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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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Political Precinct People By Tammy Maygra
The media, politicians, and most Americans are outraged with the prospect of Russia manipulating our elections and the outcome of such elections. Why be outraged with the Russians? People will say our elections should be sacred and we should do everything to protect this revered event. After all elections have been going on in one form or another since man had the smarts to want to decide their leaders by voting, instead of deciding who would be the leader of the clan other than by who had the bigger war club.
A country cannot be truly democratic until its citizens have the opportunity to choose their representatives through elections that are free, fair and untampered with.
Our process of governing is most legitimate when it integrates democratic values such as transparency, diversity, citizen involvement in decision-making, representation, and accountability. Political society, the media, and the private sector, have roles and responsibilities in addition to those of the government. We all must stand up and defend even the tiniest violations which may have been made against our basic rights to have free unabridged elections.
To not stand up for these basic principles allows the beginning of a slow erosion which will over time reduce our elections to those of third world countries where free elections are manipulated by controlling dictator’s. The erosion will be so slow that people will not even notice or remember when things were different. It may take several generations to accomplish this but ultimately the change will occur.
Here in Columbia County we had such an event in 2016, I will write about this-- in my opinion--- a serious matter, even though many will regard me as a trouble maker for publicly talking about this matter. And some may denounce me as their friend because they do not want the public to know that the Democratic party of Columbia County is so inept and has in house turmoil.
Some people in the Columbia County Democratic Central Committee would rather let the issue slide, sitting around doing nothing, fearful to chastise the perpetrator, failing to understand the total implication of the action, denouncing the action if it happened to be in a different party but ignoring it hoping it will go away and just moving on rather than totaling addressing the issue. Rather than take a stand which may be unpopular within the walls of the CCDCC. I find that any issue which reflects manipulation of a candidates Form SEL 105, to be placed on the ballot deserves the attention to correct the action no matter if it is a popular item or not.
The issue: Columbia County Democratic Chairperson Donna Nyberg manipulates candidate form--- changing a precinct position.
The CCDCC chairperson Donna Nyberg changed a precinct person’s precinct number on their form after it was filled out and accepted by the elections department, without the knowledge or approval of the said person. This person only found out because they were not listed on the ballot in their original application form precinct. The chair Ms. Nyberg decided to move this person to another precinct to accommodate a husband and wife who wanted to run together in the same precinct. It must have been simply a political favor to do so. Why sneak behind a committee persons back? Why not just ask this person if they would move to another precinct, then there would not have been a problem. The problem is manipulation of a form. Not much integrity there.
The elections department allowed the manipulation, the state has allowed the manipulation, and the question is--- is this ok? I believe NO is the answer. The answer given to me by the state was, if the candidate knew he had filled the form out with false information he would be subject to fines and jail time if convicted and the state election department said they would go after a candidate who filled out the form with false information. But when asked then its ok if someone else changes a form after it has been accepted by the election department, making the form an official document. The answer was we (the state) are not saying it is ok to do it--- but….. we would not go after them because we do not have a law (ORS ) against the said action. Does that make sense to you? It certainly does not make any logical sense to me.
The Democratic Party of Oregon will not interfere in local disputes; I believe this is not just a local dispute. I believe this issue is an attack on our fundamental rights for a fair election. Could it be because Ms. Nyberg is well known in state party circles?
Under Oregon Law there is NO provision to protect a precinct candidate and their form from manipulation by anyone if the individual requests to look at the form which is public record. After the record is obtained it is ok to change the form and you will not be breaking any laws. A precinct person is not a public officer and does not have the same protection as a candidate which is running for office.
I believe all the political parties and their precinct persons should be protected under our election laws and election system. They are voted in by their peers even if they are from the same party. They obtain their elected position by a voter marking a ballot. They need a few votes in order to be elected to the precinct. And they receive a letter from the County Clerk who oversees the elections verifying their position if they win. All sounds official to me. All sanctioned by the Clerk’s Office which is sanctioned by the state of Oregon.
We need to protect the integrity of our elections even down to the lowly individual political parties. Without protection we have lost a part of our democracy. To the people who believe this is an issue that is not important enough to take a stand on. Then tell me what you would allow in manipulation of candidates forms, elections. Where do you bystanders draw the line?
To those people who are standing by and saying and doing nothing or condemning and labeling the people as trouble makers who are trying to simply correct the problem so it does not happen again, who believe in integrity, and our election system, shame on you. We would not have a democracy, a country of freedoms if everyone had stood by and failed to say or do something.
Tammy
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