I am appalled, disgusted, and ashamed to consider myself a Republican after the shenanigans displayed Saturrday at the 4thCongressional District’s Convention held in Roseburg. Not only were we, the duly elected representatives of our precincts, lied to, we were stolen from as well!
Towards the end of the allotted time for our convention (scheduled to adjourn at 5PM), we were given a choice to speed the votes along, or wait and finish up according to the rules of the ORP. After a passionate speech by Jeffrey Osanka, explaining that the rules are in place for a reason, we voted to remain at UCC until our business was appropriately concluded.
We continued voting for District Officers and were told we were waiting for the rest of the State’s votes to be counted in order to move forward to the 3rd ballot for at-large alternate delegates to the RNC in Tampa.
After the ballots were collected, we waited a little while for the results of the district officers. At approximately 5:30PM, we were told that all the other Districts in the State of Oregon had shut down and there was no further business we could conduct. A motion to adjourn was introduced.
Most of us in attendance were stunned! How could we possibly adjourn when we still had 2 more rounds of voting to complete? After much outcry from the crowd, a motion was introduced for District 4 to continue voting irrespective of the rest of the State. The motion passed. Then we were informed that our votes may not even be counted since the other Districts had shut down. We did not care. We came to make our voices heard and decided to continue to vote on.
Next, we find out that the ballots are gone! OK, fine. We are at a college. We can find blank paper and hand write the names of our chosen delegates. Come to find out not just the blank ballots are gone, but the completed ballots with all of our previous votes have been taken by Terri Moffett of the ORP.
I was in shock! How dare she take our ballots when we are still in session? Who gave her the right to remove those votes? I stood up and asked Fred Dayton, Jr. Vice-Chair of CD4, “Under whose authority did she take our ballots?” Fred answered that she is the liaison to CD4 from the ORP and that her boss told her to take the ballots. I then asked Fred a follow-up question, “Who is her boss?” His answer was, “Allen Alley.” I thanked Fred and sat down.
Then the anger really began. Again, the room erupted in outrage! How dare Mr. Alley instruct Ms. Moffett, his employee, to remove our ballots when we were not done voting? Who gave him the right to attempt to silence the PCPs of CD4?
Wait, it gets better…
Previously we were told that all the other Districts had shut down around 5PM. This was not the case. Thanks to the modern technologies of smart phones, wireless internet, and Facebook, we found out that CD2 had not shut down. They were still voting.
Moments later, our ballots were back. Hmm…
Even though we did not have the results from the rest of the Districts, we voted our 3rd ballot… and waited, and waited, and waited… We found out that CD5 had resumed their convention. Another hmm… We waited until after 7:30PM for the tellers to count our votes.
Finally, the votes were counted and we moved on to selecting our 4th District Alternates. The votes were counted and results announced after 8:30PM.
I am wondering why a convention that was supposed to take 8 hours was stalled and made to run over 3 hours longer than anticipated. I am wondering why we were lied to about the other Districts shutting down in order to attempt to prevent us from voting. I am wondering why our ballots were taken away (cast and blank) before we were adjourned. I am wondering why you attempted to steal our voices by taking away our opportunity to vote for the delegates of our choice.
Furthermore, I am wondering if the votes we cast before 5PM are going to count. We rightfully and according to the rules of the ORP selected at-large delegates and district delegates, along with presidential electors before we were told the other Districts had shut down. What happens now to those people who we selected to go to Tampa?
If any of you would like to respond to my inquiry, I’m waiting…
Sincerely,
Sharlyn
PCP from Roseburg in CD4
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