As the Bronx political season kicks into high gear, community organizers like Samelys Lopez of Bedford Park are working to ensure more equitable political participation across the borough. This not only includes going to the polls, but running for a county committee seat, a governing body composed of members of the same political party.

As it stands, the process is esoteric. How does one get on a county committee?

The question stood at the heart of a workshop organized by Lopez, who corralled community activists and leaders from various political groups across the city to St. Paul’s Church in Parkchester on May 26. The groups present veered away from establishment political clubs.

Lopez’s group, Local Democrats of New York, co-hosted the panel with Bronx Progressives, another political group, with the aim of crystallizing the role county committees play while encouraging guests to consider a run. Panelists, including the Brooklyn-based Rep Your Block, You Matter Nation, and the Albany-based County Committee Sunlight Project, shared their experiences as committee members and as organizers working to expand civic participation.

To become a county committee member, one needs signatures, a process called petitioning. This year’s process began on June 5 and ends July 12.

Understanding the mechanics of county committee is absent on the website for the Bronx Democratic Party, the main political party that up until recently was known as the Bronx Democratic County Committee. Its website is dated (the website still shows Congressman Charles Rangel as the current representative for the 13th Congressional District, now represented by Adriano Espaillat), and county committee bylaws, which dictate party rules and the arcane county committee process, are not posted. Marcos Crespo, chair of the Bronx Democratic Party, said the rules can be seen at the Bronx Board of Elections office.

Despite little commitment required of committee members, a third of Bronx Democratic Party county committee seats stand vacant, according to documents filed by the New York State Board of Elections. Committee membership is the second highest in the city, with higher vacancies in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. But, not everyone is convinced the borough’s membership rate is accurate.

“To say that they’re active isn’t exactly true,” said Michael Beltzer, a Soundview resident who recently ran for the 32nd Senate District seat occupied by Sen. Luis Sepulveda after his predecessor, Ruben Diaz Sr., vacated the seat to become Councilman. Beltzer co-founded Local Democrats of New York with Lopez, adding “[County] committee should be active and discussing policy and different things that can be reformed, but it currently doesn’t do that.”

One of the workshop’s panelists, Rev. Carmen Hernandez of Soundview, questioned the commitment of the Bronx Democratic Party to fill county seats. “This is a political gang,” Hernandez said. “They vote for each other, they stick together.”

“The perception some critics try to create, either to demoralize county committee members or to allege that Bronx County somehow misleads or misuses our County Committee is absurd and void of truth,” Crespo told the Norwood News. Crespo also believes it’s important to not misinform potential members of the limited power county committee members hold.

Indeed, the influence county committee seats hold–much like the powers of a U.S. vice president–are broad but narrow. The body’s true influence comes when a state legislator vacates a seat, opening the door for committee members falling in the district of the vacant seat to convene and decide who will fill the seat. This is done with very little influence from the Bronx’s general voting bloc.

Lopez believes increasing county committee membership will increase the number of voters going to the polls this election season. The Bronx produced the lowest voter turnout in the city during the 2016 presidential election, with 52 percent of registered voters casting a ballot.

As it stands, all 2,500 county committee seats in the Bronx are currently up for election, with seats rarely contested.

As a largely Democratic county, committee seats in the Bronx are comprised of registered Democrats who live within the assembly district they petition in. Each assembly district is made up of election districts, which usually span a handful of city blocks. Anyone who lives in these election districts can run for county committee, and each election district has about two to four available seats.

Prospective committee members will need to gather signatures from at least five percent of the election district they’re running in. For instance, if someone runs in Election District 38, within the 78th Assembly District, they would need 39 signatures out of the 780 registered Democrats living in that district.

Candidates for county committee only appear on ballots if their seat is contested.