by Sarah Burnett in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Precinct Meetings were in February
In February, many of us were newly elected precinct officers. I had been wanting to do this for some time, but had been told there weren’t any vacancies. But this time, I attended my precinct convention and was elected.
Preparing for Our County Convention
After the precinct elections, a group of us had serious questions about the process being used for delegates for our county convention. We called a county committee meeting to attempt to direct the process (since we are supposed to be the governing body for our county Republican Party), but when the meeting came, some of the leadership wanted it to be a closed meeting, complete with armed security to keep our guests out.
Because we ran for transparency and accountability and encountered some actual physical hostility, we moved our meeting to the other room. We had a quorum at our meeting (this number is clearly defined in the GOP rules), and so proceeded to hold our meeting. The current chairman and county officers held their own meeting in another room all the while insisting that they had a quorum, which is impossible because no two groups of the same body can both have a majority of members present (our meeting was live-streamed so you can see how many people attended and judge for yourself).
We had many unresolved questions about how delegates were being added to the state convention list. Names were turned in from the precinct meetings, and there were stated rules and deadlines for other people to be added, but the lists were being kept secret and the stated process seemed to keep changing. During this time, we repeatedly asked for verification as to how over two hundred of the delegates were being added, but received no response from the chairman and county officers.
County Convention in March
When it came time for the convention, on a whim I picked up my laptop and shoved it in my backpack, just in case it was needed. Getting to the convention, there was already a tension in the room, surrounding the delegate issue. We asked for verification from the floor on process, but it was never given, with various rules and excuses as to the reason why.
Eventually, the convention got underway. In our convention, the vote is allocated per precinct. But they were reading off numbers such as 4 divided by 2 equals 1.91. About ten precincts in, one of our delegates stopped them. They had to stop the proceedings to fix the algorithm for the precincts allocations. Also, unlike past years, the spreadsheet was not displayed for us to see.
At the beginning of the election of officers, a motion was made to run as a “slate” (one vote for the entire slate of officers). My husband had personally witnessed the acting chair who was overseeing the election agree to NOT run as a slate, so this was a deceptive last minute change (and our convention rules stipulated independent votes). We defeated the move in a floor vote.
The Chairman Race
Finally we get to the actual election. At the last minute, I built myself a quick spreadsheet, and recorded votes. As they finished tallying all the precincts, my spreadsheet clearly showed that our candidate had won! Then the announcement from the stage – they said he had lost by 10 allocated votes. I was genuinely confused, so started checking my numbers with another precinct officer who had kept a paper tally. We went over the numbers multiple times, but my number kept showing that my pick for chairman had won.
I decided to make the problem known to the convention chair. When I told her that I wasn’t arriving at the same totals, she questioned me and said they had checked it. I insisted that I wanted to check it again. She delayed me – “after the vice chairman election.” I went and sat down. The vice chairman election happened, and the initial declaration again was incorrect (later I confirmed that it left off 4 precincts for our candidate, but included them for the acting chair’s candidate), but in less than one minute it was corrected and then my numbers matched up. So I WAS right about questioning the first one. Something must be off.
The chairman candidate that I was supporting stood and challenged the vote, asking to check the numbers. The convention chair said, “I’ve already declared it.” At that point, I stood. “You promised me, standing right there, that you would let me see the numbers.” She kept telling us it was too late. Finally, the currently announced winner (who was also the acting county chairman), said “I’ll show you the numbers.”
I brought my laptop, and we went over each precinct, line by line. But my total still wasn’t matching. He finally clicked the formula, and scrolled down. While his column had counted every precinct, the other column had left off four precincts – rural precincts with a heavy grassroots constituency. Over 15 allocated votes. We looked at each other and acknowledged that I was right. Interestingly, the acting chairman did not check the formula for his total. Did he know that his total was already correct? Once I had seen the totals match the numbers I had, I went and sat down.
Yet, the convention chair kept right on moving, preparing to take the next vote. I stood and challenged. “They’re still working on it,” I was told. I kept insisting, and the acting chairman came on the stage, said there had been a clerical error, and removed himself from the race.
Conclusion
About a month later, I was given a copy of the spreadsheet. It had the correction I watched the acting chairman make for the candidate I was supporting, but in the spreadsheet, you can see that the 3rd candidate excluded the four bottom precincts (for both chairman and vice chairman races). Somehow the acting chairman’s formula had been adjusted to include all precincts but they didn’t copy that formula to the other candidates. The acting chairman’s total and his vice chairman candidate’s total included the fourth precinct from the bottom from the first tally announced.
CHAIRMAN TALLY SHEET
VICE CHAIRMAN TALLY
At one point, I was told that this was because of the recent census. However, the census added three precincts, not four, so why does every column that is still left with the original formula leave off four precincts?
By this time the convention process was moving on to other votes, but the momentum of our candidate being declared the winner in real time before the votes of the other candidates easily could have swayed the vice chairman outcome as well from a sheer psychological perspective. In addition to that there were errors later discovered with how each race was announced that have been documented by the county committee (including miscalling the winner of one of the state committee positions based on the raw votes and not the allocated votes).
When people ask me my thoughts on election integrity, this is the story I tell them. I’ve watched it happen before my very own eyes.
Furthermore, I have seen the spreadsheet, and there is no logical reason for the incumbent’s column to be counted for all precincts, while the grassroots candidate left off the four bottom precincts – precincts that heavily favored the grassroots candidate.
Who prepares these spreadsheets and who verifies them? Remember, these were questions we were trying to ask before the convention. Election integrity will take eternal vigilance at every stage of the process. It is vital to saving our party and our republic.
We must have answers. We must have transparency. We must have ETHICS in our party.
To keep in touch with Sarah, email sarah@citizenpatriots.org
Originally posted on OKGrassroots.com
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