Dear Editor:
Recent criminal allegations of fraudulent filings for Republican Precinct Committee Men and Women have caused many people to wonder what these people do, and why would someone submit fraudulent filings?
First of all, Precinct committee men and women are elected in the primary. If nobody else files for a particular precinct, their names do not appear on the ballot.
The job of the Precinct Committee people, first and foremost, is to conduct the political campaign within their precinct. They are responsible for all voter contact. They should be calling on you to remind you to vote, distributing yard signs, assisting with absentee ballots, voting in nursing homes, poll-watching etc.
In addition to these responsibilities, they attend the state convention and vote on the nominations of candidates for many statewide offices. This is where the nominees for Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, and Public Utilities Commissioners come from. Most voters will not even know their names until they are on the ballot in the general election, and if you wondered where they came from, that’s where they were nominated.
Precinct committee men and women also participate in the selection of a replacement when a district’s candidate drops out after the primary. If you have ever wondered how that works, when a declared candidate drops out and somebody you never heard of takes his place, that’s it.
In odd numbered years, in January, they will vote in the County Republican Party’s election of officers. Those same officers will also be voting at the state convention and at any candidate replacement meetings.
These three events, the nominations of statewide candidates at the state convention, the local candidate replacement meetings, and the elections of county party officers, are why it matters who gets the precinct committee positions, and why fraudulent filings for these positions is a problem. It matters who gets these jobs.
If people you don’t like have filed for these positions, recruiting others to oppose them will put both names on the ballot and might cause them to lose. If your objective is to prevent someone from voting in any of the three events described above, you won’t care if the people you recruited don’t show up, as long as the people you don’t like can’t vote.
I hope this helps to explain what all the fuss is about.
Anne Beal
Colman
