(b). ME went to her poll to vote at 6:30 pm, where she
has voted for the past six years. She followed all the signs to find the
doors locked. She wondered around Horace Mann School to see if there might be
a poll worker or someone around, but a janitor told her "they closed early -
you might be able to vote at 24th and Capp St." Ms. E then called the
Registrar's Office at 6:50, The Registrar's Office said they would send a
team around to check it. "How am I supposed to vote?" she asked, to which
they responded, they would "call her right back." They never called and Mary
Efferen was unable to cast her ballot.
(c). Ms. E further complains that when her neighbor went out in the
rain at 7:50 to vote at the same precinct, she found an open poll by
accident, in spite of signs telling her to go the other way. She found a tiny
handwritten sign that said vote here, and when she went in there was a flag
and a poll. There was no flag outside. She remarked to another voter who was
leaving, whom she knew, "I'm just mean enough to come out in the rain to vote
no!" and when she went to vote, the poll worker, who overheard her, told her
she might "not be able to vote here." She voted anyway.
(d). Doug Comstock (386-4934) precinct #3506 was enraged to find only one
worker at his poll, an African- American man who was wearing 49er colors.
When he asked why the man was alone with the ballot box, the worker responded
that the other worker was at lunch and another had gone to the bathroom. Mr.
Comstock went immediately to the telephone and called Germaine Wong, who said
she would send someone right over. When Mr. Comstock went back to vote, the
poll worker had returned from the bathroom and held up a book of what
appeared to be instructions and said "I can't find it anywhere, that there
has to be two people here all the time!" He continued to shuffle the pages of
his booklet throughout Mr. Comstock's stay. When he tried to put his own
ballot in the box, the man took it from him and looked at his voter card
before putting it in the box.
(e). VH tried to vote as usual at her polling place at
Chestnut and Webster, but found no poll there. She learned that it had been
moved to 3630 Divisadero and she went there. When she got there, her name was
not on the roll. Several neighbors seemed to have the same problem, they all
had to vote provisionally.
(f). GK complained that they changed his poll location and
when he went there to vote, he was not on the voter rolls, and was forced to
vote provisionally. This has never happened to him before.
(g). AP described a serious incident that took place at
about 8:30 am, at her poll near 1000 Post St. She insists that the ballot box
looked like it had been opened and then sealed again, because there were two
seals, the top one almost concealing the other. She observed the man voting
before her using a pink provisional vote, but when he handed it to the woman,
she refused to seal the envelope or give him a receipt. When the man asked
her to seal his vote, she said "they were busy," but he insisted and she
finally consented. She refused to give him a receipt. "If you take the
receipt off it won't be counted," she told him. When she voted Ann said the
woman gave her the same excuse, and refused to give her a receipt. This upset
her, because she had saved every receipt for every election she ever voted.
"Until this incident I had a pretty good confidence in the system," she said.
7. The Dead Shall Rise Up.
(a). MV concerned about deceased registered voters
who may, in fact, still be on the voter rolls, and the ease with which
someone might "vote for them," called the Health Department to get a list of
those who may have died in the last two years, planning to turn it over to
Committee investigators. She was told "that is not possible" by a clerk
working for Ed Hernandez. The clerk told her that the Department sends over a
list of the dead to the Department of Elections quarterly, however, they are
behind right now, "over 6 months behind?" Ms. Verges asked. "Probably" the
clerk responded. "Over a year?" she queried. "I am not at liberty to give out
that information," the clerk responded.
(b). JD concerned that the death statistics may be being
kept secret to prevent comparison by neighborhood investigators working with
the voter logs, filed a Sunshine request with the Health Department. The
Health Department responded that they have been advised by City Attorney
Louise Rene, that the records are not covered by the Sunshine Act. Mr. Dunbar
has filed a request under public access acts to obtain the record. The Health
Department is awaiting instructions from the City Attorney.
There are approximately 8,500 deaths in the city per year. If the voter
rolls have not been purged in two years there could be thousands of votes
waiting for unprincipled cheaters. When asked about the last time voter rolls
were purged using the records from the Health Department, Ms. Wong was
noncommittal, "they are removed as we learn about them" she said. There are
knowledgeable estimates that there may be as many as 15 to 20 thousand voters
who should be removed because they are not among us anymore. When these are
added to those who have moved, it may be an unimaginable number. Of the
400,000 registered voters, the largest turnout was 226,000 in the last
presidential election, raising the question of the other 175,000. If the City
Attorney, the Health Department and the Department of Elections persist in
this cover-up, state and federal authorities must be requested.
8. Official City Partisanship.
The City Charter: Sec. 3.100 "The Mayor... shall serve full time in
that capacity. The Mayor shall devote his or her entire time and attention to
the duties of the office, and shall not devote time or attention to any other
occupation or business activity." Mayor Willie Brown has instead spent full
time as spokesman for the private, for-profit 49er's. "He's on this (stadium
campaign) every day, all day on some level, "says Kandace Bender, Brown's
press secretary. "Everywhere he goes he talks about the stadium. Today he had
a class of fifth-graders in his office to talk about city government, and he
gave them a pitch for the stadium. He told 'em, 'I know you can't vote, but
get your parents to vote.' " This unparalleled diversion of official
responsibility prior to the election was far outdistanced during the
election, and included the following known violations of nonintervention in
partisan elections:
(a). City employees were "strongly encouraged" to take election day off at
the City's expense to work GOTV (get out the vote) for the pro-stadium
forces. Commissioners and appointed officials, who serve at the whim of the
Mayor, know these are buzz words which merely veil a threat to their
promotion or even their livelihood.
(b). Many of those City Officials used City vehicles to drive around to polls
to get out voters. Photographs of this are in our possession.
(c). A special Official Vehicle placard was used to allow preferential
parking for Yes on D & F GOTV workers, and Department of Parking and Traffic
managers instructed employees to issue no tickets to cars bearing the
placard, unless they were parked in hazardous positions.
(d). Visitacion Valley community activist MT may be
typical of the dilemma that presented itself to citizens who felt pressured,
directly or indirectly, by the Mayor's influence. When Malik Lopez from the
Mayor's Office of Community Development called and asked her to organize a
community rally for the 49er's stadium/mall among her neighbors, she refused.
"I see no benefits whatever for my community from such a thing," she said. "I
felt I was being pressured because I had filed a request for a grant from
that agency." It will be telling to see if her grant is requested.
(e). Votes were counted by partisans from the Mayor's Offices. The hands-on
counting was carried out at the direction of Steve Nelson, Director of
Administrative Services from the Mayor's Office, rather than the Chief
Administrative Officer, Bill Lee, the City's independent office, which
usually carries out the procedure. Political operatives Georgia Dunne and
Jill Lerner, both of the Mayor's Office, were supervising election workers. A
video was taken of Nelson actually operating a vote counting machine.
(f). Samson Wong, was a "ballot counting monitor." Mr. Wong is a long time
employee of Jack Davis, campaign manager for the Yes on D & F issue. Other
known pro-stadium partisans had unlimited access to the counting process,
which was denied to others whose position was not similar.
(g). In the extremely close tally, the forgoing were critical factors.
Especially when it was discovered that in four of the waterproof strong boxes
the ballots had "gotten all wet," according to Director of Elections Germaine
Wong. These mysterious "wet ones" were removed to an undisclosed area to be
micro-waved dry. It is unknown how they were then passed through the
machines.
(h). The Yes on D & F tally took a sudden, unprecedented 8 point surge with
report #8 at around midnight. These ballots were from trucks that took almost
three hours to get from polling places in areas diversely located throughout
the city. "Traffic snarls due to rain" were cited. No such traffic problems
were reported by media at the time, however. Trucks from Bayview and
Visitacion Valley usually can drive straight down Third Street, a 10 or
fifteen minute trip at most. However, when 39 safeboxes of secret ballots are
logged in after 11: pm--three hours after polls were closed, with the final
arrival at 11:38 pm, even the most gullible citizens must ask the simple
question. Where were they?
(i). The official explaination for the last minute surge, that late arrivals
reflected a high Yes on D & F approval by voters in the Bayview-Hunters
Point, Ingleside and Excelsior districts, seems highly unlikely in light of
the rejection by the Mayor and 49er officials of the binding Memorandum of
Understanding drawn up by leaders in the Bayview-Hunters Point community to
guarantee in writing promises made by proponents of Yes on D & F. Many
residents and leaders in the community thereafter became very vocal in their
opposition.
9. Neighborhood Solutions
Because the Committee to Stop the Giveaway has always been active in
neighborhood politics, we have a network of people talking to others in the
Bayview, Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley and Excelsior, who all seem to be
saying the same thing. There were massive irregularities on election day in
those areas. Many are very interested in determining how their precinct tally
was accomplished, since they know their neighbors, all voted against the
stadium/mall (Propositions D & F).
(a). In Little Hollywood, for example, RO possesses a
petition signed by almost every person in his precinct, regarding a
neighborhood issue with Norcal, and he disputes the claim that his precinct
(3031) which has suffered the brunt of traffic from the current stadium, and
would suffer even greater traffic nightmares should the propositions pass,
could have voted for the stadium by 155 to 99 - 64%. He also talked to and
knows many of his neighbors and knows they were 90% against it. No residents
displayed Stadium Jobs posters in their windows. He is anxious to compare
signatures and get to the bottom of the vote count. He has also traveled
every street and noted every existing address in his precinct. He believes it
is his right to determine the legality of any election.
(b). In the Excelsior, RS, President of the
Excelsior Improvement Association, a neighborhood homeowners group, conducted
a vote of her groups members that showed 60 opposed and only 1 in favor, and
all are voters. She was surprised that the Excelsior precincts reported any
kind of plurality for the stadium/mall and has a network of retired seniors
who are willing to contact every voter in their precincts. She is in
possession of a signed petition of several thousand voters who opposed
placing a home for "troubled youth" in their residential area. They are ready
to compare signatures and do the homework to determine that their
neighborhood has not been ripped-off.
There are similar key persons lined up in the Ingleside, Bayview,
Hunters Point, etc. We are organizing neighbors to do the work that can only
be done precinct by precinct, and we also have precinct workers, veterans of
many elections, who have made thousands of calls to determine the vote in
their precincts. They are ready as well, to ferret out the fraud neighbor by
neighbor.
This election should be overturned, the records at the Department of
Elections should be sealed and preserved immediately and federal inspectors
should be employed. There is a general and pervasive crisis of confidence in
the election process throughout the city. The Committee to Stop the Giveaway
is still in the process of gathering complaints. They should be directed to
Doug Comstock, 386-4934.
The Committee to Stop the Giveaway was formed in 1992. It is a public
interest group of volunteer citizens opposed to the diversion of public
resources to private, for-profit individuals, corporations or other entities.
It is the view of Stop the Giveaway, that our inalienable right to an
election, free from intimidation, governmental intervention and influence and
secure in the confidence that one person, one vote shall be the uncompromised
principle of our social foundation, must never be relenquished.
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