From Richard Winger:
Terry is a Green, but her election problems impact on
us too. Libertarians have also had trouble with the
law making it almost impossible for any write-in
candidate to win a partisan primary in a party with a
small number of registrants. But she did make it, the
first minor party person to do in California since
1968...and then they took it away from her, because
some of her write-in votes didn't connect the arrow.
-----------On Monday, April 12, about twelve of us sat in at the
Department of Elections, demanding to meet with John
Arntz, who has refused to meet with me in the past,
who wasn't there, demanding to talk to him on the
phone wherever he was. Four of us refused to leave
when the DOE closed and were arrested. This was the
very first time I've ever been arrested. It says
something about my deeply middle-class nice-girl soul
that, no matter how many demonstrations I went to, I
never could bring myself to stand in the way of a law
officer telling me to move - before Monday.The best part was talking to the Deputy Sheriffs and
the Building Manager and the other authority figures
who came in to convince us to leave. They were
genuinely sympathetic with my case when I explained it
to them and showed them the ballot with my name
written in and the arrow unconnected. Truly, Arntz's
decision defies common sense. Everyone (except
lawyers who worship the law) can understand that
voters were disenfranchised.The worst part was the repeated exclamations of
Shaheen, who works at DOE: "But I don't understand!
We have always been so cooperative with you! We have
given you everything you asked of us!" Me: "Yes,
Shaheen, you have been very helpful. But it doesn't
change the fact that your boss is disenfranchising a
lot of voters." I was playing the part of the strong
activist. But in my heart I cringed, thinking they
were so nice to me and I am NOT being nice to them!Then Deputy Sheriff Novak told everyone to leave three
times. And everyone left except me and June Brashares
and Mark Barnes and Nicole Walter. We heard the
deputy sheriffs outside in the hall trying to track
down Arntz on the phone. They really felt he SHOULD
meet with us! Then they came back in and handcuffed
us in a very polite and friendly way, and took us down
the hall to the waiting paddy wagon. June and I
elected to be dragged. My theatrical training kicked
in, and I yelled and struggled. Unfortunately, a new
D.S. arrived to take June out, and he was
intentionally rough with her and really wrenched her
thumb even though she tried to cooperate. That was
infuriating.We were put into a paddy wagon. D.S. Novak assured us
"It's all good," and that we wouldn't have to go to
the jail to get booked. They would bring someone to
us. This was definitely Law Enforcement Light --
except for June's sadistic D.S. So the four of us
sat, with our hands cuffed behind our backs, in a very
small paddy wagon for about an hour. June told us
about when she and Medea Benjamin had been arrested
for trying to get into a debate when Medea was running
for Senate. While they were riding in the paddy
wagon, Medea's cell phone rang. June was able to get
it out of Medea's pocket, despite being handcuffed.
It was KPFA, wanting to interview Medea! So June held
the phone behind her back while Medea knelt on the
floor of the paddy wagon, talking to KPFA. Talk about
being available to the press!Finally the police arrived to book us. We were taken
out of the paddy wagon. Our plastic cuffs were cut
off. We were giving citations with a court date. And
it was over. I was no longer a virgin. I had been
arrested.I'm still ambivalent about it, perhaps partly because
it's very difficult for me to really stand up to
authority. But I also feel that we went there, not to
meet with John Arntz, but to get arrested to get
attention. And that feels dishonest - although it is
true that this issue of these write-in votes being
invalidated is VERY important, and it is deserving of
publicity! So perhaps I'm being too fastidious. (At
the bottom of this letter is Mark Barnes' account of
the sit-in and arrest.)We did finally make it into the Chron online - go to
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/13/roundup.DTL