RE: [lpsf-activists] RE: Libertarian Party of San Francisco

Activists List
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I'll add my appreciation here for Aubrey's write-up of the Proposition B saga and trying to keep the pressure on about that! Also wanted to mention my follow-up on our other issue with the Elections Department, the blue and red footprint stickers on the floor of City Hall near the polling area (see attached letter on the topic approved at our last meeting).

  I actually managed to speak with Elections Department director Jon Arntz today when I went in to submit their complaint form with the letter attached. Not because he actually agreed to talk to me, mind you – that would have been a real shocker! The door to their offices was open (while the public reception area was closed), so I simply walked in and asked for his office, which someone identified for me. His office door was open too, as he was talking to someone (I think another Elections Dept. staffer), so I just went and stood in the doorway until he acknowledged me, at which point I went in and gave him the complaint and started talking with him about it. He acknowledged getting my messages on the issue, and when I asked why he hadn't called me back, said he didn't think it was important(!). I said it is to us, and I think to independent voters generally, and we just want to make sure it doesn't happen again. He said they've already bought the stickers, and they are going to use them again. When I objected to this, he asked whether I wanted to pay for the stickers myself. Although I'm sure the question was meant rhetorically, I said actually raising the money to cover the cost out of pocket might be preferable to having a biased display, and he said something like "we'll see" – but I doubt he'll actually give us the opportunity to pay for other stickers. I also mentioned that Aubrey was still waiting to hear back from him, and Jon said, something like "I've sent him several messages, I'm not going to keep going back and forth." His overall attitude was quite arrogant and dismissive. When I asked for a written response to the complaint, he said "I'm not making any promises."

  Anyway, I left him the letter, and since I was in the building, decided to go upstairs and hit up members of the Board of Supervisors. Some of their offices were closed for the day, but I managed to talk to aides for five of them – Malia Cohen, Norman Yee, Eric Mar, John Avalos, and Katy Tang. I let them make copies of the letter and attached photocopy of the Examiner column with the photo of the footprints, and asked them to get back to me with a written reply. Norman Yee's aide sent me a follow-up email saying she'd contacted the Elections Department and asked them to respond to the request, but that that would be the extent of their involvement. Also ran into Aaron Peskin and a couple of his aides (I presume) as they were leaving his office. Peskin was both jovial and profane. He recognized and greeted me, said I was looking well, but then when I mentioned wanting to give him the letter asked, "Is this some libertarian shit?" As I started to explain, he was like, "Just give me the fucking letter!" I told him it was the copy I had for the Ethics Commission, but invited them to make a photocopy, and he started giving me a hard time about expecting them to make their own copy – I pointed out that they have a budget for this stuff and I don't, and one of the other guys present even said, "He's got a point!" Peskin said something about how he was just needling me or words to that effect. The mixed messages of being simultaneously friendly and aggressive was kind of disconcerting – perhaps as intended? I also dropped off a copy with the Ethics Commission under their door (the office was closed, although I think I heard somebody inside, but if there was, they didn't respond to my knocking).

  In other news, I spoke to a 12th grade class at St. John's Academy (6210 Geary Blvd.) on Wednesday, after the teacher contacted us about having someone come talk to her students about the LP. It turned out there were just 5 students (the whole school apparently has only 55!), but it was a worthwhile discussion. They seemed smart and polite and asked good questions. I talked some about the Nolan Chart, and handed out copies of the quiz along with Gary Johnson fliers, then mostly talked about libertarian philosophy and fielded questions. Also offered Libertarian bumperstickers – one of the students took one.

Love & Liberty,
                                ((( starchild )))

Letter-JohnArntz-9:9:16 (55 KB)

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Hi Starchild,

That's a really great report. Thanks for the efforts! I agree that red and blue feet constitute a subliminal message that there are only two political parties. My computer was unable to open the letter (said unknown program), but I am sure it was a good letter.

Ha! Well it was some libertarian s..t, and we are proud of every bit of it.

Marcy

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Thanks, all!

  I forgot there'd been some difficulty opening documents in my old version of MS Word for Mac. Here's the text of the letter:

September 19, 2016

Jon Arntz

Director,

San Francisco Elections Department

      It has come to our attention that during the June 2016 primary election, there were stickers of footprints placed on the floor of the basement in City Hall leading to the polling area where voters were able to cast ballots in the election (see attached sheet with photo from Aug. 14, 2016 San Francisco Examiner, page 10).

      I had hoped to speak with you directly about this prior to our filing this complaint, but you have not returned my phone calls, despite a message left on your voicemail and orally with Elections Department staff who took my calls, requesting a call-back.

      As can be seen in the Examiner photo, the right footprints are all red, and the left footprints all blue. This clearly corresponds to the well-known association of the color red with the Republican Party, generally recognized as being on the “right” side of the political spectrum, and the color blue with the Democrat Party, generally recognized as being on the “left” side of the political spectrum. That such a left/right color scheme could have been accidental defies common sense.

      The problem, obviously, is that the electorate does not consist only of Republicans and Democrats. Many San Francisco voters are registered independents who decline to affiliate with any party, and some are registered with alternative parties such as the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.

      The placement of these footprints sent residents voting in City Hall a subtle message to think about the election in right vs. left, Republican vs. Democrat, terms, and thus constituted discrimination against San Francisco voters who support neither the left nor the right faction of the dominant two-party cartel. It further constituted, I believe, an illegal form of electioneering in the vicinity of a polling place.

      Unfortunately there is little to be done now about any biasing impact this may have had on the election results. Our chief concern is to ensure that these footprint stickers or other subtle messaging to influence voters not be placed in future elections, including the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November 8.

      Your written response addressing how this occurred, and what steps the Elections Department will take to ensure that nothing similar happens again, is kindly requested.

Sincerely,

Starchild

Outreach Director,

On behalf of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco

cc: San Francisco Ethics Commission

members of various media organizations

  I also received this evening a follow-up email from Norman Yee's aide, below (after she wrote to tell me she'd contacted Elections, I asked her to send me what she sent). I dislike her wording, which sounds prejudicial against us, but at least it is a message coming from a Supervisor's office asking the Elections Department to provide me a written response.

Love & Liberty,
                                ((( starchild )))

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Thanks Marcy! I have Open Office, sometimes use it to open stuff other people send me. I'm not sure why some people can open my MS Word documents and others cannot; most people do seem to be able to open them. Maybe the success rate would be higher if I wrote new documents in Open Office, I don't know. Something to consider I guess; I'm just in the habit of using Word and like having my stuff in one format.

Love & Liberty,
                                ((( starchild )))

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Following up on the issue of the Election Department placing blue and red footprint stickers in the vicinity of the polling station in City Hall as reported below. Since then I've contacted and spoken with members of the Green Party, the media, and the Ethics Commission about the matter. Last week after early voting began, I called the Elections office again and a staffer confirmed that the footprint stickers had indeed been put out once more as John Arntz stated they would be. I also spoke with Greg Slocum(?) of the department, who claimed that he'd looked at the election code, and that they did not meet the definition of electioneering. I again requested a written response from the department and suggested he include that info in the response, but like the director he didn't commit to sending any response, and I've seen nothing from them.

  I'm pleased to report however, that as I discovered when I went to City Hall yesterday, the original issue has been alleviated somewhat. while the footprint stickers have been put out again for this election contrary to our request, they are now placed differently than they were before the primary election as seen below. Now they appear in pairs – two blue footprints together, then two red footprints together, then two blue footprints, and so on. In keeping with the tendency of those in power to never admit either to wrongdoing or to changing course as a result of protests or public pressure unless forced to do so, the Elections Department director never admitted to me that there was any problem or issue with the previous display, or said anything to me about making this change.

  I still feel the red and blue footprints are inappropriate, given what I believe was the original intent to subtly promote the Democratic Party and its candidates by visually portraying the election as being about blue and red, left and right, pick Team A or Team B. They should either affirm their non-partisan status by adding footprint stickers of other colors, or just abandon the stickers and simply have some neutral signage directing people to the polling area. Since there was no acknowledgement of a mistake having been made, there's also no guarantee the original deployment of the stickers or some similarly objectionable action won't be repeated in a future election!

  In any case, I testified about the issue at the Ethics Commission during public comment at their meeting yesterday, and was promised by staffer Jessica Blume that they would look into the matter and decide whether or not the Commission has jurisdiction in the matter, and inform the commissioners accordingly, probably before the election. The meeting can be viewed online via SFgov.tv (note that the video is not quite as long as it appears, as it includes times during which the commission was meeting in closed session or was in recess). My presentation on the issue appears near the end of the video, at 3:33:55:

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=142&clip_id=26370

  Some of the proceedings earlier in the meeting that took place before I arrived are also worth watching, as there are some fireworks with outspoken members of the public including Ray Hartz of San Francisco Open Government, and local muckraker and BART Board candidate Michael Petrelis (who I have personally endorsed) taking the commissioners to task over First Amendment issues. Great to see members of the public being so outspoken in standing up for their rights!

Love & Liberty,
                              ((( starchild )))

Red&BlueFootprints7-16.jpg