San Francisco City Officials and Voter Fraud

SF Cop Accused of Voter Fraud

Deputy Chief Rick Bruce.


Manuel Ramos

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The Secretary of State voter fraud unit is set to investigate the voting record of a San Francisco Police Department deputy chief.

Rick Bruce has been mentioned as a candidate to be the new chief of police, but he reportedly has admitted that he voted in three San Francisco elections using his mother's address -- even though his real residence is in the nearby city of San Bruno.

Current police chief Alex Fagan refused to say much about the matter.

"I do not think it is appropriate for me to comment," he said. "There have been issues like this in the past."

High-ranking city officials who live outside San Francisco have been caught voting in the city before, but never a high-ranking police officer.

Bruce himself refused to discuss the matter Thursday. He was one of the few members of the police command staff not tainted by last year's cop brawl scandal, where a number of officers were indicted for allegedly blocking the investigation of three off-duty police officers.

There is an edict from City Hall that command staff members must live in San Francisco. Bruce is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying the order may have led to his decision to vote in the city.

» 01-08-2004

Serious Voter Fraud Charges in SF Mayor's Race
Manuel Ramos

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A full-scale investigation is underway into serious charges of voter fraud in San Francisco's mayoral election.

A San Francisco Chronicle investigation uncovered accusations that nine people from the non-profit gardening group SLUG were forced to do work for Gavin Newsom's campaign, and pressured into voting for him for mayor -- told that their jobs with the city would be in danger if they didn't cooperate.

The Chronicle reports that this occurred while the people were contracted by the Department of Public Works. They claim the deputy public works director Mohammed Nuru and the executive director of SLUG, Jonathan Gomwalk, applied the pressure.

Mayor Newsom says if the charges are true, and he benefited from the fraud, he is disturbed by the idea that people might have been forced to vote for him.

"If these accusations are accurate, people should be held accountable," said Newsom. "I don't think anybody wants anyone working on their behalf doing anything inappropriate. So I want an investigation to go forward."

The head of DPW, director Ed Lee, says the investigation has been turned over to the city attorney.

"I really want the investigation to be completed as soon as possible," Lee said. "There will be full cooperation."

There was no sense of surprise among other elected officials that city employees may have been forced to vote a certain way.

"Do I think candidate Newsom orchestrated this? No," said Supervisor Chris Daly. "Do I think he knew about? Probably not. Do I think people in his campaign knew about this? I have been in enough campaigns to say it's likely."

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who lost a mayor's runoff race four years ago, says some city workers had to campaign against him.

"I used to see city workers campaigning against me. Whether it was on their time or not, I don't know," he said. When asked if they were pressured, Ammiano said, "Well, some of them told me they were."

The new mayor says he will make it clear in a memo to city staff that pressuring workers to vote in a certain way will not be tolerated.

» 01-15-2004

http://www.ftaaimc.org/or/2003/11/265.shtml

Time to put a STOP to Voter FRAUD