Everything Went Wrong at the Uptown Planning Group Vote, But Maybe That Was Intended
By Mat Wahlstrom
If you’ve been following local news, you may be aware that two hours Tuesday night was the only time allowed for any of the 40,000 residents in Uptown to vote in person in the new Uptown Community Planning Group election.
This election was already unprecedented as UpCPG’s intent has always been to conduct it entirely online — without a paper trail. (Even those showing up to vote in person had to use a tablet to register their vote.)
What could go wrong? Quite simply, everything.
At the 75-minute mark, the election committee finally had to cancel in-person voting. They realized their software was double-counting votes and locked up when they tried to fix it.
This was after over 160 people had been in line at the start, with many leaving rather than continue to wait over an hour — as it had already been taking up to 15 minutes or more to process each voter.
There were only three people running this election — using just two tablets. Coincidentally, these same three founded Vibrant Uptown— the “group” that successfully petitioned the city to disestablish Uptown Planners.
They also posted on their website and all over social media their endorsed list of candidates for whom to vote, confusing those looking for unbiased information about this election.
The crowd’s reaction was rightly furious. Even those who had pre-registered to vote in person (such as myself) were denied that chance; and those who had not pre-registered were cleared from the room before they could provide their names and email addresses to be allowed to vote later.
But then, this entire scenario has been craptacular from the start.
Vibrant Uptown was appointed by the San Diego City Council last May to Uptown Planners, the official community planning group recognized by the city for over 50 years to advise on land-use issues.
Although Uptown Planners has always been democratically elected with no evidence of voter fraud, this was allegedly done to ensure “a more representative community planning group.”
Vibrant Uptown’s effort was spearheaded by other pro-development advocates, who had long argued that Uptown Planners’ persistent emphasis on affordability, accessibility and adequate infrastructure stymied growth at all costs.
This became critical in deciding who will guide the implementation of Plan Hillcrest, the recent rewrite of the 2016 Uptown Community Plan.
As with the many other municipal scandals — such as 101 Ash and Midway Rising and now the proposed Kettner and Vine mega shelter demonstrate — transparency and accountability to the public at all levels in San Diego has been kicked to the curb in the mad dash to reward political campaign donors.
It’s high time to ebb this tide of corruption.
All of the online votes and voting procedures that occurred before August 20 need to be independently verified by the City Auditor or an equally neutral and credible accountancy firm.
Once those have been cleared, there needs to be at least two full days of in-person voting at convenient locations by paper ballot only (Uptown Planners held three). And this voting must be conducted by an equally neutral and credible third party allowing observers on all sides to ensure results that are fair and true.
Otherwise, as Stalin is alleged to have said: “The people who vote don’t count; the people who count the vote do.”
Mat Wahlstrom is a candidate in the current UpCPG election. He also is an incumbent on the board of Uptown Planners and current chair of their Ad Hoc Plan Hillcrest Committee.
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