Gray Davis Anti-Recall Group Advocates Violating California Law Section 18620

California governor Gray Davis needs our help to beat the recall and is asking supporters to violate California law code section 18620 which forbids a person from obstructing the Recall signature gathering process. Davis wants us to do just that on his "Taxpayers Against the Recall" web site at http://www.stoptherecall.com/helping.html Even more, he's developing a coordinated effort to do so.

Those who haven't the time to "Engage [petitioners] in conversation" so that they have "less time [to] collect signatures" may call the Davis "hotline" at (213) 382-4111 so that the anti-recall organization can (presumably) get people out there to do it. Supporters are told to "keep your eyes open for recall petitioners at all times" and report it.

It is not illegal, of course, to distract petition gatherers, but to do so with an intent of slowing the process of signature gathering on the basis that "they have a limited period of time to collect [the] signatures", violates California law, which warns that "every person who seeks" or "obtains advantage" of a "person" to "perform an act that will prevent or aid in preventing the ... recall petition from qualifying" is a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Davis has a another trick which he doesn't mention on the web site. His own anti-recall petition holds no legal weight and thus is not under the rules of an official petition which prohibits signature gatherers from misrepresenting the petition. Anti-recall petitioners have been able to pick up recall signatures (and thus take a vote away from the legitimate petition) by representing it as the "Davis petition", and some Californias have also complained that they thought they were signing an anti-tax petition. In fact, "Taxpayers Against the Recall" never actually represented themselves as being taxpayers against taxes, and are not.

The 1970's Nixon era would have labeled these as "dirty tricks", but I suppose that today's Democrat think's it a clever tactic. Californians need look no farther than Davis's anti-recall web site to find reason to recall Gray Davis.

-States' Liberty Party, June 26, 2003  (This article was originally sent to the Wall Street Journal as a letter to the editor)

Reference:

California Law Code Section 18620:  Every person who seeks, solicits, bargains for, or obtains any money, thing of value, or advantage of or from any person, firm, or corporation for the purpose or represented purpose of fraudulently inducing, persuading, or seeking the proponent or proponents of any initiative or referendum measure or recall petition to (a) abandon the measure or petition, (b) fail, neglect, or refuse to file in the office of the elections official or other officer designated by law, within the time required by law, the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition after securing the number of signatures required to qualify the measure or petition, (c) stop the circulation of the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition, or (d) perform any act that will prevent or aid in preventing the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition from qualifying as an initiative or referendum measure, or the recall petition from resulting in a recall election, is punishable by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison 16 months or two or three years or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both the fine and imprisonment.

Taxpayers Against the Recall "Help Page" Web Site Content as of June 26, 2003:

Watch for Petition Collectors

• As you go about your daily routines (driving to and from work, shopping, going to the movies, the doctor, etc.), keep your eyes open for recall petitioners at all times.
• The most important thing you can do is provide us feedback about where and when signature gathering efforts are occurring, call us at (213) 382-4111 or at a local number listed below..

Engage the Petition Collectors - If you see recall petitioners, here's what to do:

• Engage them in conversation; the longer they talk to you, the less time they have to collect signatures, they have a limited period of time to collect over 1 million signatures.
• [edited]
• Remember, the longer you engage them, the fewer signatures they can collect.
• Do not attempt to provoke or get into a physical confrontation with signature gatherers. We do not want you to be arrested.

Take Action

• [edited]
• Counter them with the anti-recall petition; it is OK to stand in front of their table or approach potential signers before they do, or otherwise inhibit their activity.
• [edited]

[End of edited Help Page on Gray Davis's web site]

Recall supporters may with to call some of the above phone numbers and tell them they are violating California law code section 18620