Victory! Geshlider Proves Clean Elections a Winning IssueVictory! Chuck Geshlider wins primary – and a spot in the General
Election Pahrump Super Bowl!
In the September 5th primary “playoff” round of the town board election
contest in Pahrump, Nevada – Chuck Geshlider, -- (a Nevada delegate at
the Citizens for a Fair Vote Count Convention 2000), -- won 3rd place
out of 12 contestants. The top four primary finishers will now run off
in the November 7th election. Two of the four will be elected to the
Pahrump town board.
Geshlider has ONE issue: “I want CLEAN ELECTIONS.”
Thus his primary campaign gives the lie to the position that bringing up
the “clean election” or “honest election” issue is bad strategy. As we
at Citizens for a Fair Vote Count have always known, talking about the
necessity of transparent, honest elections – is an empowering,
ENERGIZING issue which electrifies the populace.
When asked about any other issue, Geshlider says, “Why should I comment
on any other issue until I know we have an honest count? When we return
to an open, honest count of the ballots, I’ll take questions on other
issues.”
We need a victory somewhere – and this will be it -- with enough help to
Chuck right away.
The Geshlider strategy in Pahrump and Nye County is the proper one: pick
an area in which you can win, and in which you can force the “clean
elections” issue before a small enough voting population that the county
clerk who wants to count the votes in secret – is really on the spot;
where the county clerk who wants to count the votes in secret – must
worry about whether a candidate like Geshlider will be able to produce
MORE voters willing to give an affidavit saying they voted for him ---
than the official published “count” gave him credit for. (There only
about 7,000 votes cast in the average Pahrump election.) If Geshlider
gets 5,000 signatures on his petition --- how does the County Clerk
explain that the SECRET count only gave him 3000 votes in the final
“count”? An interesting situation.
You wanna do something? You wanna help make a difference on a national
scale this election? Read on and take ACTION as specified at the end of
this ewire.
Geshlider’s fiery oratory, -- demonstrated on Saturday night at the CFVC
convention in Cincinnati, -- is carrying over to the campaign. His
rhetoric is the best in the nation on this issue right now; it’s the
most passionate (as the issue demands) – and I believe he is almost a
sure winner, for the reasons stated in this ewire -- with a little help.
Why is he almost a sure winner – despite the secret computerized count
which apparently is going to take place on November 7th, in Pahrump?
Because his large signs have made him by far the most visible candidate
so far (he runs a sign making business) and because he is openly
challenging the County Clerk on the one local TV station -- to let him
(and everyone else) see how the votes our counted.
So if Chuck can keep up his high visibility, and continue to demonstrate
public support in Pahrump through the “Clean Elections” petition he is
passing around – the County Clerk, is really on the spot to let him win,
or to have a lot of explaining to do.
For one thing, there is the real danger in such a small venue that
Geshlider will be able to produce more voters AFTER THE ELECTION who
will provide affidavits that they voted for Geshlider – than the number
of votes the County Clerk credits to Geshlider in the secret
computerized count.
In this sense, Chuck is now the MOST IMPORTANT candidate in the nation
for the “votefraud vs. honest” elections fight --- and his election in
November is of paramount importance. We need a victory.
It will be a local victory, a “small” victory – but a victory upon which
other local candidates can build in all areas of the country.
There is another aspect in Geshlider’s strategy: in some small counties,
it takes about 5 percent of the electorate to sign a petition and call a
grand jury against a County Clerk who won’t allow an open, verifiable
count. In these certain smaller counties --- if which Nye is one, -- we
do not need to depend on the Sheriff – who might be as crooked as a
county clerk who wants to count the vote in secret. In these certain
smaller counties, a verifiable number of signatures on a petition can
call the grand jury.
This “citizens call the grand jury” strategy also keeps citizens out of
the way of those crooked judges who are slapping voters -- who are also
“honest election crusaders” -- with outrageous fines and expenses for
the “crime” of trying to break the dishonest election syndicate and
restore clean elections. –
Such outrageous fines, -- clearly imposed by crooked judges who are part
of the dishonest election syndicate – have, according to reports we’ve
received, been slapped against CLEAN in Washington state for exposing
the illegal counting of absentee ballots, and against the Boise, Idaho
citizens who exposed blatant retail votefraud there, complete with sworn
admissions from Board of Election workers in that county. (See the
August 11 and August 23, 2000 ewires on the Boise situation in our
“news” section at votefraud.org )
Back to what actually transpired so far in the Geshlider case:
Immediately upon his primary victory, a prominent local newspaper
reporter walked up to Geshlider and asked him what he thought of the
vote counting system now that he had won a winning position in the
primary.
Geshlider, refusing to take the dive that even prominent conservatives
have taken after winning (“I guess I can’t complain too much about the
system if I won, yuk, yuk, yuk”) – immediately responded that he STILL
had no idea if the votes were counted properly or not – and he would
continue to make open, honest, transparent elections – his ONLY issue –
until such an election process was restored to Pahrump and Nye County,
Nevada.
Geshlider explained to this Network America e-wire that the reason he
was announced a winner – despite the secret computerized vote counting –
is that he was by far the most visible candidate in a small town where
only about 7,000 people usually vote. Furthermore, he was well covered
on the only television station in Pahrump, as his promotion of the
“clean election” issue has fired the local public imagination. He is
circulating a Petition with the Seven Rules for Clean Elections, which
is being signed by many, many of the local residents.
He also is the only candidate with an omnipresent sign campaign. He has
erected fifteen huge signs that can be “seen for miles around” – some
are 4 feet x 8 feet --- some are 4 feet x16 feet.
Now, here’s what Chuck needs to force a victory in the next month –
despite the secret computerized vote “count.”
He needs to erect 20 to 30 more signs -- which run in materials and
labor about $80 a piece. (Chuck runs Gold Standard Press, so he can
print the signs for material and labor only, avoiding the usual retail
price of about $250 per sign for such large signs, -- which he would
have to pay if he couldn’t print them in his own business.)
He also would like to erect about 100 smaller yard signs in strategic
locations for about $3 each.
The signs say:
Taxpayers Watchdog
Elect Geshlider
Assure Clean Elections
(An actual replication of the signs will be posted any time now on the
discussion group” fairvote at egroups.com – [remember, I have to write
email addresses in such a way so as to trick the topica system, which
scrambles regularly written emails and websites in the body of topica
managed messages] To subscribe to the discussion list where Chuck is
posting the look of his actual signs -- send a message to:
fairvote-subscribe at egroups.com)
Secondly, Chuck can buy 2 minute TV ads on the only local television
station in Pahrump -- KBVM --- for about $40 !!!!! --- One minute
television ads cost about $20.
The villain in this drama is democrat Samantha Merlino – who lists
herself as “Sam” Merlino on the ballot. She’s the County Clerk who is
still ignoring and stonewalling Chuck’s public requests -- and who still
intends to “count” the ballots of the citizens of Pahrump in secret this
November, despite the newly created widespread public awareness of this
crooked operating procedure in this small town.
“Sam” was a direct assistant to the then Nye County Clerk, Arte Robb,
who denied the legitimate request of several losing candidates for
Sheriff in 1998 – to see the unused ballots after the election. The
county had announced before the election that 21,000 ballots had been
printed. 7000 were used in the election by voters.
After a highly suspicious result, two of five losers, Don Lee and Ray
Mallow, asked to see the 14,000 unused ballots. County Clerk Robb
personally refused their perfectly legal demand. (They went with statute
in hand.) How’s that for straight out criminal activity? (See the
September 3rd, 2000 Network America e-wire on Dan Gutenkauf’s research,
a part of which proves that any request for public records must be
honored.)
Amidst growing pressure over this criminal act and other improper
practices --- pressure created in large part by our candidate, Chuck
Geshlider, on his local radio show, The Taxpayers Watchdog, on the now
defunct KFOX talk radio – Arte Robb resigned the County Clerk position
in November, 1999 --- citing “stress” after 17 years of faithful service
to her masters. The local newspapers couldn’t heap enough praise on her.
(The same two newspapers, the Pahrump Valley Times and the Pahrump
Valley Gazette -- which refused to investigate her criminal act cited
above and much else, despite mountains of evidence presented by
Geshlider at that time.)
To this day, the two local newspapers and the local TV station (Channel
41, KPVM-TV) refuse to investigate or ask Merlino any questions, -- even
after having been presented with postcards returned as undeliverable by
the post office – postcards addressed to “people” who VOTED ABSENTEE
BALLOTS in the 1998 election!
Now that we understand some the background, and before we look at the
text of the two minute TV ad Chuck has prepared, -- the candidate
explains why he is going to do the on screen work himself, rather than
hire a media personality to read his message: “General Patton had
nothing on Geshlider – because I can get the women to listen to me too,
-- and my boxer dog, Bruno, is tougher.”
Here’s the text of the TV commercial:
“Hi! My name is Chuck Geshlider. I’m running for Pahrump town board, in
case you didn’t know.
“My sole campaign promise to you, that I will promise on my life that I
will accomplish for you, -- will be to assure clean elections.
“Now everyone of you who is watching this, I can guarantee, is somewhere
between KNOWING for a FACT that our ballot boxes have been tampered with
-- or – you at least suspect it.
“We have a problem. You have no way of knowing whether that’s true or
not. There are seven windows of opportunity for people who want to rig
elections to take advantage of in Nye county. This is not saying that
they did it – but it’s as if you were a customer in a restaurant and you
started feeling a little queasy after eating the soup. You then ask the
owner of this restaurant to be allowed to look at his kitchen. What
would you think if he stood in front of the kitchen door and said, ‘No
way.’ ???
“You would know darn well he’s hiding something. Well, this is what
we’ve got going in our elections. Our county Clerk, “Sam” Merlino,
presides over a DIRTY kitchen. I intend to clean it up. I intend to
force her to allow you to see everything that’s going on.
“No more absentee ballots hidden from public view. No more computer
machines which can be pre-programmed, and pre-rigged for a
pre-determined result. We could never know that.
“We must have all ballots hand counted in public view before moving them
away from the neighborhood precinct. We must have transparent plexiglass
ballot boxes. I don’t even want to SUSPECT that there might be already
marked ballots in those ballot boxes before the voting day starts.
“Last and most important, I don’t ever, ever again want to see someone
counting her own votes for her own election. That’s a joke. Even a judge
understands to recuse himself when there’s a conflict of interest.
“I am Chuck Geshlider, Taxpayer’s Watchdog. I’ll see you on November 7,
2000.”
End of Text of Geshlider TV ad.
I know that all of us on the internet are basically “information
freeloaders” (while on the internet, anyway). We’re not looking to spend
any money when we go on line.
But I’m asking everyone to consider sending at least $10 to Chuck’s
campaign effort – $10,000 can win this election because Chuck will be so
much more visible than the others. (Chuck tells me he will personally
guarantee a victory if he can activate a $10,000 war chest – that if he
loses he will personally pay it back.) Also, if he can put his demand to
see the ballots counted in public – prominently before the Pahrump
citizens through TV ads on the local station – he will put the County
Clerk in an impossible situation before the citizens. How does “Sam”
tell the citizens – a huge number of which are signing the Clean
Elections petition and are giving affidavits of who they are going to
vote for in a variety of races – that they counted the votes in secret?
– and how can she possibly fix the election knowing that her “count”
will be compared against the local citizens’ affidavit!? Especially when
seemingly everyone in Pahrump (not now holding office) supports his ONLY
issue? And when he is the most visible candidate in terms of sheer sign
power..
We at Citizens for a Fair Vote Count are committed to raise $1000 in the
next week for Chuck outside of this Network America email list so he can
make at least half of his large signs and get them up for the last four
weeks before the election. If most of the people on this ewire list –
which now stands at 957 subscribers! –would send Chuck $10 or more – he
would have every chance of winning this critical election.
For everyone that sends $50 or more, you will get a copy of all Chuck’s
TV ads on videotape, plus several hours of information on “Clean
Actions” on the same tape.
If a few of you can send Chuck $1000 or $500 or $250 or $100 – do so.
This victory will put the Clean Elections movement into a new gear. It
will mean a victory upon which to build in all parts of country.
Also, in case Bill Gates happens to be on our list under a pseudonym,
there is no limit on how much non-federal candidates in Nevada can
accept from one person. ---- In other words, one person could send Chuck
$5000 or $10,000 for his campaign effort, within the law. Just thought
I’d mention it. But it’s the $10, $20 and $50 donations that will make
this happen.
All donations can be sent to:
Chuck Geshlider c/o
820 West Fairbanks
Pahrump, Nevada 89060
If you want to contact Chuck by email, he can be reached at
gspchuck@pahrump.net --- gsp stands for Gold Standard Press.
Chuck’s victory will help you where you live because of the momentum it
will create, the example it will set, and the model it will become for
many other small counties.
Please jump into the front lines of this battle and help Chuck Geshlider
win in Pahrump, Nevada!
Jim Condit Jr.
Director, Citizens for a Fair Vote Count