Hear arguments, seek consensus, on proposals to redress the February convention debacle.
Presented by Chuck Fall, Lori Burton, Dan Pulju, and Suzia Aufderheide
Throwing out more than half the votes at the February convention was an outrageous act that demands accountability. We should preclude those responsible from holding officer positions or further influencing party business. We bring this to the convention for resolution.
We list here the key elements of the attempt to retain control of the SCC by suppressing the decision-making power of convention voters.
1) The convention departed from our rules of order, under which party decisions are made by a majority of supporting members present.
2) 39 of 75 Opavote ballots received were removed from the count, a manipulation typical of authoritarian countries. In a public election it would normally trigger an investigation into electoral fraud.
3) The ballots were thrown out on specious eligibility grounds by the same “elections committee” which had vetted them. The committee sent them ballots, and made no attempt to address the alleged issues during the long voting period.
4) The ballot deletions were plainly targeted. The “decertified” members of Linn-Benton and Lane chapters had voted in large numbers for Lori Burton and Dan Pulju.
5) The use of non-secret ballots to enable this targeted ballot purge.
6) Ironically exploiting vague bylaws language for a purportedly “strict” construction. Our bylaws plainly tell the SCC to certify supporting members when a chapter does not. The word “recognized” occurs in the context of the convention recognizing someone as responsible. No “strict” construction can disregard that plain interpretation.
7) The results were released by OpaVote at the end of the voting period, midnight March 3rd, summarized here. On March 4th, “Preliminary results” were posted by Seth Woolley, completely at odds with the actual results.
8) After his “preliminary results” were challenged, Seth locked Chuck and other party co-chairs out of the OpaVote account.
9) Over the next five days, Seth prepared his “official report.” He justified the delay by claiming he had to write new counting software. Nathalie Paravicini claimed it was her “undestanding” that Dan, Lori and Devon Lawson-McCourt had been elected. She denied that anything shady was going on. They were not telling the truth.
10) During this period, no attempt was made to contact voters or their chapters to correct alleged eligibility issues.
11) On March 8, Seth’s “official report” purported to reverse most of the results. The Pacific Green Party of Oregon PAC was amended the same day. The amendment named new PAC directors according to Seth’s report. Party co-chairs were not informed that this was done.
12) On March 10, the report was presented to an ad-hoc SCC meeting. A vote was held to accept Seth’s report and overturn the convention vote. The SCC has no power to overturn a convention vote.
13) Bob Zahniser, Connor Salisbury and Justin Filip all participated in the March 10 SCC vote. Their terms had expired at the end of January and they were no longer SCC members. They are complicit in the attempt to overturn the convention vote.
14) Seth’s “official” count was preceded by a purge of 22 ballots, including all of Linn-Benton chapter. Linn-Benton is an old and active chapter and has a revenue-sharing arrangement with the party. The eligibility of its members is not in doubt.
15) The count then arbitrarily started with the item to “decertify” PGP Lane Chapter. Declaring the chapter “decertified,” it then threw out another 17 ballots. The apparent rationale is that an election result can retroactively affect the prior eligibility of voters.
16) These manipulations were then used to disqualify the leading candidates on the “majoritarian approval” element. Voters had been misled with leading questions to believe this is a feature of STV proportional voting. In fact it’s the exact opposite of proportional counting.
17) Both the agenda ballot and the main ballot were riddled with leading text and format. Voters were presented with a “yes” or “abstain” choice, which confused some into thinking “abstain” meant “no.”
18) Seth had items of his own on the ballot, which failed to pass in the vote result. He tampered with the results to declare them all passed. This is a conflict of interest.
19) Seth claimed authority to operate an “elections committee.” However, the SCC did not formally vote to create one. In any case, the SCC may not confer authority to a committee to determine the business of a convention. Only the convention can determine its business.
20) The fallback excuse for all this has been the SCC’s responsibility for “binding interpretation” of the bylaws. Interpretation doesn’t mean making things up. Seth’s attempt at a “strict construction” is frivolous.
21) Nathalie admitted at a Linn Benton Chapter meeting that she and Seth had taken “drastic measures” to keep Lori and Dan off SCC. She has also described the vote purge as payback, a “tit for tat,” for Seth not being able to vote absentee on resolutions at the January and March 2023 conventions.
Context: events leading up to the stolen election.
22) The attempt to keep Dan off the SCC is rooted in attacks on PGP Lane chapter starting in 2020. Nathalie and Ken Adams took over the chapter’s Facebook page with the help of Connor Salisbury. Facebook then returned the page to the chapter. Nathalie, Ken and Connor could have admitted they were wrong and the page wasn’t theirs to take. Instead they doubled down on the lie, ramped up the attacks and started a long campaign to destroy the chapter.
23) At the January 7th, 2023, SCC meeting Nathalie led the majority to revoke the Lane Chapter status. That could only stand if ratified at the next convention, which did not happen. Instead, the convention sent the issue into a mediation process devised by John Q. Murray. Nathalie, Justin and others in the SCC majority made no sincere effort to participate.
24) Nathalie began relentlessly attacking Lori as “biased” after Lori stood by our rules of order at the January and March 2023 conventions. Nathalie had mistakenly informed a few people that a vote on resolutions would include absentee balloting. Resolutions are not listed among the votes that can be done absentee. In any case, that decision is up to those present at convention, and they decided not to. Nathalie has blamed Lori for this and is now openly trying to drive her out of the party.
25) Nathalie led the SCC majority to “reject” the business of the January and March 2023 conventions. The SCC has no power to override a vote of convention. Justin, Connor and Bob also voted to do this. Thus, the pattern of unilateral action against convention votes has been going on for more than a year.
26) Nathalie led the SCC majority to spend ~$2700 of PGP funds to hire Tasha Harmon, a contract facilitator. Tasha is not a party member and not familiar with our rules of order. She allowed convention process decisions, like accepting previous convention minutes, to occur by email. This made them irrelevant to process and meaningless, with the only real decisions made by Nathalie and whomever she shared control with. This was a prelude to the webinar format which took decision-making power completely away from the members.
27) Seth has long acted as a shill for corporations and military interest in the development of high frequency radio technology. This involves mass placement of antennas throughout our cities and communities, with well-established deleterious health effects. This plainly motivated Seth’s “anti-knowledge” planks, which did not pass until he manipulated the vote.
Appendix:
1) Joint press release by Lane Chapter and Green Liberty Chapter on the matter of the stolen election
2) Letter from co-chairs Chuck Fall and Suzia Aufderheide to the Oregon Secretary of State advising that the February convention election “official results” are disputed
3) The PGP Lane Chapter statement on the “official report” by Seth Wooley et al
4) Statement Affirming Opavote Results by convention voters
5) A communication to the Green Party US informing of the dispute and requesting they refrain from interfering or taking sides
6) groups.io email message from Seth at the close of the Opavote:
7) The real results, with all ballots counted properly, sent to convention voters after Seth released his tampered results vention attendees after election window closed: Dear PGP Convention voter,
8) Background on the January and March 2023 conventions
9) Pacific Green Party constitution and bylaws, which show Rules of Order
10) The “official” report used by Seth to justify throwing out 39 member votes.