Hello All,
Now I know everyone's sick of butterfly ballots,
pregnant chads, etc, but I really would like some
commentary on last night's election "irregularities"
in Ventura Village's neighborhood meeting. I need
help in figuring this out.
First of all, I should say that in my experience,
we've always allowed ANYONE to vote, provided they
live in V.V., own property in V.V., or are the
designated representative of a company or non-profit
in V.V. We have never asked for identification - only
that people sign in with the address from which they
derive their voting right. It's been this way since
inception.
Now, last night's agenda had some HOT issues, which I
will not get into now because they're more suited to
an adventure novel. When I arrived at the meeting
place, there was easily five times as many folk in
attendance as can be found when there's a hum-drum
agenda. Microphones had to be set up for the first
time in my experience.
I noticed also that there were two resident sign-in
sheets. One marked "Members Only" and the other
"First-Time Attendees." (Or something to that
effect.) We were told that some NRP officials had
noticed that we were "out of compliance" with a state
statute that said members had to be such for THIRTY
DAYS before they were eligible to vote. (So all the
folks who showed up for these hot issues were out of
luck.)
A handful of state statutes were quoted to prove this
30-day rule. One member, an attorney with a practice
in the area, went to his office to look them up.
There was no such rule in any of those statutes.
(I've since looked myself, and he's totally right.)
Now some V.V. folks are saying that we simply had the
wrong statute numbers. Apparently Bob Miller told
them about this rule, and we're expected to accept it
without proof.
I have put in a call to Rep. Karen Clark, in whose
district V.V. falls, but haven't heard from her yet.
Does anyone have ANY info about voting procedures for
501(c)3 non-profits? I'm tearing my hair out!
BTW: I should mention that I'm a member of the V.V.
board, but knew NOTHING of this matter until I walked
into last night's meeting.
Connie Sheppard
Ward 6 - Ventura Village
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