Ballot Label Cheating in Redwood City

Yet another timely article regarding the insidious efforts to hoodwink voters using deceptive ballot language. "For ballot measures, Gov. Newsom and Democratic-controlled Legislature are putting their thumbs on the election scale": Borenstein: Blue-state California lawmakers also undermining democracy

  Press Release - For immediate release Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395    c hris_robell@yahoo.com     Blog:  ballotlabel.blogspot.com May 11, 2023 Trial Judge Rules on Local School Bond Election Contests Judge Nicole Healy has rendered her decision regarding the Election Contest initiated by Christopher Robell pertaining to two local school bonds*. Given the tone and bias demonstrated at the April 18th trial, Robell  previously  said he expected the Judge to rule in favor of County Counsel. As an example, she allowed testimony without cross examination.  So what did she do? She ruled to dismiss the case, essentially regurgitating everything that County Counsel wrote. For example, she quoted the statute that states ballots shall have printed on them the words "Shall the measure (stating the nature thereof) be adopted?” Yet she found the quotes means nothing. The judge’s opinion is littered with that kind of reasoning. Robell says...

Press Release - For immediate release Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395    c hris_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 anyon...

Press Release - For immediate release Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395    c hris_robell@yahoo.com     Blog:  ballotlabel.blogspot.com April 19, 2023 Redwood City School Bond Elections Trial Heard in San Mateo County Court  Judge Nicole Healy heard the trial of the election contests against the $298 million bond (Measure S) for Redwood City Elementary School District and the $591 million bond (Measure W) for Sequoia Union High School District) yesterday at 9:00 a.m., as scheduled. The trial lasted 2-1/2 hours. The Contestant, Christopher Robell of Redwood City, presented the case to the Court. Deputy County Counsel Brian Kulich represented the Contestee, County Elections Officer Mark Church. The contest focused solely on the questions (ballot labels) printed on the ballots on which the voters cast either a Yes or No vote. Robell claimed that the questions were illegal in almost all respects because they didn't conform to the requirements that the l...

April 3, 2023  Press Release - For immediate release Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395    c hris_robell@yahoo.com     Blog: ballotlabel.blogspot.com Redwood City Voter Seeks to Invalidate Local Bond Measures  On March 29, 2023, Christopher Robell filed election contests in the Superior Court of San Mateo County to set aside the Measure S (Redwood City Elementary School District's $298 million bond) and Measure W (Sequoia Union High School District's $591.5 million bond) elections. The issue: the Measure S & W ballot labels, which are the 75-word ballot questions that are often the only thing voters read before they vote, were misleading and not in compliance with the law. Mark Church, Registrar-Recorder of San Mateo County, is the elections official for both elections but did not reject these measures.  Historically, there has been an ongoing problem of the unsuspecting public being misled by municipal bond advisors who write the ball...

 

1/6/23:   I came by the County Clerk's office to attempt to file the elections contest as a special proceeding. I made it clear that I wanted the proper legal procedures followed hence did not want to have it filed as a civil action.  The Clerk Supervisor (Ms. Karen Wilmes) was not sure how to file the statement of contest. Knowing elections contests such as mine may not be very common, I anticipated there might be some confusion or concern filing it the proper way. So prior to my visit, I prepared a letter, addressed to Mr. Neal Taniguchi (Court Executive Officer), describing how election contests should be filed. I showed the letter to Ms. Wilmes. She offered to hold the letter to Mr. Taniguchi, the cover sheet, and the statement of contest paperwork, marking it as "received", and would follow up with me once she had clarity on filing procedures. I could then decide whether or not to file and pay any required filing fees.  Letter to Mr. Taniguchi re Election Contest Fil...