The Democratic Committee of the City of Charlottesville issues this Call to Convention for the purpose of nominating two candidates for City Council. The Convention will convene at 10:00 AM on February 23, 2002, at the Charlottesville High School Performing Arts Center.

The following provisions shall govern the convention.

Filing Deadline. Any person who wishes to be a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for City Council shall file a declaration of candidacy with either of the Co-chairs (Lloyd Snook or Russell Perry) no later than 12:00 noon on Tuesday, February 19, 2002.

Order of Business at the Convention.

Call to Order
Election of Permanent Chair
Appointment of Permanent Secretary, Head Teller and Tellers
Approval of Permanent Rules
Introduction of all candidates and candidate speeches (5 minutes each)
Nomination speech and one seconding speech (3 minutes and 2 minutes, respectively) for each candidate
Report of the Temporary Credentials Committee
Recess to precinct caucuses to vote
Reconvene to conduct other business
Report of the Tellers' Committee announcing result of vote
Recess to precinct caucuses for another ballot if necessary
Reconvene to hear result of vote
(Previous two steps repeated until two candidates are nominated)
Acceptance Speeches by Nominees
Adjournment

Precinct Allotments.

Allotment

Alumni Hall 8
Carver 11
Clark 6
Jefferson Park 18
Recreation 18
Tonsler Park 8
Venable 16
Walker 15

Total 100

Temporary Rules for the Convention

1. To participate in the Convention, participants must be present at the Convention or must be in line to register to participate no later than 10:00 AM. Registration will begin at 9:00 AM.

2. Only persons who execute a certification in accordance with Section 18.3 of the Virginia Democratic Party Plan shall be eligible to participate and vote in the Convention. The Certification attests that the participant:

a. Is a Democrat;
b. Is a registered voter in the City of Charlottesville;
c. Believes in the principles of the Democratic Party; and
d. Does not intend to support any candidate who is opposed to a Democratic nominee in the next ensuing election (the City Council election).

Registration to participate will consist of filling out and signing a Declaration Form which will include the above certification as well as the precinct of registration.

3. The Co-chairs of the City Democratic Committee will appoint a Credentials Committee. Members of the Credentials Committee will have a copy of the Registered Voter List for the entire city. When a participant returns the Declaration Form to the Credentials Table, a member of the Credentials Committee will consult the Registered Voter List to verify that the participant is a registered voter in the precinct claimed. A participant will be given a Credential if one of the following 3 conditions is met:

a. The participant's name appears on the Registered Voter List kept by the Credentials Committee;
b. The participant can show a Voter ID Card showing registration in the City of Charlottesville, issued since October 1, 2001; or
c. A telephone call to the City Registrar of Voters reveals that the participant is a registered voter.

Once the participant's registration has been confirmed by one of the three methods above, the participant will be given a packet of four ballots, one for each of four possible rounds of balloting. The participant must fill in the name of the Precinct in which he or she is voting before turning in the ballot.

4. The sole business of the Convention will be the nomination of two Democratic candidates to seek election to the City Council in May 2002. Pursuant to the Call to Convention, all candidates were required to give notice to the Co-chairs of the Charlottesville Democratic Party of their desire to seek the nomination of the Party for City Council. The following candidates gave the required notice:

Blake Caravati, Bern Eweert, Joan Fenton, Waldo Jaquith, Alexandria Searls, and David Simmons.

5. The order in which the candidates will address the Convention will be determined by lot. The candidates will be nominated and seconded in the same order.

6. After hearing the nominating and seconding speeches, the participants in the Convention will caucus by precinct for the purpose of casting ballots. Participants must participate in the precinct in which they are registered to vote. If any participant has moved without having changed his or her precinct of registration, that participant may participate only in the precinct of registration. Each precinct caucus will be led by the Precinct Chair, or in the absence of the precinct chair, someone designated by the co-chairs of the City Democratic party to be the Caucus Chair. Each participant must present his or her Credential to receive a ballot. Voting will be by secret ballot.

7. Printed ballots will be prepared prior to the Convention. All persons who have filed a declaration of candidacy will be listed on the ballot, and those persons will be deemed candidates for the purposes of these Rules. Any vote cast for someone whose candidacy was not declared, for someone who has withdrawn, or for someone who has been eliminated from consideration on an earlier ballot, will be void.

8. On the first ballot, each person voting will have the right to vote for up to two candidates. Voting for just one candidate is permitted. Any ballot containing more than two votes will be void. A participant may not vote for any candidate more than once on any one ballot.

9. Each announced candidate will be asked to nominate two Tellers to assist the Head Teller in counting the votes. The votes will be counted at a central location, in full view of anyone who wishes to observe. The votes will be counted separately for each precinct, and the ballots will be kept separate. Any challenges to any ballots must be made when the votes are counted. If there is a challenge to any ballot, the challenge will be resolved by majority vote of the Tellers.

10. The Head Teller will receive the totals from the Tellers, and will compute the number of Convention Votes to which each candidate is entitled in each precinct.

11. Each candidate's Convention Vote for each precinct will be the result of the following calculation: The number of ballots on which the candidate was named will be divided by the number of ballots cast, and that result will be multiplied by the Precinct Allotment.

Convention Votes from each precinct will then be totaled across all precincts to determine a Total Convention vote for each candidate. All calculations will be rounded to two decimal places.

12. To be nominated, a candidate must achieve greater than 50 Total Convention Votes on the most recent ballot. Once a candidate has received more than 50 Total Convention Votes, he or she is deemed nominated, and the number of nominees to be selected on the next ballot ("N," above) will be reduced by one. The candidate thus nominated will be removed from further consideration.

13. After the first ballot, if no candidate or only one candidate has achieved greater than 50 Total Convention Votes, a second round of balloting will be conducted in each precinct. Any candidate who has less than 15 Total Convention Votes on the previous ballot will be eliminated from further consideration. If all candidates receive 15 or more Total Convention Votes on the previous ballot, the candidate with the lowest Total Convention Vote will be eliminated from further consideration. Balloting will continue until two candidates are nominated.

14. Any tie will be broken by a flip of a coin.

15. On second and subsequent ballots, each person voting will have the right to vote for up to N candidates, where N is the number of candidates to be nominated on that ballot. Any ballot containing more than N votes will be void. Any vote cast for a candidate who has been eliminated from consideration on an earlier round of balloting will be an invalid vote and will not be counted.

16. Between the conducting of one ballot and the next, any candidate, including one who has just been eliminated on the previous ballot, will have the privilege of speaking to the reconvened Convention for no more than two minutes.

17. The conduct of the Convention will be in accordance with the Democratic Party Plan of Virginia and Roberts' Rules of Order.