In Assembly District 14, where bold ceasefire resolutions and strong divestment from Israel had succeeded relatively early, there was only one polling site for the delegate election. That polling site was at Berkeley’s pro-Israel Temple Beth Israel.
And for this polling site, Democratic officials only supplied 250 ballots for a district that had previously drawn 1,800 voters in delegate elections.
Temple Beth Israel was not a neutral location for many residents who had been previously targeted by the Israel lobby. Some of the most infamous targeting of Palestinian activists has occurred in Berkeley, and was previously documented in The New Yorker and The Nation magazines, but totally ignored by local media.
Ballots ran out early amid ongoing issues with voter ID numbers. As more than one Democratic voter asked, “This is voter suppression, isn’t it?”
Reposted from Marin’s Newsletter, March 8, 2025
On Sunday, February 23, 2025, millions of California voters had the opportunity to vote in-person for California’s (very) influential Democratic Party delegates. But they could do so only if they were among the lucky, small percentage who were actually informed that the election was happening. Most Democrats were not informed of the delegate election — even as they continued to receive email and text solicitations from the Democratic Party for more donations.
And Californians could only vote for these influential state Democratic Party delegates if they could make it in-person to one of the approximately two dozen polling sites spread throughout the state (mostly along the coast). And as long as those polling sites had sufficient ballots.
In Assembly District 14, which includes Alameda and Contra Costa, where bold ceasefire resolutions and strong divestment from Israel had succeeded relatively early, there was only one polling site for the delegate election. That polling site was in Berkeley, which is run by a pro-Israel City Council, and it was held at pro-Israel Temple Beth Israel.
Beth Israel was the only non-secular polling site in all of Northern California in this delegate election. And for this polling site, Democratic officials only supplied 250 ballots for a district that had previously drawn 1,800 voters in delegate elections.
Temple Beth Israel, whose congregants have taken a determinedly pro-Israel position, was not a neutral location for many residents who had been previously targeted by the Israel lobby. Some of the most infamous targeting of Palestinian activists has occurred in Berkeley, and was previously documented in The New Yorker and The Nation magazines, but totally ignored by local media. More rudimentary but no less alarming Islamophobic attacks were ongoing as of last week, which local media did manage to report.
But if the non-secular, pro-Israel location wasn’t intimidation enough, the “convener” or organizer/overseer of the polling site was Trish Munro, a militant member of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s “BANJO” network. Munro had penned an infamous genocide-denying article last July, months after the ICJ case against Israel’s genocide had been filed. (Munro had previously taken one of the JCRC’s all-expenses-paid junkets to Israel in 2023, and photos show she may have attended the JCRC’s Camp Newman event with the FBI and US Attorneys later that year.)
Who could have predicted that, at a non-neutral polling site, overseen by a non-neutral Convener, there would be any voting irregularities? Surprise, surprise, surprise: at the AD14 in-person polling site, ballots ran out early amid ongoing issues with voter ID numbers. As more than one Democratic voter asked, “This is voter suppression, isn’t it?” Read more
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