[Lnc-business] Help lobby against anti-independent bias at SF Elections Dept.!

Wed Oct 19 04:20:25 EDT 2016

	I would like to report on some activism I've recently been engaged with here in San Francisco on behalf of the LPSF, and ask your help in lobbying the local authorities and/or spreading the word to encourage others to do the same. I believe this would also make a good story for LP News or California Freedom, particularly since I just learned yesterday that we won at least a partial, if quiet victory!

	If you can spare a couple minutes, please write to the SF Ethics Commission <ethics.commission at sfgov.org>, and the SF Elections Commission <elections.commission at sfgov.org>, and let them know that you consider this a serious matter which you would like them to investigate, as it indicates partisan bias on the part of person(s) involved in running our elections. You can also write to the head of the Elections Department who authorized the inappropriate visuals in question, at <John.Arntz at sfgov.org> . 

	For details, continue reading below...

Love & Liberty,
                                 ((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
At-Large Alternate, California LP Executive Committee
                              (415) 625-FREE
                                 @StarchildSF

P.S. - You can watch my testimony yesterday before the San Francisco Ethics Commission online here:

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=142&clip_id=26370

	I appear near the end of the video, starting around 3:33:55, but you may also find some of the public comment that took place toward the beginning of the meeting worth watching if you enjoy seeing members of the public dress down public officials and stand up for their rights.    :-)

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Starchild <RealReform at earthlink.net>
> Date: October 18, 2016 9:31:50 PM PDT
> To: elections.commission at sfgov.org
> Cc: Starchild <RealReform at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Anti-independent bias at Elections Dept.?
> 
> Elections Commissioners,
> 
> 	I am writing to bring to your attention a current situation concerning what I believe is inappropriate electioneering at the polling station in City Hall (see attached image and letter). Please put this item on the agenda for your next meeting (requested agenda item description below), and make this email including its image (in color) available to members of the public attending the meeting.
> 
> 	Your confirmation of having received this message, and feedback on what action(s) you will take regarding the situation, when you have had a chance to review the enclosed materials, is kindly requested. Either writing me at RealReform at earthlink.net or calling me at the phone number below is welcome. Direct contact information for each of yourselves is also requested for future reference. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
> 
> Love & Liberty,
> 
>                                ((( starchild )))
> Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
>                              (415) 625-FREE
> 
> 
> P.S. – If this message has not reached every member of the Elections Commission by writing to elections.commission at sfgov.org (as I would hope it would) and to any staff members who might potentially be working on this issue, please forward it to them. I urge members of the commission to respond.
> 
> P.P.S. – Visiting City Hall yesterday to testify before the Ethics Commission, I confirmed that the footprint stickers seen below are currently out again in the polling area in the basement of the building, although they have been arranged in a less problematic manner than shown in the Examiner photo.
> 
> 
> Summary for Agenda Item Description
> The Libertarian Party of San Francisco's outreach director (Starchild) requested the Elections Commission to investigate the matter of the Elections Department director (John Arntz) having stickers placed on the floor in the vicinity of the City Hall polling place in a manner that sends a subtle message in favor of the two establishment political parties (Democrats and Republicans) and against independent parties and voters, to persons voting there.
> 
> 

> September 19, 2016
> 
> John Arntz
> 
> Director,
> 
> San Francisco Elections Department
> 
>  
> 
>       It has come to our attention that during the June 2016 primary election, there were stickers of footprints placed on the floor of the basement in City Hall leading to the polling area where voters were able to cast ballots in the election (see attached sheet with photo from Aug. 14, 2016 San Francisco Examiner, page 10).
> 
>        I had hoped to speak with you directly about this prior to our filing this complaint, but you have not returned my phone calls, despite a message left on your voicemail and orally with Elections Department staff who took my calls, requesting a call-back.
> 
>       As can be seen in the Examiner photo, the right footprints are all red, and the left footprints all blue. This clearly corresponds to the well-known association of the color red with the Republican Party, generally recognized as being on the “right” side of the political spectrum, and the color blue with the Democrat Party, generally recognized as being on the “left” side of the political spectrum. That such a left/right color scheme could have been accidental defies common sense.
> 
>       The problem, obviously, is that the electorate does not consist only of Republicans and Democrats. Many San Francisco voters are registered independents who decline to affiliate with any party, and some are registered with alternative parties such as the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.
> 
>       The placement of these footprints sent residents voting in City Hall a subtle message to think about the election in right vs. left, Republican vs. Democrat, terms, and thus constituted discrimination against San Francisco voters who support neither the left nor the right faction of the dominant two-party cartel. It further constituted, I believe, an illegal form of electioneering in the vicinity of a polling place.
> 
>       Unfortunately there is little to be done now about any biasing impact this may have had on the election results. Our chief concern is to ensure that these footprint stickers or other subtle messaging to influence voters not be placed in future elections, including the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November 8.
> 
>       Your written response addressing how this occurred, and what steps the Elections Department will take to ensure that nothing similar happens again, is kindly requested.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Starchild
> 
> Outreach Director,
> 
> On behalf of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco
> 
>  
> 
> cc: San Francisco Ethics Commission
> 
> members of various media organizations
> 

	Finally, here's how the footprint stickers at the SF City Hall polling place look now (in a photo I took yesterday) since they've been redeployed for the general election, following our complaints – one pair of red footprints, then one pair of blue footprints, then one more red pair, and so on. Still objectionable for the 2-color scheme, but a definite improvement from the previous blatant left=blue/right=red pattern!

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