The Oregon Secretary of State (SOS) Elections Division has abused its authority by interfering in an internal party dispute inside the Pacific Green Party (PGP). Following a highly contested election from the PGP’s February 2024 convention, the SOS was notified by two members of the State Coordinating Committee (SCC), Chuck Fall and Suzia Aufderheide, not to accept a new officers list until an internal dispute was resolved. Rather than respect this request or hear arguments from both sides, Deputy Elections Director, Luke Belant chose to adopt an illegitimate SCC decision to remove Fall and Aufderheide from their elected positions on the SCC, thereby eliminating their ability to sign SEL 110 forms. This decision by the SCC violates the party’s bylaws, while the decision by the SOS violates State law (ORS 248.011), which stipulates the SOS shall not enforce rules adopted by a political party. Belant sided with former PGP party secretary Seth Woolley over his version of the contested election and accepted a new officers list from contested new secretary Justin Filip. The SOS notified Fall and Aufderheide of their removal as party officers. The PGP bylaws state that SCC members can only be removed while serving their term by a two-thirds majority vote of supporting members at a convention.
The party dispute pertains to the February 2024 convention election and the decision of an illegitimate election committee to throw out over half of the votes. The original results were problematic for certain members of the party’s SCC, as it meant a shift in the balance of power. The election committee engineered a unilateral coup by misinterpreting the bylaws to claim that many voters were not properly credentialed. This included de-credentaling the members of the Linn-Benton Chapter (Oregon’s oldest PGP chapter). Seth Woolley, who headed the election committee, should have recused himself because he had six ballot proposals. All of his ballot proposals originally failed, but then passed after he disqualified over half of the voter’s ballots.
In an interview on Whole Community News, SCC member Natalie Paravicini, admitted that “…we could not allow also people who are on the steering committee who behave in that part and who just use party assets and who turn people away. Because I have a list of about six people who are really good organizers who are not going to get involved as long as one or two persons who are on the steering committee are very active because of the toxic behavior. And this is the problem….”
Dan Pulju and Lori Burton were elected to the SCC with a large majority of votes. They were cheated out of their elected positions, thus disenfranchising PGP voters. Natalie Paravicini and others on the SCC could have chosen not to certify the altered ballot results, but instead chose to seat their cohorts, Amy Sacks and Mary Geddry, who received only a few votes. Natalie’s Paravicini’s interview statement exposes her motive to engage in election fraud.
Some Pacific Green Party members refuse to participate in this blatant election fraud and will not accept the corrupt cabal controlling the SCC.