Randy Speck: Treat ANC candidates equally on ballot access

Forty-five advisory neighborhood commissioners recently asked the DC Board of Elections to expand the period for circulating petitions for the November general election. They requested that ANC candidates be treated the same as candidates for all other offices. Those seeking other elected offices in the District may begin to collect signatures to get on the ballot as of June 15. Those seeking to become ANC commissioners, however, may not pick up their petitions until July 9. All petitions for all offices must be returned by Aug. 8. That gives ANC candidates only 30 days to pick up and return petitions while all other candidates have almost two months.

This schedule creates a particular burden for ANC candidates. Unlike other candidates in the District, advisory neighborhood commissioners represent only about 2,000 residents, including children and other non-voters. Consequently, they must gather the required 25 signatures of registered voters from a much smaller pool. That one month for obtaining signatures is prime vacation time, when school is out and many of our constituents are away. Indeed, many potential ANC candidates are themselves traveling outside the District during this shortened petition period. It is hard enough to find committed candidates willing to take on this unpaid, often thankless job without imposing a burdensome petition schedule as an additional obstacle that will discourage people from running for the ANC.

No statute or regulation requires the Board of Elections to give ANC candidates a shorter petition period than other candidates. The DC Code merely specifies the latest date for making petitions available for ANC candidates — 120 days before the general election, which is July 9 this year. There is no prohibition, however, on making petitions available earlier. Thus, it is within the board’s discretion to set an earlier date, and the board may permit ANC candidates to pick up petitions beginning on June 15, like all other candidates. That would put ANC candidates on a par with other District offices. 

The board confirmed its power to make this change. Nevertheless, on June 11, the board denied the commissioners’ request, arguing that the change “could be prejudicial to other interested parties who have little or no notice of the schedule change.” On the contrary, the 45 commissioners who petitioned the board come from all eight wards and include representatives from 22 of the 41 ANCs in the District. These commissioners responded in only a week to an email that went to every commissioner. Not a single commissioner expressed any reservation or objection to an expanded petition period.

More important, there is no way that any ANC candidate could be prejudiced by an expansion of everyone’s opportunities to get on the ballot. The commissioners’ request would not constrict anyone’s ability to run in the general election but would provide additional time for every potential candidate. In collaboration with the board and local news resources like The DC Line, the ANCs could help to ensure that the word gets out to every community about the expanded petition period. Our proposed longer petition period would broaden the pool of potential candidates and eliminate impediments that might discourage some who would like to run.

If the Board of Elections does not make this change for the 2018 general election cycle, it should certainly do so for the 2020 election. The Board of Elections should take reasonable steps to accommodate candidates who might want to be ANC commissioners. One such step is to expand the petition period to make it the same as for all other elected offices.

Randy Speck is chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3/4G (Chevy Chase).

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