Press Release: The Ball is in the "Court's Court"

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Press Release - For immediate release

Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395   chris_robell@yahoo.com  

Blog: ballotlabel.blogspot.com
May 2, 2023

Local School Bonds:  The Ball is in the “Court’s Court"

Today, Christopher Robell, Contestant in two local school bond elections contests*, filed a lengthy brief with the Court Clerk. 

At the April 18th trial, Judge Nicole Healy allowed Robell 10 days to respond to County Counsel’s last minute lawyering tactics, where they served Robell with hundreds of pages of documents at literally 5:01pm the night before the trial. 

Why is Robell’s brief so lengthy**?

Because each and every one of County Counsel’s arguments is just plain ludicrous. Robell needed to rebut each point with facts and case law.  And, in many cases, it gets to a point where Robell has to start providing definitions of basic words (like “a” and “the”) and explain basic concepts like what a duration of a tax means (which anyone knows should be a number or at least a year).  

It is absolutely outrageous that this is required. So be it. 

A considerable portion of the brief is devoted to rebutting County Counsel’s non-existent rule where they claim election challenges must be done before an election. Unfortunately for County Counsel, the Supreme Court has clearly said that this rule does not exist and that an elector can file anytime within the statute of limitations.

Now the ball is in the "court’s court”.  While Robell doesn’t know how the lower court will be able to rationalize siding with County Counsel, he nonetheless suspects she may. And if she does, Robell is optimistic that justice will prevail at the appellate court. And because this case is a constitutional issue regarding the government spending taxpayer money to influence an election, this may end up at the Supreme Court.

————

* Redwood City Elementary School District’s $298 million bond (Measure S) and Sequoia Union High School District’s $591 million bond (Measure W). The election contests are predicated on illegal ballot questions that don’t comply with statutes or the California Constitution.  Note all documents

**Note all documents, including County Counsel’s attempt to dismiss the election contest and Robell’s responsive brief can be viewed at https://ballotlabel.blogspot.com/

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