We find a whole truckload of interesting stories on the pages of our northern Utah newspapers this morning. We'll highlight a few of the more interesting ones.
The Standard-Examiner, Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News all report on the latest development in the Emerald City election 2007 debacle, i.e., that the Utah ACLU is now investigating election irregularities. We're short on time this morning and have a busy calender today, so we'll simply cut to the chase, and incorporate the pertinent text from the ACLU's November 19 press release on the subject:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah will be looking into complaints it has received regarding election irregularities in the November 6th mayoral race in Ogden, Utah, as it considers potential action.It seems to us that the ACLU is the ideal law office to represent the interests of Emerald City citizens who might have gripes about their treatment during our November 6 polling. The ACLU has the necessary resources to properly investigate and prosecute election misconduct; and of course voter rights cases are right up their alley. We thus suggest that any Emerald City citizens who believe they have a grievance about their treatment at local polling places, to immediately contact the ACLU in the manner above-indicated. This is just speculation on our part, but we believe ACLU counsel would be particularly interested in evidence of instances where prospective voters were denied provisional ballots. Folks who were simply told they could not vote, and were entirely turned away at the polls without being offered a provisional ballot, are the single class of aggrieved citizens for whom election officials have no paper trail.
“We have received complaints of election irregularities including inappropriate use of voter challenges, denial of provisional ballots, intimidation of voters and electioneering at the polling places,” states Karen McCreary, Executive Director. “If substantiated, these actions not only undermine the trust and confidence Utah voters should have in the electoral process but they also violate the Utah constitution and state law.”
The ACLU of Utah is seeking information from any one who encountered problems voting in the Ogden mayoral election on election day or who observed incidents in which fellow voters were discouraged from voting.
Information should be directed via email to aclu@acluutah.org or by phone to 801-521-9862, extension 101.
We'll also highlight this morning's Std-Ex editorial, in which our intrepid Std-Ex editors examine ongoing efforts at the state legislature, to patch up our Utah campaign finance disclosure laws. Among the provisions being contemplated for proposed remedial legislation would be "tough" cash penalties for the misreporting of campaign donations. As we witnessed in the past election cycle, our newly-elected "Precious Charcter" entirely failed to report a $38,000 carry-over from his 2003 mayoral campaign on his initially-filed 2007 disclosure statement. The legislature's Political Subdivisions Interim Subcommittee is reportedly considering a new penalty of up to 5% for such misreported donations. We'll leave it to our gentle readers to do the math.
Finally, we'll direct our readers' attention to a story from today's Std-Ex business page, wherein Ace Reporter Schwebke gleefully reports that an "Ogden River plan [is] coming." This plan will reportedly be announced by Friend of Matt (FOM) Gadi Leshem on December 7. We'll note that it's unusual for California felony criminal defendants to be allowed to leave the state of California during the pendency of criminal proceedings, so we suppose Gadi will be the guy wearing the ankle bracelet. As an added bonus to Weber County Democrats (all five of you) who may wish to attend this announcement event, Ace Reporter Schwebke reports that Gadi will also have donkey icon Robert F. Kennedy in tow, presumably to reassure the lumpencitizens that Gadi isn't such a bad guy after all -- once you get to know him. Further down the article Mr. Schwebke reports that Gadi's River Project will be completed within seven years. If all goes well, we guess, Boss Godfrey's "bestest buddy" Gadi will be out of the San Quentin slam by then.
That's it today from us, gentle readers. We'll rely upon the rest of you to fill in the blanks from here.
Update 11/20/07 9:39 a.m. MT: Within minutes of the publication of today's front page article, Gentle Curmudgeon posted a main article length comment to the comments section of our lower article. We've uploaded it to our archives pages, and accordingly link Curmudgeon's expanded "take" on this morning's stories here. Consider it a Tuesday morning "two-fer" bonus.
Update 11/21/07 10:32 a.m. MT: This morning's Std-Ex has a followup on the ACLU story.
