It’s election time at Pacifica Radio again. Your annual contribution lets you pick the board at your local station. That’s pretty unique for a media outlet. How do you handle this grave responsibility? We are here to help with voting info, some news, endorsements at our local station (Berkeley) and a few opinions to chew on as you make your decisions. We hope it’s helpful! Please remember to vote by September 30th. We can’t just let a noisy few shape our community institutions. These are community decisions and all of us make them together.
ENDORSEMENTS
This election season, we are only endorsing at KPFA as a publication. We know that may be annoying, but we encourage you to listen to the debates, read candidate statements, and think about the issues we’ll discuss below as you consider the candidates at your station. For the Northern California folks: we are recommending the following listener candidates for the KPFA election (in alphabetical order)
Cheryl Davila, Edward Escobar, Nayvin Gordon, Elizabeth Milos, Pathma Venasithamby, Rich Stone, Stan Woods, Steve Zeltzer
HOW TO VOTE
Your ballot link should arrive by email today (August 15th). You have until September 30th to complete it. If you are a current member at your station, and don’t receive a ballot, you can request one here. If you would like to hear more from the candidates, you can tune into or stream on demand candidate discussions that will be broadcast as follows:
KPFA – Aug 18 @ 11-2 PM PST, KPFK – Aug 14-18 @ 2-3 PM PST (In English) & Aug 14-17 @ 830-1030 PM PST (En Español), KPFT – Aug 11 & August 18 @ 7-8 PM CST, WBAI – Aug 19, 26 & Sept 2 @ 4-6 PM EST, WPFW – Aug 28 @ 5-8 PM EST
Pacifica uses ranked choice voting, which is a system of proportional representation that allows you to rank the candidates you like in order so that your vote isn’t lost if your favored candidates have already been eliminated. So pick up to 9 listener candidates (or 3 staff candidates if you are a member of the staff) and put a #1 next to your favorite, #2 next to your second best and so on. Don’t stress out about it. Your vote will automatically transfer to your most favored candidate that is still in contention. Just make sure the candidates you like most get the highest rankings on your ballot. You can access a voter guide here.
Continue reading 2023 Pacifica Election Is Here – How To Vote