Open Wards 101

What are open and closed wards?

Committee people and ward leaders can serve a number of critical functions -- for example, they help make sure polling places are staffed with election board workers, and they register their neighbors to vote and help get them to the polls -- but arguably the most important role they play is endorsing candidates.

Each election cycle, many wards across  the city endorse candidates up and down the ballot. In an active ward, committee people hear from the candidates directly, deliberate with each other and with voters in their neighborhood, and eventually encourage constituents in their division  to support the ward’s slate. These endorsements can carry considerable weight, particularly in low-information races, like local judicial or row office elections, since they might be the only thing a voter hears about the candidates.

In closed wards, committee people generally do not have a say in the endorsement process and the ward leader  decides on their own, or with a small group within the ward, which candidates will be supported. Sometimes in these circumstances, the reasons for picking one candidate over another may be unrelated to the caliber of the candidates and might instead be a function of which candidate will provide the most money to the ward. (Wards do incur election-related costs, including the printing campaign literature and paying committee people for their efforts; however, there are numerous past examples of candidates’ contributions not going toward legitimate expenses.). Wards with closed endorsement processes do not have agreed-upon bylaws or any other written procedures for how to conduct ward business.

In open wards, all candidates are provided an equal opportunity to make their case to the committee people, and the ward’s endorsement is made following a vote guided by a clear, written process. Furthermore, committee people who don’t support the ward’s endorsed candidates are provided with a reasonable way to support their own candidates. That might mean, for example, that committee people in an open ward provide literature that has both the ward’s endorsements and their own endorsements, so the voters in that division have access to both recommendations. Wards with open endorsement processes generally agreed-upon governing procedures (e.g. bylaws) to ensure transparency and democratic decision making amongst the committee people who make up the ward. For more, see this list of Open Ward Principles.

Why do open wards matter?

We believe that ward processes and procedures should be rooted in democratic principles. We believe that committee people, who are the direct representatives of their constituents, have the right to hear from all candidates and vote on the ward’s endorsements. And we believe that in a primary election committee people should be able to personally support any candidate of their party free from retribution and retaliation.  

Open wards are by far the most democratic, and the open ward philosophy allows the ward’s decision-making to best reflect the needs and concerns of its voters.

Alternatively, a closed ward system lends itself to pay-to-play deals and the kinds of backroom politics that has had a corrosive effect on our local government and democracy.