Update for June 10
Good morning!Another year older - and still “out” of the you know what LOL
I just want to say again - thanks to all for your efforts so far - your support for this cause, and for me personally, mean more than you can imagine.
Its a very stressful and trying time - and I just have to look at it from the perspective that it is better than if it were happening to an average citizen (one who was not prepared for corrupt officials - although no one is ever truly prepared for how bad it can be) - although they are now expanding their harassment techniques to a second individual.
By the way - I did not post this yet - but have been intending on ensuring it gets posted at the Alachua Project website:
After Michael Canney forced the City Officials to produce “a list” (not the proper list - but eventually they relented and produced “a” list - although we now have the first memorandum written by Clovis which admits they had not “maintained” that list, now they have produced one - which we can demonstrate how it was doctored) of absentee voters.
Of course - they feared we were trying to get that (and it took over a month to get what they gave us) in order to find out WHO voted absentee - because they know we have spoken to a few such voters and they have relayed their stories to us of how the City Manager (who serves on the Canvassing Board - and who is also the Police Commissioner and the sworn active duty police officer who arrested me - and a defendant in the lawsuit on the election) and the City Deputy Clerk (the City Manager is also City Clerk - he holds many jobs!) (who acts as Supervisor of Elections) INFLUENCED them to cast an absentee ballot and for whom. (And some more details will come out even worse than this in time).
Well, after delaying - they finally had to give it to Michael - who asked for it as co-chair of the Green Party (they should have given it to me as a candidate in an upcoming election).
Clovis Watson then sent Michael, by certified letter, a threat that the City was not happy that they had to give him that information - and threatened him in HOW he was going to use that information. (Again - they did not realize that I already knew all the people who cast absentee ballots - that is not why I was seeking the log sheet). The implied threat was that Michael should not contact ANY voters - or he will take legal action against him!
And he wrote in a memorandum to the City Commission that he feared that WE were going out there to “intimidate” voters! (Of course - the election was over - so their logic is a bit odd). They have been playing that tactic all along - trying to create the image applied to us - of what they know we are going to reveal about them - to confuse the issue.
But that was not it. The last two weeks the City took out an advertisement in two local papers - NOTIFYING absentee voters that the list was made available - and implying that the City was “concerned” that they had to do that - and “did all it can to PROTECT the identity of absentee voters” (which of course anyone can find out - without that list). And they state at the end of their ad - that if anyone is CONTACTED (what they fear - because they fear us learning MORE evidence against them) they should immediately contact the City for them to take “legal action.”Indeed Clovis Watson’s memo to the City Commission (as City Manager) states that this is “now a matter for law enforcement” (and remember he IS law enforcement in Alachua! He is the Police Commissioner and an officer as well as City Clerk, City Manager, Canvassing Board member, etc.)Just an update - again - thanks so much for your efforts. As I mentioned I have to have $5,000 by Monday for existing legal bills and they are trying to put us into a corne
r (knowing we don’t have this kind of money on our own). We are half way to that goal after last night - thanks so much. This is probably the one thing (this knowledge) that has kept me from absolute frustration so far this weekend (to top it all off - I am moving - and with last month’s arrest I was unable to finalize my permanent arrangements for my new place of residence (in my district) and had a temporary place that fell through as it was not ready yet - and so I have been both moving all of my belongings during this period (wondering whether they will pull me over while moving and arrest me!!) into different friends garages while staying with a host of different people in their spare bedrooms!! I have not even had the time to get another place lined up finally!!! Its just been so crazy down here.
Did you guys all see that great story by Andrew Gumbel (author of Steal this Vote and a great number of election fraud stories in many of the progressive magazines such as the Nation) - it was in the recent issue of the Los Angeles City Beat in his column “American Babylon” - its entitled “The Deep South”. Definitely worth a read - let me know if you can’t find it - I’ll post a link (you can also find it on http://freealachua.org )
(sorry for rambling - but its morning!)
Charlie
I just want to say again - thanks to all for your efforts so far - your support for this cause, and for me personally, mean more than you can imagine.
Its a very stressful and trying time - and I just have to look at it from the perspective that it is better than if it were happening to an average citizen (one who was not prepared for corrupt officials - although no one is ever truly prepared for how bad it can be) - although they are now expanding their harassment techniques to a second individual.
By the way - I did not post this yet - but have been intending on ensuring it gets posted at the Alachua Project website:
After Michael Canney forced the City Officials to produce “a list” (not the proper list - but eventually they relented and produced “a” list - although we now have the first memorandum written by Clovis which admits they had not “maintained” that list, now they have produced one - which we can demonstrate how it was doctored) of absentee voters.
Of course - they feared we were trying to get that (and it took over a month to get what they gave us) in order to find out WHO voted absentee - because they know we have spoken to a few such voters and they have relayed their stories to us of how the City Manager (who serves on the Canvassing Board - and who is also the Police Commissioner and the sworn active duty police officer who arrested me - and a defendant in the lawsuit on the election) and the City Deputy Clerk (the City Manager is also City Clerk - he holds many jobs!) (who acts as Supervisor of Elections) INFLUENCED them to cast an absentee ballot and for whom. (And some more details will come out even worse than this in time).
Well, after delaying - they finally had to give it to Michael - who asked for it as co-chair of the Green Party (they should have given it to me as a candidate in an upcoming election).
Clovis Watson then sent Michael, by certified letter, a threat that the City was not happy that they had to give him that information - and threatened him in HOW he was going to use that information. (Again - they did not realize that I already knew all the people who cast absentee ballots - that is not why I was seeking the log sheet). The implied threat was that Michael should not contact ANY voters - or he will take legal action against him!
And he wrote in a memorandum to the City Commission that he feared that WE were going out there to “intimidate” voters! (Of course - the election was over - so their logic is a bit odd). They have been playing that tactic all along - trying to create the image applied to us - of what they know we are going to reveal about them - to confuse the issue.
But that was not it. The last two weeks the City took out an advertisement in two local papers - NOTIFYING absentee voters that the list was made available - and implying that the City was “concerned” that they had to do that - and “did all it can to PROTECT the identity of absentee voters” (which of course anyone can find out - without that list). And they state at the end of their ad - that if anyone is CONTACTED (what they fear - because they fear us learning MORE evidence against them) they should immediately contact the City for them to take “legal action.”Indeed Clovis Watson’s memo to the City Commission (as City Manager) states that this is “now a matter for law enforcement” (and remember he IS law enforcement in Alachua! He is the Police Commissioner and an officer as well as City Clerk, City Manager, Canvassing Board member, etc.)Just an update - again - thanks so much for your efforts. As I mentioned I have to have $5,000 by Monday for existing legal bills and they are trying to put us into a corne
r (knowing we don’t have this kind of money on our own). We are half way to that goal after last night - thanks so much. This is probably the one thing (this knowledge) that has kept me from absolute frustration so far this weekend (to top it all off - I am moving - and with last month’s arrest I was unable to finalize my permanent arrangements for my new place of residence (in my district) and had a temporary place that fell through as it was not ready yet - and so I have been both moving all of my belongings during this period (wondering whether they will pull me over while moving and arrest me!!) into different friends garages while staying with a host of different people in their spare bedrooms!! I have not even had the time to get another place lined up finally!!! Its just been so crazy down here.
Did you guys all see that great story by Andrew Gumbel (author of Steal this Vote and a great number of election fraud stories in many of the progressive magazines such as the Nation) - it was in the recent issue of the Los Angeles City Beat in his column “American Babylon” - its entitled “The Deep South”. Definitely worth a read - let me know if you can’t find it - I’ll post a link (you can also find it on http://freealachua.org )
(sorry for rambling - but its morning!)
Charlie
posted by Catreona at 6/10/2006 09:00:00 AM
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