Last Weekend's Petition Parties

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to circulate petitions for my candidate at petition parties. Here in our little slice of the world, the parties are organized by the Zones¹, although there is one all-county party.

Our parties are well advertised, and all registered Democrats are invited to attend². The parties are held in various locations: municipal buildings, private homes, parking lots, and churches, to name a few³. Petitions for all the state, county and local candidates are available for people to sign. The candidates and their proxies are available to answer questions.

The purpose of these parties is to garner enough signatures to get candidates on the primary ballot. Here in Pennsylvania, you can register with a real party (Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian), as an Independent, or “Other” and you can make up your own party⁴.

To sign a nominating petition, however, you have to be registered as a Democrat or a Republican⁵, and be a resident of the correct location.

You might think this is just people getting hand cramps walking around and signing all the petitions, but they really are PARTIES!

People forge a sense of community through interactions. They run into people they haven’t seen for a while. Some bring their kids (aka “junior voters”).

One middle-aged couple entered one of the parties looking confused. I explained the process to them, and then the wife said: “We don’t know anything. We’ve voted before, but we want to be involved NOW because of everything that’s going on.” I gave them my email, and when they wrote, I responded with a list of all sorts of options for them, and I’m looking forward to seeing them at an event next weekend.

Voters have all sorts of questions about what the different row offices DO, since this year, the positions are mostly non-political. People forget that the number of political elected officials are dwarfed by people who actually do the WORK of government. Lots of these workers are public employees at the Federal, state, county and local levels.

There are also judicial elections this year, and many people don’t know what the different “levels” of the judiciary cover. Finally, hyperlocal elections for Mayors, Boards of Supervisors/City Councils, and School Board members.

So, petition parties are also a learning experience for lots of people.

They also reinforce that democracy is still going on in America, although it doesn’t always feel that way. Every person who signs a nominating petition is someone who is going to show up and VOTE in the primary, and later in the general. Because despite what the Orange Menace claimed: there are STILL ELECTIONS!!!

Here in Pennsylvania, petition parties run through the weekend of 8 March, with petitions due by the 11th. Different schedules apply to other states. So PLEASE — get involved. Sign petitions, work on campaigns, maybe run for office yourself. And then VOTE — in the primary and in the general, even in this odd-numbered year. SHOW MAGA THAT WE WILL NOT BE COWED!

And remember — spend no money tomorrow, Friday, 28 February. We have the power.

1. Our structure is: precinct level then the precincts are organized into “Zones” which are often a city or town, or sometimes several towns, and the Zones together comprise the county organization.

2. I am oblivious to what the Republicans do.

3. Not a comprehensive list.

4. Not making it up. There’s a space on the form. Last I checked, there were several hundred made-up parties.

5. There is a separate process for other parties and independents. These candidates are up for election on the November ballot; they are ineligible for the primaries.