What Are they Hiding?
More than 131,000 referendum petition signatures were thrown out by elections officials throughout the State. That was more than one out of every five. But the law allows me as the proponent of the referendum to examine these signatures and to challenge them. And I am allowed to authorize others to help me with that task in the 58 counties.
We knew that his would be a difficult process.
We even figured that some employees in each county would take it personally as we search for mistakes, misapplications of the law or even deliberate rejection of valid signatures.
But PFAS did not expect the hostility and intimidation that we are now receiving.
In some cases, it has been a challenge just to get past the front door. In one county our entry was delayed for more than a week as election officials argued (without any basis) that it was their right to delay the examination for up to three weeks. They added that once they did allow the examination to begin, they could only handle two people at a time to review thousands of rejected signatures.
In many counties we have been allowed to examine the invalidated signatures so long as we do not touch any document. In one case, staff even tried to enforce their personal rule that we could not take notes or we had to sign detailed documents that limited our legal rights. No county yet has agreed to voluntarily allow PFAS to make the copies that we will need as evidence when these signatures are challenged in court.
Of course PFAS is standing up to these bullying tactics. We have a team of attorneys that is addressing the ever-changing rules and obstacles that are being introduced at each county.
But there is a level of bullying and intimidation that should not be tolerated. That level may have been reached yesterday in Sacramento where volunteers were pulled away from their examination and asked to wait in the lobby for more than three hours before they finally went home.
The reason they were pulled away from examining signatures was a sudden change in rules. As proponent of the referendum, I had provided authorization forms to our volunteers throughout the State. The form and my signature are copied. While that was sufficient for entry for several days, now Sacramento had decided that the signature needed to be "wet ink". While they backed off later, they were arguing that I either need to be there in person or have hard copy documents delivered. No FAX. (This was odd since these officials have been accepting and rejecting petition signatures by comparing these to electronic copies they have on file.)
That was a delaying obstacle, but the next revelation was pure intimidation. Sacramento election officials offered to give a list of those who were authorized and unauthorized to one of our volunteers. But first they had to make a copy for the ACLU. Apparently the ACLU had requested and Sacramento was giving them the names of each person authorized and not authorized to examine signatures.
Put another way, while elections officials were delaying the right to challenge signatures by making volunteers sit in a waiting room, there was no delay in delivering the names of those volunteers to an outside group.
Privacy For All Students began this fight a little more than six months ago with the simple notion that forcing boys and girls to share a bathroom was bullying. Legislators with their sex separate facilities were bullying school children by forcing them into a situation that compromised the children's privacy and safety. Now election officials and the ACLU have joined the gang of bullies that wants to intimidate anybody that objects to their radical social experiment.
Thank you for your support and prayers for those that are volunteering to examine these signatures and those who are working to take this challenge to court. If these bullying tactics and intimidation anger you, please donate to help us fight until we have the necessary number of validated signatures.
Gina Gleason
Proponent
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