Kimberly Ellis is still waging war on the results of the California Democratic Party chair’s race and is asking for donations to keep her fight alive. This email was sent to supporters last Friday:
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what happens when you put words and pictures together? Answer: digital magic.
Over the past two years, I’ve talked a lot about 21st Century organizing. It’s not a buzz word, it’s a way of being. It means knocking on doors, assembling online, and leveraging digital tools to meet people where they are. It means not just talking about it, but being about it – and leaders lead by example.
While the Chair’s race still lives in limbo, so does our campaign. We continue to need your financial support to keep our efforts going. Your contribution makes all the difference in our ability to keep this fight for transparency and election integrity alive.
It had been our hope to release the images we captured at convention in a different form and with a different purpose. Though this video captures one aspect of convention, rest assured that in the coming weeks we’ll be releasing a longer video that showcases the birth of this movement to take back our Party and reground it in people.
Take back our party from whom exactly? Those who’ve been fighting the fight for so long and so well that California is the bluest state in the nation, holds super majorities in the State Assembly and State Senate, plus every constitutional office in State Government? The Party that increased the number of elected Democrats to city council, school boards, county offices?
Lenore Albert, who ran for Chair and got only a few votes which would not affect the outcome, is an Orange County attorney and a member of the CDP’s credentials committee. She’s filed a brief based on her partial review of ballots cast, which you can read here, but in Albert’s review — Ellis ballots had problems, not Bauman’s.
From the Albert brief:
Ellis alleged double voting or tampering. There was no evidence of tampering or double voting with the spoiled ballots. There were only eight (8) spoiled ballots. I have the names of those voters in my records. Those ballots had a corresponding handwritten ballot that was counted toward the election. There was no evidence of any ballot being printed out twice. Moreover, those who she accused of double voting without a proxy in her Amended challenge ended up being several people who were practicing their religion by having a representative sign their ballot for them and it was a reported custom with the CDP to do so.
If there were a recount using a more stringent standard for votes cast being valid under Kimberly’s New Rules, her loss gap would be widened. She would lose at least nine (9) ballots in the first 1,200 alone.
For example, one ballot was cast by proxy but the proxy form in the stack was not signed by the Delegate and did not have an email attached to it or any other form of authorization attached to it. Gilbert Brown did not sign his proxy form. That vote was cast by proxy, Arthur Scott of Spring Valley, CA and counted towards Kimberly Ellises’ total vote count.
There was one person not on the DSSC members 2017 list posted on the CADEM website that voted out of the 1,200 ballots I reviewed. That person was Lorna Johnson who voted for Kimberly Ellis. Through communication with CDP staff it was explained to me that she was a new delegate after the list was updated. I did not see any ballot that was invalidated because it had a mark for more than one candidate for chair.
When I checked the proxy forms from the 1,200 ballots I sampled, there was one proxy that was not signed. There were 150 votes cast by proxy out of the 1,200 ballots I sampled. The anomalies I found were not significant. The proxies that voted for Kimberly Ellis and that vote was counted in her total, were in some instances a vote under Kimberly’s New Rules which would apparently be in violation and discarded in comparison to one for Eric Bauman that was tested in the same batch.
Brett Williams was the proxy for Helen Avery-Smith. The proxy was filled out properly. However, Brett Williams, the proxy printed his name on the actual ballot, he did not sign. This vote was counted and cast for Eric Bauman. Under CDP Rules that vote was valid, apparently Kimberly’s New Rules considers it one to be disregarded.
Mary Vella was allowed to cast a vote as proxy for Brandon Baranco and she cast his vote for Kimberly Ellis which was counted toward her total, although the proxy form came in via a mere email stating that Brandon Baranco was a city council member appointed by Tony Thurmond. I did not observe any emails like this used for any proxy votes cast for Eric Bauman.
Genova Islas was allowed to vote as proxy for Dora Alvarez, but the delegate used the wrong proxy form. That vote was cast for Kimberly Ellis.
As mentioned above, Arthur Scott was made proxy for delegate Gilbert Brown and he cast his vote for Kimberly Ellis that was counted. However, the proxy form was never signed by the delegate Gilbert Brown.
Christina Harbondge was made proxy for delegate Wanda Brown and she cast her vote for Kimberly Ellis which was counted. However, the proxy form was not in the batch of forms sealed in the box. The proxy form was one of the three forms later discovered paper clipped to the eight spoiled ballots.
Two out of the three proxy forms attached to the spoiled batch each had votes counted and cast for Kimberly Ellis. Those voters were Alexander Monteiro for Addison Demisile for Kimberly Ellis and Wanda Brown via proxy Christina Harbridge for Kimberly Ellis. The CDP explained that the ballots were kept separate because they did not make it into the box.
Desiree Jaugequi, Karen McBride and Robert Carabad were each in the sampled batches that I fully recorded down information and each of these votes were cast and counted toward votes for Kimberly Ellis, but Karen McBride mistakenly cast her vote on Mark McBride’s ballot which does not violate CDP rules but apparently would violate Kimberly’s New Rules.
Testing
Ellis supporters will claim Albert’s review is evidence of exactly why an independent forensic audit is needed. No it isn’t. It’s exactly why the process to vote in a party race is already more thorough than voting in a general election.
Albert’s critics always seek to discredit her as a nutjob, someone who is unethical or unbalanced, then please consider Greg Diamond’s rambling and barely coherent letter to the CDP with sketchy “evidence” of fraud that is so loaded with hints and winks that it can’t be taken seriously. Albert has been a member of the party’s credential’s committee for two years; her biggest critics now are Ellis supporters who simply can’t prove allegations being made.
During the June DPOC meeting, Ellis supporters showed up holding up signs calling for an audit. Doug Applegate’s alternate, a young woman named Vanessa Santos, came up during the announcements portion of the meeting where members or alternates can share news about events. When Santos turned her “announcement” into a speech about Ellis and an audit, chair Fran Sdao cut her off for abusing her turn to speak (no microphones for the last meeting). To which, Santos turned and screamed at Sdao, “you won’t listen. You don’t hear us. This is why we’ll lose in 2018.” To this, I’d say if we lose in 2018, its because our GOTV efforts would fail because a number of progressive reformists demand candidate purity — a topic Diana Carey, the Party’s vice chair, addressed the meeting as someone who’s been elected who has to make choices. Since the DPOC backed the resolution supporting Melissa Fox’s vote on the Cemetery issue — a vote that’s divided a number of Democrats, veterans and city residents — Santos charges might be viewed differently by the local party’s rank and file.
The continued challenge to the vote five weeks ago from the Ellis campaign only deepens divides in the party. I’d point out to Santos that Eric Bauman offered a seat at the table to Kimberly Ellis and promised to listen to her supporters. The longer this goes on, I’d be surprised if the offer is still good.