An Open Letter to Don Gordon:

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An Open Letter to Don Gordon:

We are the Steering Committee of the Edgewater/Rogers Park Democracy for America (DFA) Group. DFA is an organization founded by Governor Howard Dean and dedicated to progressive reform. We are writing to urge you to withdraw your lawsuit, which seeks to throw out more than half of the votes cast in the recent aldermanic election, thereby disenfranchising thousands of 49th Ward voters.

Your lawsuit claims you lost the aldermanic election through fraud. Yet you fail to allege any specific acts of fraud. On that basis alone, your legal challenge appears without merit.

What is even more troubling, however, is that while you say you wish to protect the right to vote, you ask the court to void the results in 22 precincts, which represent most of the precincts in the 49th Ward. In other words, if you were to prevail in your lawsuit, all votes cast in those 22 precincts would no longer be counted, and over half the voters in the last election would be disenfranchised.

This incredibly extreme measure runs contrary to every democratic principle. Mr. Gordon, if you have evidence of voter fraud, which we seriously doubt, we urge you to turn that evidence over to the U.S. Attorney, the Illinois Attorney General and the Cook County State's Attorney. But do not continue this attempt to deprive the voters in the 49th Ward of their right to vote.

We also find it extremely curious that the 22 precincts whose voters you seek to disenfranchise happen to be the same 22 precincts that Joe Moore won in the last election, a fact which underscores the blatantly political nature of your lawsuit and belies your claim that the purpose of your lawsuit is to see that "all the votes are counted." In fact, using such serious allegations for such a transparently political maneuver demonstrates a shocking level of contempt for the principles of our democracy and an appalling willingness to disenfranchise your neighbors for your own political purposes.

Many of our members participated as volunteers in the 49th Ward election, and none of us saw any evidence of fraud or misconduct on the part of election officials or Moore campaign workers. Instead, we observed many attorneys from the Cook County State's Attorney's office and many investigators from the Chicago Board of Elections, who monitored the polling places all day. None of these professional observers witnessed any acts of fraud or misconduct.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the attorney you hired to represent you on your lawsuit, Michael Lavelle, is the same attorney who represents Protect Marriage Illinois, the conservative Christian fundamentalist organization that attempted last year to place an anti-gay marriage referendum on the statewide election ballot.

Mr. Gordon, these divisive, anti-democratic, right-wing tactics have no place here in Rogers Park and Edgewater. It's time to acknowledge you lost the election and move on. Please join us in uniting, not dividing our community.

Sincerely,

Shannon Fisk, Jim Ginsburg, Carol Levy, Melissa Lindberg,
Michi Schulenberg and Sandra Verthein

Edgewater/Rogers Park
Democracy for America
Steering Committee



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and my comments-

here, here. in polling place after polling place, judges from both sides congratulated each other on a clean election, well fought. the precinct where i was a judge is on the challenged list.
a gordon volunteer said that the precinct i judged had been "written-off", yet the poll watchers had a long list of challenges. they challenged roughly a dozen voters, 3 provisional ballots were given, the rest had white applications, current drivers licenses, and matching signatures. they got a regular ballot and voted. now 16 votes are said to be invalid in that precinct. almost 10% of the total. so, these voters already were challenged, and judged valid. you had your pollwatchers, and judges who worked your campaign. you lost. fairer than fair.
don gordon is the ronald reagan of rogers park, blowing smoke, twisting words, spinning issues out of thin air, and paving the way for big business to take down an independent voice.
we are democrats here, don. you lost.
and who the hell is the freeman insititute, anyway.