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Grassroots Defense Fund

We have been warned this trial could easily hit six figures!

 

The government gets to use taxpayer money to fund their expenses. Since we also pay taxes, we get to fund their expenses and ours, except ours comes out of our own pockets. Six figures from the government coffers isn't hard. Six figures for normal Americans who refuse to bow to tyranny is a LOT harder. 

 

Any amount you can give is appreciated. If we don't stop it here, it will set a precedent that will spread across Missouri and then across our country.  Your donation makes continuing the fight possible.

- Thank you     

The Trial

Scheduled for May 7th, Nevada MO Courthouse, 9:00am start

The Deposition

Adrienne Lee, Vernon County County Clerk, Deposition

Excerpts below

Excerpts From the Deposition

McCloskey (McC) is the attorney for the Vernon County Republican Committee (VCRC)

115.357 is the statute covering filing fees and declarations of candidacies.

McC: There is nothing in subsection 2 that says...the election authority can accept the declaration of candidacy prior to payment to the treasurer. True?

Adrienne: True

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McC: Subsection 5...says...no candidate's name shall be printed on any official ballot until the required fee has been paid. Did I read that correctly?

Adrienne: Yes

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McC: Did the checks get returned to you unpaid?

Adrienne: Yes

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McC: So that would be an indication those checks were not paid; true?

Adrienne: True

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McC: ...no candidate's name shall be printed on any official ballot until the required fee has been paid. You would understand that to mean that if the money hasn't been paid, the name can't appear on the ballot; true or false?

Adrienne: I mean, yes, I have not made the ballots yet.

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McC: There is no indicia on those checks, there's no stamp, there's nothing that says paid on those checks; true?

Adrienne: True....

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McC: You know there's no question that the filing fees regarding these individuals have not in fact been paid because those checks never cleared any bank; true?

Adrienne: True

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McC: And pursuant to the terms of the statute, if these candidates; fees have not been paid, you cannot place their names on an official ballot; true?

Adrienne: True

The First Amendment Attack

It's very simple.

1. This suit is not about vetting. Political parties are not government organizations. We are private organizations who are free to make our own rules. The internal functions of the Republican party are NOT the business of the government. If that ever changes, we will not have free and fair elections in this country.

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2. This suit is, simply, about whether government can ORDER a political party to put candidates on ITs ballot that the party has said we don't want.  This issue just went before the Supreme Court in the Trump v. Colorado case, and it was determined government cannot order a party to keep a candidate off the ballot who the party wants. A corollary of that is that government can't order a party to put a candidate on the ballot who the party does not want.

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3. In our local case, candidates waived their rights to follow the Republican party's rules. Therefore, we have said we do not want those candidates on OUR primary ballot. The candidates could have filed with another party before the filing period ended. They can STILL file as Independents if they do so by July 29th. That would still put them on the November ballot and anyone wanting to vote for them still could.

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4. Besides the Colorado SCOTUS case, there is also another SCOTUS case, and the majority opinion, delivered by Justice Scalia, can be heard here. Basically, he said political parties have the right to choose who they do and do not associate with, and that the right applied most importantly in the ability of the party to choose its candidates.

 And then there's this: The basic question is, "Given all of the above, why are you fighting this? You've spent $10,000 through the end of March to get a different outcome. What is it you want?" Here's the exchange. Remember, this is costing taxpayers money as Adrienne continues spending taxpayer money, which she apparently thinks is an open bank account for her own use.

McC. (By Mr. McCloskey) Subject to that, you can answer
it again if you -- I don't believe that specific
question has been answered. Tell us what we're
doing here and why we're having this fight.

Adrienne. Why were their filing fees rejected?


McC:  Not your issue. Your issue as the county clerk
is -- let me back up. Maybe you think that's your
job as the county clerk. Do you think it was in --
is within the ministerial duties of the clerk to
know why the Central Committee does -- the
Republican Central Committee of Vernon County does
or does not accept a filing fee?

Adrienne. This has been unprecedented before.

 

McC: Not my question. Move to strike as not responsive.
Do you believe it's part of your official
duties as a county clerk to decide why the
Vernon County Republican Committee did or did not
accept filing fees from specific candidates?

Adrienne: No.

 

McC: Okay. Then why would you care about that as a -- I
don't care about you as a human being, I'm talking
about you as a county clerk. If it's not your
job --
Adrienne: I'm worried about fair and free elections.

McC: All right. You're worried -- well, do you think
it's jour job to determine as opposed to complying
with the -- the mandates of the statute what your
opinion is as to what constitutes a fair and free
election?
Adrienne: I'm going off of if I deny their stuff. I -- I
can't deny them if they want to pay me, and I can't
deny them if they want to give me their candidacy
if they have everything.

 

McC: Okay. Well, one thing they haven't got, and I know
we're going around and around this but you keep
saying the same thing, what they haven't got is a
paid filing fee, you -- you admitted that; true?
MR. ELLIOTT: I'll object, calls for a
legal conclusion, it's been asked and answered.
MR. MCCLOSKEY: Uh-huh.
McC: You can answer it again. You've
admitted that several times here today. Like your
lawyer just said, asked and answered.
Having recognized the fact that this statute
prohibits the name from being on the official
ballot if the fee has not been paid, and all the
court's order asks is that their names not be on
the ballot until their fee has been paid, what part
of that outcome would you like to see changed, why

are we here?
Adrienne: I guess I need the judge to tell me that I did
something wrong.
McC: Well, you haven't done anything wrong, you haven't
put their name on -- well, you did, you accepted
their declaration of candidacy.
But what part of this order would you like to
see changed? The order says that these names can't
be on the ballot until their fee has been paid,
that's all this order says, there's a lot of other
things, but when it comes down to it saying what
must happen, it just says their names cannot be on
the ballot until their filing fee has been accepted
by the Vernon County Republican Committee as a
Republican candidate. They can run as
independents, they can form a new party if they
want to, any of those kinds of things.
Adrienne:  It's too late for that.

 

McC:  My question to you is: What part of the court's
order that says their names can't be on the ballot
until their filing fee has been accepted, what part
of that would you like to see changed?
Adrienne: The part that says preliminary.

 

McC: Okay. Um, why?
Adrienne: Until it's a final order.

McC: It can be a final order by just not going through
this process. My question is -- and I -- you've
never answered this -- what part of that paragraph
that says --
Adrienne: I don't care what part of it changes. I -- I don't
care.
McC: Okay.
Adrienne: I just want to be able to tell my side --
McC: Okay.
Adrienne: -- and why I took the filings.
McC: Okay. Um, and you think even though you agree with
the outcome that's here on this piece of paper,
Plaintiff's Exhibit 3 --
Adrienne:  If that's what she decides, then that's what she
decides.
McC: Let me finish my question.
Um, even though you agree that what's written
by the court on Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 3 on this
order is correct, that the -- that these
candidates' name should not be on the ballot until
their fees have been paid, accepted by the
Vernon County Republican Committee, you agree that
that's -- that's what the statute requires, right,
that their names cannot be on the ballot until
their fees have been paid; true?

Check the pdf file on this page for the entire deposition.

And on and on and on. The county clerk has no reason that she can say out loud to explain fighting this order unless she admits that she does have a side. That is OUR opinion, and it's the only one that truly answers the question.

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Is it OK that taxpayers are funding this pedantic behavior? Is it OK that the county clerk is not getting any OK from the commissioners but treating the general fund as her own account to run dry? At what point do the commissioners and the taxpayers say, "Enough!" She is not consulting the commissioners. They didn't even know about the attempt Friday night to cancel the trial - the one she says she wants so the judge can decide, and instead she filed an appellate motion to tell the judge she was wrong in issuing her first order! That is CLEAR evidence of a "side".

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