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Community Corner

Petition effort not dead, even if delayed.

The Recall Petition EFFORT is not dead.

 

There are still two pathways open, and there are volunteers from all over the State waiting to assist.

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The first is to complete the existing petition drive before the deadline – there is sufficient help to get this done, and certainly sufficient support to complete the required numbers.

The second is to redraft the petitions to call for a “Special Election” – perfectly legal, and gives MONTHS more time to complete the petitions.  If the first is defeated “in time”, the second will not be.

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More importantly, the Clerk COULD produce the ballot change in time to place a separate special election on the machines as late as 2 days before the election in November, if the courts ordered them to.  Why?

Because Reed Gusciora, an Assemblyman who works directly with the Division of Elections, certified that ALL THE BALLOT MACHINES IN NJ could be reconfigured within 48 hours,  (exhibit in “LaVergne v Lonegan”, Docket L -1933-13, found HERE:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/177393609/Copy-distributed-L-1933-13 ), that’s why.  I might know something about that.

Thanks to a NJ Superior Court ruling in the Spring of this year, petition circulators need not live in the community.

The clerks are absolutely aware of this affirmation of the Statute, as it required them all to modify the “Nomination by Petition” ballot petitions (those used by independent candidates for public office) back in March – but most delayed producing the “correct” petitions until 10 days before the primary – or, to be more clear – made available 10 days before…they all claim to have “produced” them earlier.

This was an intentional effort to minimize the independent petitions in the election in November.

The State ALSO left the old form on its web-site, calling for only 50 signatures for candidates for the House of Representatives.

Because our group is savvy when it comes to election law, we knew we were required to submit 100 valid signatures by June 3rd.  We did so.

Several folks, trusting the State web-site, showed up with 80 or 90 signatures, and were turned away.  One independent in District 2 was told he couldn’t run on June 2nd because he failed to have sufficient signatures.  It is only because he spoke to us at 225 West State Street in Trenton as he was leaving that he was informed he had until the next day to get his signature tally over 100.  The next day, as I waited to sign in at 4:30 p.m.  (I do so specifically on the deadline date for the primary candidate petitions and the independent petitions, so that anyone who comes in after me is disqualified – ask withdrawn Senate Candidate “Turk” Turkavage), creating the cut-off point, the CD2 candidate came back in, and is now on the ballot.  Dave Larsen, who ran against Leonard Lance in the primary in CD7, can also affirm this…as he shook my hand on the way in, telling his driver “I told you this son-of-a-bitch would be here, and we couldn’t be late”.  He made it by seven minutes.

With our help, Mr. Bayode Olabisi of Montclair, New Jersey, is on the ballot.  He is one of OUR candidate’s (Alexander H. Spano) opponents, but we helped him get on the ballot.  Why?  Good sportsmanship.

The Democrats tried to remove three players from the field – one, directly, the other two, indirectly.

The direct challenge was made to Robert Edward Forchion, aka “NJWeedman”, by the NJDSC (Democrat State Committee), but was filed “out-of-time”.  Out of pure partisan favoritism, the challenge was allowed to proceed, and voters from three towns that ARE in District Three were excluded because the challenger and the judge were using a District Municipalities List that mirrors the one on WikiPedia…yup, the State’s Division of Elections employees did their job very poorly.  The entire event was moot, however, because the deadline for the challenge ended at midnight on Saturday, the 7th of June, if not, in fact, at 4:30 on that day.   It was not filed until after the office closed on Monday – and that’s only if we agree that an e-mail is equivalent to a State-required form with INK SIGNATURE delivered BY HAND to the Office.  (We don’t – and the Superior Court Judge tended to agree with us – “common practice” is not part of the Statute, which is specific on this, not silent).

So, FOUR never equals SIX, and Saturday and Monday are different days.  The AG’s office would have you believe otherwise.

I joined Mr. Forchion in his effort to be restored to the ballot.  My testimony can be heard HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSnHtR56_XY

As an aside, Belgard’s attorney (Ms. Belgard, the Democrat in our district, claims not to have had anything to do with it – which is disturbing, because one would think she were in charge of her own campaign.) Mr. Buono filed a response taking “no position” on the challenge filed by his client’s party organization.  Ms. Belgard has stated, to this writer, in a public forum, that she does NOT object to Mr. Forchion’s being restored to the ballot.  Her lawyers obviously disagree, as they could take affirmative steps to demand the Statute be enforced as written – which accomplishes Mr. Forchion’s restoration.  She, herself, graduated Widener Law.  If you viewed the video, you heard his original position at the end – so they went from no objection to “no position”.  Naturally, as anyone voting for Robert would vote D if he weren’t on the ballot, or so the Belgard camp presumes.

Colabella’s objections on timeliness of the petition as drawn BY HIS OFFICE are irrelevant, because the date certain to turn the petition by the Statute means that is when it must be received by.   His office may “review” it, but it is presumed valid until proven otherwise.  The subjects of the petition have a period of time in which to challenge the then certified petition, but that clock doesn’t start running until the petition is deemed valid.  Why?  Because you don’t challenge an invalid petition and waste the County’s time.

In other words, it’s on the ballot until proven that it should be removed – not “it doesn’t get on until we agree”.

It would seem the County and State not only need math lessons, they need better counsel.

IF you have sufficient evidence in your community for the County Office to allow the petition to proceed, then you have sufficient cause for concern with respect to the subjects of the petitions.

Your schools are being used (Not just in Lacey, mind you) as an ATM machine for the party bosses.  There is clear evidence in this particular case – and this becomes the model for each community to get  those grubby hands out of the coffers of the Schools and the Municipalities.

Naturally, certain elected officials used scare tactics to try to stop the process, or keep folks from signing.

If you won’t stand against corruption, why bother locking your doors at night?

You only need 100 signatures to run for Congress, but you need 5000 to remove a corrupt school board official.

Seems fair?

Guess what.  This IS Achievable.  We have the entire voter list, so we know who  is and is not eligible.  We have maps for every street.  With sufficient support, the 5000-plus signatures could be affirmatively collected in a week.

Teachers groups and union workers from around the State are waiting for their marching orders to come help.

That’s right.  They are standing against the corruption in Trenton, and are willing to take their time out to come to YOUR community to help.

Will you not stand up for your own rights to redress grievances with your government in the process allocated to you in our Constitution (right to petition the Government)?

Your community paid 19,800,000.00 dollars for a job that cost less than 1 million, had it been properly managed.

If you’re not pissed, you should be.

 

Frederick John LaVergne, “Democratic-Republican” for Congress, NJ CD3 – working for you like it was my job.  Maybe it should be.





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