Re: Recall Information for County Clerk

[Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Joe and all:

I have many misgivings about a recall of Linda Salas.  Some of them are
political and some of them are just a matter of simple equity.

Nonetheless, I _was_ heavily involved in another recall of another County
Clerk: the ever-lovable Tracy Baker, Araphaoe County Clerk.  I was the media
coordinator for the Libertarian candidate in that election: Travis Nicks.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Tracy Baker was figuratively caught
with his pants down.  There are rumors that he was literally caught with his
pants down in the County Clerk's office with his girlfriend with the blinds
to his office open.

Oh, the juicy scandal!  Salacious eMails.  Incompetence in office.  No bid
contracts.  Dog doodoo where the voting machines were stored.

It makes your head spin.

By comparison, Linda Salas's mismanagement is a tempest in a teapot.



I don't know if the Arapahoe County procedures apply to Boulder ... but I
think they do.  So here is my recollection.

It was the Arapahoe County Commissioners who selected the County Assessor to
be the election official that oversaw Mr. Baker's recall election.  I don't
know if this is Arapahoe County law or State Law that mandates this.

In order to recall Tracy Baker, Arapahoe County residents needed to collect
34,603 valid signatures.  

There are about 278,000 residents of Boulder County and about 516,000
residents of Arapahoe County.  Assuming the same rules apply, to recall
Salas we'll need about 20,000 signatures.  That's a huge number and the
anger at Salas isn't nearly what it was in Arapahoe County against Baker.

But this is Boulder and different political rules apply.


Just a heads-up.

Ralph Shnelvar



On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:12:38 -0700, you wrote:

>
>Mary-
>
>Thanks for your e-mail. I appreciate that not everyone thinks a recall 
>is warranted at this time, and I am pursuing this as an individual, not 
>on behalf of CVV (I hope that's already clear).
>
>Also, I am simply requesting the information at this time, not yet 
>actually collecting any signatures. As I told one of the reporters who 
>has called, I'd rather see Linda do the right thing to begin with 
>(like, a year ago), but if she's not going to, then it will be up to 
>the citizens to secure Trustworthy Elections for Boulder County, as 
>they have repeatedly proven their ineptitude at doing so.
>
>The "first time" should have been before the Primary, and now it 
>appears that what problems they encountered then were never resolved 
>before heading into the General. Also, remember that when a citizen 
>tried to test this system under real world conditions, that citizen was 
>escorted from the Clerk's office by the Sheriff who then continued to 
>investigate the citizen instead of spending any time looking for 
>problems at the Elections Office.
>
>Also, I do not agree with the County position that no one should be 
>held accountable, especially given the obvious nature of management's 
>repeated failures (don't forget the uncertified equipment and total 
>recount in November 2003, too).
>
>All that said, I'm curious about at what point would you agree with a 
>recall, after they screw up the next election? Do you not see a pattern 
>here already?
>
>Joe
>
>Joe Pezzillo, Citizen Activist
>Boulder, Colorado USA
>jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
>
>
>On Nov 12, 2004, at 4:43 PM, Mary Eberle wrote:
>
>> Joe,
>>
>> I do not agree with this request. Let Ms. Salas and her staff finish 
>> the vote counting and give us the results in peace.
>>
>> I do not think it is reasonable to have expected the system to work 
>> smoothly the first time. There are too many variables. It is too bad 
>> that we didn't get all the wake-up calls after the primary, but we 
>> didn't, and nothing can be done about that now. Still, all the ballots 
>> are being counted (so far as we can tell), although at a monetary cost 
>> as well as a human-exhaustion cost.
>>
>> As I have stated, I think our first priority must be to change the 
>> Colorado law concerning recount methods so that we can verify election 
>> results. We need our county commissioners to make this their priority 
>> as well, not a witch hunt. They need to form a coalition with other 
>> county commissioners, and they will be less inclined to do so if we 
>> bog down Boulder County politics with a recall.
>>
>> Mary Eberle
>> Election Judge, Boulder County
>>
>> Joe Pezzillo wrote:
>>> November 12th, 2004
>>> Attn: Boulder County Board of Commissioners, Boulder County Clerk
>>> From: Joe Pezzillo, Boulder city resident
>>> Due to her unwillingness to accept responsibility for the failure of 
>>> the Boulder County Elections Office by voluntarily resigning or 
>>> removing those staff members who have demonstrated incompetence, 
>>> please provide me with information on how to begin the process of 
>>> holding a recall election to remove the Boulder County Clerk.
>>> Regretfully,
>>> Joe Pezzillo
>>> PO Box J
>>> Boulder, Colorado USA 80306
>>> .
>>
>>
>