Ballot Label Cheating in Redwood City

The First Appellate Court of San Francisco has received the Notice of Appeal and assigned it to Division 4 with Case Number A168184.  The Presiding Judge is Justice Brown. Ultimately, there will be a panel of 3 justices hearing the case. Oral arguments (15 minutes each side) likely to take place in the first half of 2024 (possibly later). You can view case documents and signup for notifications regarding the case by logging into the Appellate Court website and doing the following: 1) Go to   www.courts.ca.gov/1dca.htm 2) Click on the blue box that says “Search for Case Information” on the right side of screen 3) Enter case number A168184 4) You can view information by selecting any of the various blue text boxes under “1st Appellate District”. 5) You can signup for automatic email notifications about the case by selecting the “click here” link at the bottom of the page.

Press Release - For immediate release Contact: Christopher Robell (650) 245-7395    c hris_robell@yahoo.com     Blog:  ballotlabel.blogspot.com June 22, 2023 Appeal Filed to Invalidate Local School Bond Election Contests Redwood City resident Christopher Robell has filed an appeal to overturn the lower court decision pertaining to two local school bonds*. After a three hour trial on April 18th, Judge Nicole Healy subsequently ruled on May 9th in favor of County Counsel. Robell was not surprised by the decision given the judge’s tone and bias. This case, vitally important to ensure fair elections, is really about a key Constitutional issue: ensuring the government does not use public money to influence an election.   There is no appellate court case that has ruled on this kind of situation where the government used the ballot question to sway election results. Robell welcomes anyone interested and willing to file amicus briefs as par...

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...