THE BYLAWS & RULES OF THE MIFFLIN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE
Preamble
And now, this 18th day of April, 2018, the following bylaws are adopted by the Democratic Party of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania (a.k.a and hereinafter, “the County Committee”) to govern its operations. All previous bylaws adopted by the County Committee are hereby rescinded and considered void. These bylaws, plus those of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee (hereinafter, “State Committee”) and the Democratic National Committee (hereinafter, “DNC”), are binding on all members.
Article I – County Committee
Section 1. The County Committee, being a member of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and the DNC, shall have full power and authority to act in all matters of the County Committee’s management not specifically covered by these bylaws or these rules and may delegate such power and authority to committees, subcommittees, teams, caucuses, groups or to represent Democratic voters of or within Mifflin County.
Section 2. The County Committee shall consist of: two (2) duly elected precinct committee members from each voting precinct in the county; the State Committee Representative, duly elected by the registered Mifflin County Democrats in the Spring Primary in the year of the gubernatorial election; any DNC member who is a resident of the County; and all county and state elected officials who are members of the Democratic Party and whose districts are within the borders of Mifflin County for the duration of their term in office.
Section 3. The number of precinct committee members per precinct will be reviewed every four (4) years determined by the size of the Democratic electorate and precincts. Each precinct will always have at least (2) committee member representatives.
Article II – County Committee Responsibilities
The County Committee is responsible to register new Democratic voters; educate the electorate concerning elections, candidates, and the Democratic Party; support Democratic candidates; and raise money to support the County Committee and candidates.
Article III – Elections & Eligibility of Precinct Committee Members
Section 1. Only Democratic registered voters in Mifflin County shall be eligible to be a candidate and be elected as a member of the County Committee.
Section 2. No person may be a member or officer of the County Committee or any subordinate committee who:
Section 3. Precinct committee members shall be elected by registered Democratic voters in their perspective districts and shall be gender balanced in number of male and female. Voters’ instructions shall provide: “Vote for two (2) precinct committee members.” The male and female with the most votes with the highest number of votes shall be elected.
Section 4. Write-in candidates votes will be counted the same as those who submitted the position and were on the ballots in his/her precinct qualifies as winning and are not required to obtain the same number of votes as signatures as those needed for petitions. Precinct Members shall have full charge of the Democratic organization in their respective precincts for a term of 4 years.
Article IV – Reorganization
Section 1. The newly elected precinct committee members shall hold a reorganization meeting and elect by majority vote the Executive Committee.
Section 2. The reorganization meeting shall be held at such hour and place designated by the present Chairperson. The meeting shall be held not earlier than one week following the Spring Primary Election of the year of the gubernatorial election and not later than the sixth Wednesday following that election.
Section 3. During the period between the election and the reorganization meeting, no vacancies existing in the precinct positions or the Executive Committee shall be filled.
Section 4. The Executive Committee consists of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and the newly elected State Committee Member. Their term of office shall begin as of the date of the election for a term of four years until their successors are duly elected. Only newly elected precinct committee members are authorized to vote for Executive Committee at the reorganization meeting.
Section 5. The Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson should be gender balanced. When this is not possible, the County Committee can request a waiver of this requirement to the State Committee, which mandates this rule.
Article V – Duties, Authorities and Responsibilities of County Committee Members
Section 1. The Chairperson of the County Committee shall preside at all meetings of the County Committee and shall be entitled to vote therein on all questions; has authority and power to appoint members in precinct vacancies for any open positions; oversees all committee activities; and is responsible for the maintenance and growth of the committee’s membership. The Chairperson shall also be one of the two signatures on the County Committee’s bank account.
Section 2. The Vice-Chairperson, in the absence of or by permission by the Chairperson, shall act in the same authority and power as the Chairperson. In the event of a vacancy in the office of Chairperson, the Vice-Chair will serve as Chairperson until a Chairperson is elected by a quorum of the County Committee members.
Section 3. The Secretary shall be responsible to: attend all county committee meetings; take, record, and maintain minutes, attendance records and correspondences that are the business of the County Committee; keep and maintain the roll of the membership including home mailing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers; prepare the minutes and distribute them along with notification of the next County Committee meeting to all of the County Committee members via email at least one week (7 days) prior to the next month’s meeting ; and notify the newspaper of those and other meetings, for announcement in their calendar for public notification.
Section 4. The Treasurer shall be responsible for all financial record keeping and bank account maintenance and reconciliation; provide a written monthly financial report to the County Committee members one week in advance of the County Committee’s monthly meeting; and file the Campaign Finance Reports on time. The Treasurer, along with the Chairman, will be one of the two signatures on the County Committee’s bank account and shall only disburse funds and sign checks that have been approved by the majority vote of the County Executive Committee or by the County Committee membership. The Treasurer can be requested to be bonded.
Section 5. Should the need arise between monthly County Committee meetings, the Executive Committee, by a majority vote, shall have authority to decide normal expenditures or those arising from necessity for the County Committee, of no greater than $75. The voting may occur via email or text. These decisions and expenditures must be reported to the County Committee members at the next meeting and recorded into the minutes.
Section 6. The precinct committee members are required to attend monthly County Committee meetings to maintain their membership. He/she may only miss (3) consecutive monthly meetings per year. If he/she misses a fourth meeting, they may be expelled by a vote of the Executive Committee. On the occasion that a precinct committee member is unable to attend a County Committee monthly meeting, that member may send a proxy in their place to the County Committee meeting. The proxy must be a registered Democrat from the precinct committee member’s precinct and must notify the Committee’s Secretary via email or text in advance of the meeting, identifying the use and name of the Proxy. The proxy may only be used twice in one year per precinct committee member.
Article VI- Violations and Expulsion
Section 1. Any member or officer of the County Committee accused of being disqualified under any provision of Article III shall be entitled to a full hearing by the County Executive Committee.
Section 2. A written letter explaining the violation and the time and date of such hearing shall be mailed to the person in violation 15 days prior to the hearing. This action shall be recorded by the Committee’s Secretary. The County Executive Committee will vote by a majority to decide the ruling. Any ruling of the County Executive Committee may be appealed to the State Executive Committee within thirty (30) days from the date on which such ruling is handed down.
Section 3. The Executive Committee, by a majority vote of, has the authority to expel any member after four consecutive absences, (including two (2) without proxy).
Article VII – Vacancies
Section 1. After the reorganizational meeting, the Chairperson may appoint precinct committee members as full voting precinct committee members to fill any and all open seats, keeping diversity of the body of the County Committee as a consideration when filling them.
Section 2. In the case of a vacancy in the office of a Precinct Committee Representative for any precinct by reason of death, resignation, removal due to bylaw violations, failure to elect at a Primary Election, or any other cause, the County Committee Chairperson shall have the power to appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. It is the responsibility of the Chairperson to make that appointment with the intention of creating a broadly diverse County Committee body and choosing the best representative person for that precinct.
Section 3. In the case of a vacancy of a member of the County Executive Committee, the Vice-Chairperson will act in full capacity as the Chairperson until one is duly elected by a quorum of the County Committee members. The other positions shall be filled by agreement of the other three Executive Committee members for the remainder of the position’s term.
Section 4. In addition to the elected members of the County Committee, the Chair may appoint up to four (4) “at large” persons as full voting precinct committee members to the County Committee.
Section 5. The term of appointed positions shall run from the time of appointment until the next Gubernatorial Primary.
Article VIII – Quorum
A quorum will be established by those County Committee members and Executive Committee in attendance of that meeting when all members were properly notified within seven (7) days of a meeting and the number in attendance is at least 50% of the current membership plus 1.
Article IX – Parliamentary Rules
Meetings of the County Committee shall be conducted in accordance with the rules stated herein and when such procedure is not laid down, then by Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised.”
Article X – Amendments
These bylaws and rules may be amended at any meeting of the County Committee by the affirmative votes of a majority of the members in attendance, provided that a written notice of the amendment was submitted to the membership by email or postmarked at least seven (7) days prior to the monthly or special meeting.
Article XI – Effective Date of Rules
These bylaws and rules shall go into effect upon their approval and adoption by both the County Committee and the State Democratic Committee. Such approval will repeal all former bylaws and rules.
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