By Anna Von Reitz
We have a situation in Florida where the Elections Committee -- despite having an extensive guidebook everyone has agreed on -- can't seem to find its way with both hands and a flashlight.
The goal is free and open elections where every candidate is treated the same way and given the same opportunities.
Instead, Florida has allowed a current candidate to sit on the Elections Committee while running for office.
At the same time, they are trying to claim that another candidate, who was one of the Coordinators, did something wrong, because she announced her candidacy before resigning as Coordinator.
Exactly when she resigned is not the point. Eligibility for the office sought is the point.
The office she is running for requires her to be a State Citizen. The office she currently occupies requires her to be an ASN.
So, sometime between deciding to run for the new office she has had to decide to: (1) resign from her present office as an ASN; (2) take the affirmation and change her status to that of a State Citizen.
This is simple. This is totally allowable. There is nothing at all controversial about this. And yet, she has been accused of wrong-doing and dragged over the coals and sent to the Oversight Committee for doing exactly what she needed to do.
This is partisanship and electioneering in action.
The Elections Committee is interfering in the elections process, trying to push forward one of its own members, and black-balling the other candidate using False Claims of wrong-doing.
Nothing like this should happen in Florida or anywhere else, but it is an unfortunate holdover from the Nanny State and its "two party" system.
It's not part of any American custom or tradition.
In America, candidates are supposed to stand up, say what they have to bring to the table, and let the people decide. No Dirty Tricks. No slander. No "drama".
None of what Florida is currently engaged in.
As one of the Coordinators from another State (not commenting on Florida's problem) said recently, "We can't expect people who have lived in a Nanny State for the majority of their lives to all of a sudden grow up and start acting like adults.....There needs to be some kind of a transitional period where there is a small amount of oversight to help people acclimate to being adults finally."
She went on to say, "The other thing I observe is that people are not collaborating and communicating properly. They either do one of two things. They either (1) wait for someone to tell them what to do, or (2) go off and act in a vacuum, neither one of which helps the assembling process."
Adults don't play games with elections. They act as a self-aware whole and let the votes do the talking.
The current elections process in Florida has been so damaged by electioneering coming from within the Elections Committee itself that no valid election can take place.
It should have been obvious to everyone in Florida, with or without it being addressed in a Handbook, that you can't have current candidates sitting on the Elections Committee.
It should also be obvious that in order to be eligible, a candidate has to meet the eligibility qualifications of the office. If you have to be 45 years old to be President of the United States, you'd better be 45 by Election Day, or you can't qualify to run.
That's the sort of thing that an Elections Committee is supposed to check and be sure of before any election takes place -- simply answer the question: does the candidate meet all the eligibility requirements of that office? Yes or no?
And if not, can they take action to meet the requirements of the office?
In this case, the Elections Committee went so far off course as to censure a candidate for taking action to meet the requirements of the office they are seeking.
Florida is obviously not ready to hold elections.
We will address the crying need for an Orientation Committee to welcome and educate new members and the issue of relearning basic communication skills in upcoming articles.
For now, if your assemblies are holding elections -- or trying to -- get your heads wrapped around the fact that we are no longer in any two-party system, and educate yourselves before you start.
Candidates cannot be criticized for taking action to meet the requirements of the office. Candidates cannot remain as members of the Elections Committee while running for office themselves.
Put that in your Elections guidebooks.
Granna
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