that the area was very small and everyone was in tightly packed lines.  After getting my ballot it was checked again at the door to the voting room.

Here is my ballot (before I voted)  Voting ended at 2:00.  We all went off to our afternoon training sessions wondering when the results would be ready.  I decided to follow the twitter feed. Finally the results came in at about 6:00.  It seemed an awfully long time to count 600 ballots!  I think the election energized the convention and got everyone to reflect on what they want to see in a president.  

At the banquet tonight both women spoke after sharing a warm hug.  As in other elections it was nice to see opposing sides come together in the end and show unity.

Plenary

After a little housekeeping including a summary of yesterday's work, we got down to business.  I have two masters degrees and I really had to pay close attention to understand what was going on.  I looked to the program booklet to see what we were going to do next.  It said:

Debate And Vote on Board-Recommended Concurrence and Any Not-Recommended Concurrence Items Voted Consideration on Sunday

I had to read it through a few times and then watch my fellow League members in action before I got the hang of it.

Here is someone waiting to speak on a con mike.  Next to her are a monitor and a parlimentarian.  As the President was calling out to the different mics I was confused as to which were pro and which were con. I asked the person next to me and she said that that would be a red card question.  So I got up and went to the mic... I was nervous, I hoped I would remember to introduce myself properly.  But when I talked to the monitor she said that the odd# mics were pro and the even#'s con.  Apparently it had been announced earlier.  Rats! I missed my big chance.

Then came the moment where I felt like I finnaly got it.  Someone had put forth a motion to change the wording of the original motion.  I asked the person next to me, "Can the motion be re-written and voted on or not? Because we won't have voted concourance on the new wording"  By jove I think I've got it!  The answer was that the motion can be re-written and voted on.  The debate went on so long and was so confusing that we voted to postpone a vote to a definite time (tomorrow morning.)

Banquet

We had a fun banquet with a woonderful speaker, Wade Goodwyn from NPR.

I took this pic from the back of the room.  It's not very good but it should give you a sense of the size and scope of the event.

Here we are, most of the IL delegation!

In her final comments tonight Elisabeth commented that since we didn't have any caucus' scheduled tonight that we could all get some rest.  Everyone laughed.  Some have moved to the bar or after parties in their rooms.  I'm sure that some of the Kansas delegation are re-writing that motion we tabled until tomorrow.  As for me I decided to write tonight out on a balcony off one of the lobbies.

Here's my view.  There is a wonderful breeze and almost no humidity, perfect.  I just looked around and realized that I'm the only one out here. I just looked in at the convention hallway and there is no one there either.  Maybe that's because it's 11:30!

I have another long day tomorrow.  I'm going to a meeting at 7:30 on how to recruit young members before the plenary session at 8:30.  I have to leave around 9:45 to catch my plane.  I'm sure I'll miss some of the votes.

There is one thing that I know I would vote for, and that is sending as many of our delegates as possible to the national convention in D.C. in 2016!