Overview
- The county committee meeting that ran for hours on Wednesday effectively approved the rule changes that expanded voting membership, with reporting of roughly 865 votes for the changes to 272 against, using hundreds of proxy ballots.
- The meeting was marked by long delays, technical failures with voting devices, misspelled names on ballots, disputes over proxy registrations, and the visible absence of Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
- A state Supreme Court judge had earlier ruled the August rule changes improper and void, but party leaders appealed and kept the changes in force long enough for the organizational meeting to proceed.
- An appellate panel heard arguments near the meeting site the same day and could nullify the meeting’s votes; party leaders have scheduled a Sept. 29 vote on the chair while reformers prepare additional legal challenges.
- Control of the county executive committee matters because it sets endorsements, judicial slates, and party resources for local races, so the court’s coming decision will determine who actually controls Brooklyn’s Democratic machinery this fall.