US Supreme Court refuses to hear voter fraud case in SF congressional race; Dooms chances for write-in candidate for San Diego mayor

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS ADVISORY
For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 30, 2004

Contacts:
Cres Vellucci, State Press Office, 916-996-1970,
Beth Moore Haines, GPCA Spokesperson, 530-277-0610,

WASHINGTON D.C. (Nov. 30, 2004) – In a decision reminiscent of the 2000 Presidential election, the U.S. Supreme Court has now decided not to review a California election fraud case, thus dooming the chances of a San Diego mayor candidate to win, while cementing the end of a campaign for a Green Party congressional candidate in San Francisco.

The Supreme Court – after waiting until after the Nov. 2 election – refused to hold a hearing on a case brought before it by Green candidate Terry Baum, who was not allowed to have her name placed on the ballot for Congress (8th District) despite receiving more than enough write-in votes in the March Primary.

A new state law, which ignores the effort of voters to write-in a name and requires they also fill-in a bubble even though the voter's intent is clear, "thwarts the will of the people and makes a mockery of our voting system," said the Green Party of California.

In October, the Supreme Court accepted an 11th hour appeal by Baum and ordered San Francisco elections officials to explain why they did not count hundreds of Primary Election write-in votes and place Baum on the November ballot. Some voters wrote Baum's name in, but did not fill in an "arrow."

In San Diego, mayoral write-in Donna Frye also failed to convince courts last week to count votes where her name was written in, but voters failed to fill-in a bubble. She is considering an appeal but the Baum case would seem to doom those chances.

"This Supreme Court decision means Secretary of State Kevin Shelly's mis-named "every vote counts" law will continue to bar the counting of legitimate votes for write-in candidates such as Donna Fry and Terry Baum. That's a victory for the Democratic Party, and a loss for the People of California," said the Baum campaign in a statement Tuesday.

The GPCA said it is considering, along with other electoral changes to recognize the true will of voters, fighting to amend the California constitution to be consistent with laws in other states, such as Washington, that state that the ultimate basis of how a vote is to be counted must be voter intent, not technical compliance with laws written to make life easier for voting machine vendors.

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The Green Party of California
http://www.cagreens.org
P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
gpca@greens.org