Election Fraud Allegations Mount In Newsom's Mayoral Victory

The San Francisco Chronicle has extensively covered charges of election fraud by government assistance recipients in the welfare-to-work program. Street cleaners at SLUG (San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners) reported being taken from regular duties and sent precinct walking to distribute Gavin Newsome election materials door-to-door during the runoff campaign. They also claim to have been driven to the polls on election day with instructions to vote for Newsome, with one claiming a crew chief looked over her shoulder while she voted. Others say they were sent to cast absentee ballots, with instructions to hand in their stubs.

The welfare-to-work program requires that people who cannot find paid jobs perform unpaid labor for the right to receive their government assistance checks. They effectively work for sub-minimum wages, without basic employment rights, such as due process to report and remedy health and safety issues or harassment by supervisors. Many work in fear of reprisal; if reprimanded or terminated from the positions, they fear losing their meager public assistance checks.

Employees described similar activity as rampant during Willie Brown’s 1999 re-election campaign, with SLUG executive director (now #2 official in the Department of Public Works) that their jobs and the agency’s future depended on Brown’s re-election. John Farrell, a former SLUG employee, claims he was put to work extensively on Brown’s campaign during work hours, a direct violation of civil service policy. He explained that he knew it was wrong, but needed his job.

Last Friday, a San Francisco Examiner article added fuel to the fire, highlighting allegations released at a press conference the day before by an anti-fraud unit associated with Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez’s campaign. Most allegations center around the Bayview Hunters Point district. Newsome won a large majority of votes in the heavily African American district despite offering nothing in the way of policy positions that will help reduce poverty, crime, pollution, or gentrification in the neighborhood. The most serious charge has Newsome supporters handing out provisional ballots door-to-door. These ballots are only legally distributed at polling places. Dead people’s names showing up on absentee ballots, problems with Eagle voting machines, and people turned away from polling places before closing time without being allowed to cast votes round out the allegations made at the press conference. Gonzalez supporters are suspicious of a power outage in the Haight-Ashbury polling place, a liberal voting district full of Gonzalez supporters.

Serious intimidation charges were raised. Staffers in Gonzalez’s Third Street office claim that young people with Newsome signs surrounded the office and harassed campaign staff. At the press conference, Bay View Hunter’s Point Resident Alvin Jones describes a scenario eerily reminiscent of George Bush’s Florida election campaign. He claims to have been harassed twice while on his way to vote with his 81-year-old mother. “You’re more or less risking your life to vote. Its wrong and should be stopped.”

Government investigations are under way by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and California Secretary State Kevin Shelley (a machine Democrat who decided to ignore law and delay implementation of Instant runoff Voting voting, a controversial move seen by many as benefiting Newsome). Newsome won 53%-47%, and reportedly had a 60,000 vote lead at the start of election day from early votes, many absentee ballots. Newsome asserts zero-tolerance for such fraud and does not appear to be directly implicated. Gonzalez’s office has refused comment for this article (as they have almost every other request I’ve made both as a constituent and reporter). Green Party members tell me that Gonzalez’s staff wants to remain quiet for now, to wait and see if any further allegations surface.

Obvious questions arise. Was another election fixed? What needs to be done to insure fair elections in San Francisco?