Save voting in California: Important action alert

His resignation does not take effect until March 1st.

http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/


Call Kevin Shelley 916-653-7244 Urge Him to Rescind his Resignation
(See also below.)

PUT YOUR DONATIONS TOWARDS CAUSES AND LEADERS THAT SUPPORT YOU - NOT TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON SOCIALIZING.
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Here are the current causes/leaders that need your donations:

KEVIN SHELLEY: He has expended a great deal of his personal funds so that he can continue to fight for fair elections. If we lose him, we could lose California. If you want to help donate to Kevin Shelley's legal defense fund, you can send donations to his aacountants at:

Olson, Hagel & Fishburn
555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1425
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 442-2952

Make checks out to Legal Defense Fund.

JIM MCDERMOTT: Fighting for your right to know the truth has cost Jim over half a million dollars, and this amount is climbing. This is the man who went to Baghdad to try to stop this war that was based on a lie. He needs your support. Please consider donating at http://mcdermottforcongress.com/contribute.html.

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There is also a link from the front page to a resolution that was passed in support of Kevin Shelley. The resolution shows the partisan attacks on him for exactly what they are.

The only thing standing between us and a Red California is Kevin Shelley.

We can't depend on the other Democrats to keep Arnold from appointing someone who will rig the elections - the Republicans are going to rig the elections and then Pombo will be our senator instead of Boxer.

..What exactly is going on? Wht is causing him to resign?

we need to point out that many California Democrats, including some of the most progressive and liberal in the state such as Democrat Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, had called upon Shelly to resign.

The problem with the Democrats appears to be political. The Lieutenant governor's son plans to run in 2006 for Kevin Shelley's job. Bustamonte, the father, is in tight with the party leadership and some people are willing to sacrifice Shelley to help a friend despite the consequences. Bustamonte (the son) would have an easier time running against whoever Arnold appoints than against Shelley in the primary. The trouble is California voters will be in danger of having their votes thrown out if we lose Kevin Shelley.

Clubs and grass roots leaders throughout California have been passing resolutions in support of Kevin Shelley. However, the party leadership is useless when it comes to supporting the voters. Kevin Shelley went way out on a limb, de-certifying Diebold, and he is not getting back up from the leaders when he needs it.

But be that as it may, if Shelly did nothing wrong then why did he resign? Even he himself in his resignation letter said he has made "mistakes."

I choose to put principles above partisanship.

It's time to support those who stand between us and rigged elections. The alternative to Shelley is a serious of guaranteed rigged ballot propositions that will cost the Democrats seats in Congress. I'm for fair elections so I'm for Shelley. I encourage anyone who supports fair elections to stand up for Shelley.

What if he's found not guilty? Or don't you believe in "innocent until proven guilty" anymore?

This is all part of the GOP strategy to drain Democrats' financial resources dry, in addition to creating an opportunity steal votes in a huge blue state. Shelly has incurred half a million in legal fees to defend himself, and he hasn't even had his day in court.

Did Tom DeLay step down when he was facing indictment? No, the Rethugs in Congress changed the rules so he could stay.

This is WAR! The Thugs have fought dirty since 64' and we must do the same to SURVIVE!!!

besides the evidence (seems pretty strong to me) that he broke the law - we are not helping the party by fighting to keep him in. If he stays, he could be indicted - making it even easier for Arnold and Co. to paint us as corrupt and needing that damn broom again.

I too worry about voter protection. Doesn't mean Shelley is being framed or that he should stay, imo.

Shelley is under attack solely becaue he fought for you and me. Now it's time for us to do the right thing and fight for him.

voting rights. YOu should also demand Bustamonte never again run for public office. If he's renominated for Lt. Gov, he's lost my vote.

defending himself, and he's had to mortgage his house. He can't afford to pay the lawyers. I think they offered him a deal to get off the hook if he bailed.

Now, if the Rethugs intentions were purely to purge a dishonest politician from office, they would want to prosecute him to the hilt, right? But if they're essentially bribing him to bail out, one has to wonder why. Ah, the opportunity to install a Blawellesque Rethug to rig our elections, of course!

That's the real prize for the GOP.

to indicate that the Rethugs are in charge in California and it's they who forced Shelly to resign, but that's not true. He resigned in the face of pressure from his fellow Democrats.

I'm a Democrat who voted for Gore and Kerry in the last two elections, and I despise Bush. However, I am not naive enough to think that only Republicans can be corrupt politicians.

We cannot afford to be making mistakes like Shelley made.

A Democrat being accused of Ken Blackwell's crimes.

Supposed election irregularities and he sent his aide to represent him.

Ken Blackwell of Ohio has many blatant election irregularities, but he got a court injunction to prevent him from "harrassment" by the people who wanted to know HOW he "delivered the vote" to Bush - as Ken promised in writing prior to the election.

So Blackwell actually committed election fraud and is allowed to be above the law, but they have to prosecute someone to get the media attention diverted, so they are stringing up a Democrat.

Some stuff I read seemed legit, but I don't know.

..hundreds of dollars. :o

I'm so glad that someone is finally doing something about that kind of corruption in Government!

The PHDC has been leading the call to keep Shelley in office.

There is also a link from the club's front page to a voting record chart for the Senate that the Republicans have been attacking all day. The chart holds pro-Bush votes against Senators and gives
Senators points for opposing Bush. But warn your friends that only those who disagree with Bush will love this chart. It's got objective mathematical ratings but Bush supporters don't like it when Senators lose points for supporting Bush. Those scoring the highest are Boxer, Akaka, Bayh, Kerry, Byrd, Dayton, Durbin, Harkin, Jeffords, Kennedy, Lautenberg, Levin and Reed (not Reid). Here's that link. http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/sen-scores.html

The Youth Chairman was the kid who spoke before the legislative committee of the California Democratic Party and got the Party to back the Department of Peace legislation. The club got Maxine Waters to speak in favor of a resolution the Youth Chairman wrote calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. l The Party adopted the resolution almost unanimously. Here's a link on that.
http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/CDP_resolutions.html

The group also snubbed the Republicans by throwing a counter-coronation in the most Republican area of California in plain site of all the Republican businessmen. Here's that link. http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/j20-cc05.html

Check out the links from their website to strongly-worded letters to Senators supporting Gonzales and Rice. That club has been leading the call to stop the most extreme of Bush's nominations. They worked overtime to encourage Boxer to contest the election on 1/6. We need more groups like the PHDC.

If you are not watching this group, you should be. It's the club that's leading the way when it comes to standing up to Bush.

what are we going to do? donating is not going to do much if he stops fighting himself.
He had just sent me a thank you letter for my support. this sucks.

I'm glad he resigned.

He was right when he said that the office is bigger than the man. He redeemed himself somewhat in my eyes through his statement today, but he knows it's over. He did the right thing today.

I'm sure Arnold would agree with you sentiments but those of us who have really been following it and know that the attacks were nonsense are sad by the loss of this great champion of voting rights.

voting rights. He had to be dragged into learning about BBV. He did a lousy job, and exercised poor judgement.

If it makes you feel better to accuse me of being in Arnold's camp, then feel free to make baseless comparisons. It doesn't make you right.

This is a lost cause. Shelley is the one to blame for the situation, not fellow DUers and not even Arnold.

I'm sure they could come up with worse stuff about just about anyone. Who cares if two HAVA people went to a political rally.

Who is "they", and what could "they" do to make *me* look worse?

take this warning from a Nevadan ...Sequoias are rigged machines too ...

snip....

Counties face a 2006 federal deadline to have state-certified voting systems ready for the elections, but Shelley's office has approved just one Sequoia model, and that is not certified for the June 2006 primary. If the counties are unable to use voting systems that comply with federal law, the results could be vulnerable to legal challenge.

McCormack suggested Shelley's office appears to have favored Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems in a series of voting machine certification decisions while a competitor, Ohio-based Diebold Inc., was not treated fairly.

McCormack would not elaborate on what she believed motivated the secretary of state's actions.

While neither company is a big campaign contributor in California, Sequoia did give $100,000 to back the Shelley-sponsored Voting Modernization Bond Act, Proposition 41, in 2002 and $1,000 to Shelley's campaign the same year.

Diebold, meanwhile, has drawn criticism from Shelley's fellow Democrats nationally for the fund raising and partisan comments of its chairman, Walden O'Dell. Company officials have given $46,000 to President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 2003, according to federal campaign records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In a 2003 fund-raising letter to Ohio Republicans, meanwhile, O'Dell wrote that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year" at the same time his company was seeking voting systems contracts from Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican.

Diebold representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Alfie Charles, a spokesman for Sequoia, rejected the notion that his company had received favorable treatment, and generally defended Shelley's process.

"I think it's restrictive, tighter than it has been," he said. "There are times when it has seemed unreasonably tight, but the objectives are the right ones."

Shelley spokeswoman Daniels-Meade said she expects more voting systems to be certified in time for the June 2006 primary. The Sequoia system given provisional certification on Jan. 21 likely will be cleared for the June primary when software changes are made.

snip..

more and requires registration ...

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/shelley/story/12235220p-13099223c.html

Then he agreed only to re-certify them only if voters were given the option of a paper ballot. Everyone was suing him over the de-certification of the machines. Diebolds were the worse.

proven guilty.

Most do not they just believe the smears!

that have been sold and entrusted to California voters for their elections. These systems have been tested by computer scientists and are said to be lacking in the most basic security standards, leaving an open window for vote manipulation. Shelley has been standing up to the E-voting manufacturers and demanding accountability and reliability of the machines California has purchased, decertifying Diebold equipment in all counties using one type of their touchscreen system.

Could it be, that Shelley is paying the political price for having integrity in his public service? He has come under such a multitude of attacks in the last few weeks, ranging from sexual harassment to laundered campaign donations, it seems a little strange that all this dirt is turning up - one after another. When stories like this come out - somebody has to go digging for it and for a reason. I don't know if the allegations are true or not, but one thing seems apparent, that someone is going after Shelley - but who and why?"
http://www.americanether.net/shelley.html

What the Republicans did to get Democrat Gray Davis run out of office with the Enron created "Gray-outs"-- The Republican financed recall was created to get their celebrity star republican Schwarzenegger to replace Democrat Davis as Governor.

Please tell people to write or call Shelley asking him NOT to resign.
http://www.ss.ca.gov

like a partisan "hit". Odd, isn't it, that the "liberal" SF Chronicle started a whole slew of open-ended investigations into the guy (including a full page spread on how certain ex-employees alleged he was a, quote, "mean boss") immediately after he started raising a stink about Diebold and paper trail free Electronic Voting?

There's no way the guy is going to rescind his resignation. He recognized that he was up against the fully allayed forces of the corporo-fascist GOP-ggernaut. Like Gray Davis, he was an obstacle that had to be removed, and the ever-compliant media was all too willing to play along. Now Arnold will have a hand-picked toady in there to "oversee" his inevitable special election, you know, the one where the people of California overwhelmingly vote on paper trail free machines to a redistricting arrangement far more favorable to the GOP and corporate interests.

Bleh.