The following press release was issued by the Kimberly Ellis campaign; commentary in a moment:
For Immediate Release Contact: 510-560-3704 OAKLAND, Calif. (June 2, 2017): Eric Bauman has rejected the request by the Ellis campaign for an independent forensic audit, which was formally submitted for consideration on Tuesday through legal counsel.
While the Ellis campaign’s review of the ballot is ongoing, initial inspection uncovered alarming discrepancies and an amassing of ineligible voters to change the outcome of the election, warranting a call for an independent expert to intervene and validate the vote. Because of the magnitude of the concerns, the Ellis campaign firmly believes any allegation raised should be accompanied by verified evidence from a credentialed, independent professional.
The Ellis campaign recognizes that their position is not impartial and have requested that an outside independent firm step in and conduct a complete forensic audit so that the voting delegation has confidence in the neutrality of the assessment.
Kaufman Legal Group, which jointly represents Eric Bauman’s campaign and now the California Democratic Party, was provided specific requests, including a formal legal demand for preservation of records. The Ellis campaign continues to seek an inclusive and collaborative remedy to validate the election outcome.
Should their efforts towards reconciliation not be returned, the Ellis campaign reserves its right to seek remedy in other venues. As per the CDP’s Bylaws, the ratification of any officer race is subject to challenge, and no certification can take place until the challenge is resolved. As such, the Ellis campaign requested that an interim Chair serve until the election is certified. Bauman refuted this interpretation and instead has claimed his authority to serve as Chair.
“Eric’s rejection of an independent forensic audit is well beyond troubling. If everything was done on the up-and-up, what is there to hide?,” said Hilary Crosby, immediate past Controller of the CDP. “We’re the largest Democratic Party in the country; are we really saying we don’t know how to run a fair, transparent and impartial election, where the outcome is not in question? Instead of calls for unity, we should be calling for truth, because if we can’t agree on the facts, how can we agree on how to move forward.”
According to sources at CDP, it appears the Ellis campaign reached out to Bauman personally but not the CDP itself. The Ellis campaign says they did and the law firm likely hasn’t shared the request with members. Even if Bauman wanted to move forward with an independent audit, the party has to decide it wants to do this.
The Ellis campaign says it’s found “initial inspection uncovered alarming discrepancies and an amassing of ineligible voters to change the outcome of the election.” So where’s the proof? Let’s see it. How many ballots are affected? You can’t call for truth and facts and transparency without being transparent about “facts” like this. We’ve spoken with the Ellis campaign and they won’t share their “proof.”
Rather than calling for an independent audit now, Ellis’ team had full access to all the ballots and signatures for an entire week. The Ellis campaign could have hired her own independent forensic auditor to start examining ballots the day the ballot review began. Instead, Crosby, who’s is a key part of Team Ellis, could have stepped aside and demanded the campaign do this. They did not. Crosby was hardly an unbiased participant and she was part of the effort to try and keep Bauman’s people out of the room. The Ellis campaign said they did not have an independent forensic auditor at the ready for this and the question of “why not” was absurd.
On June 1, candidates for Party office received notices on challenges from CDP. The Kimberly Ellis challenge did not offer any factual basis for her challenge for the chair’s race. In the interest of fairness to the Ellis campaign, the Party allowed her challenge to go into overtime.
It’s nearly impossible to game an election with so few ballots. With every challenge, with every threat, with every rumor from the Ellis camp, a bigger wedge is being driven into the California Democratic Party at a time we should be coming together.
“Crazy Greg” Diamond has been on a terror of late. Completely dellusional, whisking in conspirisotorial theroy like comments.
I am told he has spent the past three nights 2:00AM to 7:00AM blogging, commenting and badgering people.
Whatever the outcome (which has by most accounts been settled) one thing is certain: Greg Diamond is bat shit crazy. He is a detriment to ALL democratic party causes. A specifically DANGEROUS TO LOCAL PARTY OFFICIALS WITH WHOM HE IS AT ODDS.
Someone call security!
There was a comment from Greg at 4:44am today. That’s when I usually wake up. Bet it was still last night for him. Notice he’s begging for comments lately. I think it’s unethical for Greg to demand Bob M reveal his sources. Greg protects his and I protect mine which is why people talk to me.
Spot on and stated a day before the CDP release:
“The California Democratic Party held an open, fair election of officers on May 20, 2017. The ballots were counted and then counted again in the presence of observers from all candidates. As a result of the balloting, Eric C. Bauman was elected Chair of the California Democratic Party.”
“Ms. Ellis has stated that the CDP rejected her call for an “independent” audit of the election results. In fact, the CDP has already permitted Ms. Ellis and her team to review all the ballots and registration materials. The Ellis campaign team spent 4 days reviewing each and every ballot cast in the Chair’s race. During the review, Ms. Ellis was represented by an attorney and a CPA who specializes in auditing.”
“During her review, Ms. Ellis submitted a challenge to the election results. That communication, however, did not include any facts, allegations or any basis whatsoever for the challenge. Consequently, I provided her with an additional 7 days to provide support for her claim.”
“The CDP Compliance Review Commission (CRC), an independent party committee appointed by former Chair John Burton, is currently considering the challenge submitted by Ms. Ellis. To date, the CRC still has not received any information to enable it to address Ms. Ellis’ challenge.”
Stephen J. Kaufman, Counsel to the California Democratic Party, stated:
“The California Democratic Party is committed to resolving any challenges consistent with its bylaws. To that end, it is unfortunate that the Ellis campaign has chosen to litigate this issue in the press, rather than providing the CDP with any grounds supporting her challenge. The CDP has acted in good faith throughout this process to provide Ms. Ellis and her team with the information they’ve requested. In fact, the Party has gone above and beyond.”
http://www.cadem.org/news/press-releases/2017/cdp-responds-to-ellis-election-process-was-fair-and-transparent
What does it say when Greg is “Blog-Whoring” the Voice of OC, trying to engage Steve Maviglio, who simply IGNORES him?
I think it says: “Hey, hey, look at me! All you important people, look at me, I’m relevant, I’m relevant, I really really am”. Kinda sad really.
At this point, Greg makes the Winships look credible!
Meanwhile, the RECALL Josh Newman forces unleased 100+ college kids knocking on doors in Greg’s neck of the woods. But, they started at 10:00 AM, I don’t think he was up yet!
Greg is desperately seeking attention. He’s not taken seriously by most Democrats. Steve won’t engage him
Diamond is spiraling out of control. He has been “pestering” fellow OC DEM members about this.
Mirvetette Judah ENTIRE future could be ruined by Diamonds overreaching behavior.
STFU Greg. You are like Chairman Burton said: “”welcome to form a third party, and do what Ralph Nader did to Al Gore”. While Diamond drives a wedge between similarly minded folks because he insists on being better, more liberal or smarter, he allows Issa to be re-elected, Dana to continue to be an idiot, and above all else, help Josh Newman be recalled.
This guy is our parties WORST ENEMY. He is dangerous, ignorant; and selfish. Everything WE are not suppossed to be.
F Greg Diamond and his insane antics.
A Muslim lamented today about how other people are tearing apart Muslims due to their twisted ideas. His lament was in response to the tragedy in London. Another Muslim responded, that they are not Muslims with those twisted ideas, they are terrorists. I also observed today a saying about Leninism. It was about how a constant revolution to destroy and divide the country was a goal and then compared it to Bannon.
Both of the overall ideas being communicated reminded me of Kimberly and Greg’s actions after the election.
In his desperate attempt to save face Dimond has been maligning long time party stalwarts using terms like: “pharm boy”, “Boxer Bitch”, “Lying, cheating Bauman”.
This is a guy who called Jose Solorio’s Mother “Bitch”, said that Congressman Lou Correa was “probably responsible for people dying”, called former County chair a liar and a cheat”.
Crazy Greg Diamond should stick to his kitchen table law practice, puppet shows and stalking Brea developers. All of which has left him looking foolish.
Sounds like Greg has earned a lot of enemies. In the Art of War, there is a saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”