Endorsements: San Francisco ADEM 2021 Elections

4 min readDec 31, 2020

The 2021 California Democratic Party Assembly Delegate elections are in January.

If you are a California Democrat, there’s an important election you need to vote in this January.

The California Democratic Party (CADEM) is composed of all 10.2M registered Democrats. Every year, the party hosts a convention to endorse candidates, take positions on ballot measures, establish the party platform and propose resolutions. Since there is no venue that can accommodate all 10 million plus voters, Assembly Delegates are appointed and/or elected to attend the Convention as representatives of the voters in their Districts in addition to attending meetings throughout the year to represent the voters within their community.

How Democrats Become Assembly Delegates

Be an elected member of a Democratic County Central Committee in the state
Receive an appointment from a federal or state elected official
Run for delegate in your Assembly District and win one of the 14 positions (7 “self-identified female” and 7 “other than self-identified female”)

In normal times, CADEM hosts in-person elections for Assembly Delegates; in San Francisco, these are heavily contested, raucous events in which long lines of people wait for hours in either the sweltering heat, freezing cold or pouring rain before casting their vote. Due to the pandemic, in-person voting is being replaced with a two-step system of requesting a ballot and voting by mail.

You Must Request a Mail-In Ballot by January 11

In order to vote, you must request a ballot in advance; this can be done online, via phone or email. The link to request your ballot is here.

The other options are requesting a ballot via phone by calling 916–442–5707 or by sending an email to adem@cadem.org.

The deadline to request a ballot is Monday, January 11 at 11:59 PM, so just click here and get it done!

Please note that you must be a registered Democrat to vote in this election.

Your Mail-In Ballot Must Be Received in Sacramento by January 27

After you’ve requested your ballot, save your confirmation number because you’ll need that for the mail-in ballot which will be sent to the address on your voting record. CADEM will mail out ballots on January 6, so watch for it in your snail-mail; it should arrive by January 15.

Once you receive the ballot, fill it out that day and return it to the designated address on the prepaid return envelope. There is a hard deadline of January 27 for the ballots to be received; it won’t count if it is late.

To be safe, fill out your ballot and mail it back as soon you receive it; you don’t need to put a stamp on it so be a mensch and mail it back the same day (or no later than January 22).

Determine Your Assembly District + Who You Should Vote For

If you don’t know your Assembly District, look it up here, but you don’t need this to request your ballot.

Check your email after you complete the ballot request form; you should receive a confirmation with your mailing address and the Registration ID that you’ll need to put on your mail-in ballot.

If you live in San Francisco, there are two Assembly Districts, AD-17 (represented by Assemblymember David Chiu) and AD-19 (represented by Assemblymember Phil Ting).

In District 17, the club has endorsed David Chiu’s “Rise Together” Slate which represents a diverse coalition of advocates for immigrants, housing, transit, parents, students, small businesses and the environment, and includes a wide variety of experiences from janitor to home caregiver, sprinkler fitter and public sector employees.