Excerpted from recent emails

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee has called an Unassembled Caucus ("Caucus") to be held on Saturday, August 20, 2011, from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the Jackson P. Burley Middle School, 901 Rose Hill Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22902.

The sole purpose of this Caucus shall be to nominate three candidates for Charlottesville City Council and one candidate for Clerk of the Circuit Court for the City of Charlottesville in accordance with the Code, Party Plan and Bylaws.

The primary is open to Democrats registered to vote in the City of Charlottesville. Only persons who sign a Democratic Declaration Form shall be eligible to vote in the Caucus.

To win candidates must receive the support of a majority of Democrats voting in the primary. An instant runoff system will be employed for this purpose. Nominees will be determined without regard to the precincts in which the voters are registered.

Voters will mark ballots by placing a number indicating a rank next to the candidate's name. A "1" rank will indicate the most preferred candidate; a "2" will indicate the second most preferred candidate and so forth. There can be as many rank numbers as there are candidates. Not all candidates need be ranked; a ballot can contain as few as one ranking. Unique numbers must be used in marking ballots.

The first round of counting of the ballots will be conducted as follows: tellers will examine each ballot to find which candidate has a rank of "1", "2" or "3." Tellers will record a vote for each candidate so ranked, using a tally sheet. After all ballots have been examined and votes recorded, the votes for each candidate will be totaled.

Any candidate who was ranked "1", "2" or "3" on a majority of ballots cast will be deemed nominated. On any round of counting, if the number of candidates named on a majority of ballots cast exceeds the number of candidates remaining to be nominated, the candidate(s) with the highest vote will be the nominee(s).

If fewer than three candidates have been nominated on the first round, a second round of counting will take place. On this second round, any candidate who has won nomination will be removed from further consideration. If a round of counting is about to take place in which no candidate has been removed due to nomination on the previous round, the candidate with the lowest vote on the previous round will be removed from further consideration.

On any subsequent round of counting, tellers will examine each ballot to determine which of the remaining candidates have the highest N ranks, where N is the number of candidates still to be nominated. A vote will be recorded for the candidate(s) with the N highest rank(s). If a ballot contains no votes for any candidate still under consideration, that ballot will be set aside and the total number of ballots will be reduced by one. These recorded votes will then be totaled. Steps (c) and (d) will then be repeated if necessary. Rounds of counting (as described above) will continue until three candidates are nominated.

If there is a tie, the winner will be determined by lot.

Absentee Voting

For Democrats who will be out of town or unable to come to the polls on August 20th, absentee balloting will be held from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday August 9th and Thursday August 18th at the Independence Resource Center, 815 Cherry Ave. Any person who attests that he or she is unable, for reason of religious observance, travel, or work commitments, to attend the August 20, 2011 Caucus may vote during one of the Early Absentee Voting periods.

For further information, contact City Democrats Co-Chairs

Jim Nix (jim-nix@comcast.net or 434-987-3321)

Tom Vandever (tvandever@ntelos.net or 434-466-9502).