Tag: bogus ballots

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

“Bogus Ballots” Continued

Never say die — particularly if you’re talking about that unkillable scourge of local elections, the bogus ballot.

That’s the term of art for those privately prepared and printed broadsheets containing the mugs of assorted candidates that various entrepreneurs pass out to voters at election time.

The balloteers charge the favored candidates a pretty penny — actually, several thousand dollars apiece — for the honor of appearing on these sample ballots as “endorsees.” 

It’s all a matter of commerce. Not much actual evaluation is involved, with the exception, perhaps, of a few — a very few — candidates who get included gratis, perhaps to salve the consciences of the money-making balloteers.

In recent years, critics of the process — ranging from occasional candidate John Marek to the Shelby County Democratic Party itself —  have gone to court in an effort to bring things to a halt, mainly because several of the ballot-mongering entrepreneurs have included misleading imagery and language making it appear that their profit-making sheets are actually the legitimate handiwork of the Democratic Party.

The plaintiffs had considerable difficulty getting hearings on the matter because so many local judges were customers of the ballot makers.

But at length, a special judge, William Acree, was brought in from Jackson and issued a permanent injunction against further publication of  bogus ballots that simulated Democratic Party efforts.

Such constraints as resulted, including still-pending action against  balloteer Greg Grant, have slowed to a halt, however, for several reasons: Judge Acree has retired, and the litigants who sought the injunction are now hors de combat.

Plaintiff Marek, a lawyer whose efforts have been pro bono, is seeking to withdraw, and his partner in litigation, Jake Brown, has already done so as of last week, having been cut loose by the local Democratic Party, which has opted under current party chair Lexie Carter to pay for no more litigation.

Meanwhile, with elections approaching in August and November, privately printed sample ballots are out there again in force, some of them heeding the injunction against feigning Democratic Party involvement, and some not. (See image of ballot from entrepreneur M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams, whose “Memphis Democratic Club” and “Shelby County Democratic Club” are shell organization with no real existence.)

And the old saw that “you get what you pay for” still reigns among local  candidates for office.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

“Bogus Ballot” Deal Hits Snag

(courtesy of John Marek)

Word is that the Shelby County Democratic Party and sample-ballot entrepreneur Greg Grant are on the cusp of an agreement that would eliminate an ongoing injunction against Grant preventing him from using the term “Democratic” to describe his election ballots, which list “endorsements” and mug shots of candidates who pay Grant for the privilege.

Grant is one of several such entrepreneurs who circulate such “pay-to-play” ballots — often described by critics simply as “bogus ballots” — at election time. Among the others are former City Councilman Rickey Peete and perennial candidate M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams.

The injunction dates from February 2021 when special judge William Acree of Jackson levied it against Grant and others for using the words “Democratic” and “official” on their products. In April, the plaintiffs, who included the Shelby County Democratic Party and several others, singled out Grant for violation and asked Acree to assess a judgment or to impose a new temporary injunction (TRO).

Acree declined to issue a TRO, evidently accepting the argument of Grant’s attorney, Julian Bolton, that other ballot publishers had also, as Grant had, used variants of the word “Democrat” and “official” but were omitted from the new litigation.

Meanwhile, Judge Acree has plans to retire by the end of August, making moot the possibility of new legal actions from him after that point.

Faced with the prospect of having to re-initiate legal action from scratch against the bogus-balloteers, the Shelby County Democratic Party has reportedly offered Grant, the only currently active defendant, an agreement allowing him to continue issuing ballots under the name of “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” so long as he includes a disclaimer that he does not represent any organ of the actual Democratic Party.

Snags have occurred meanwhile. The Tennessee Young Democrats, who are a party to the suit, are not on board with the agreement, nor is plaintiff John Marek, nor, more immediately, is Grant, who is said to be resisting the idea of a disclaimer.

As Marek notes, the permanent injunction still holds, in the meantime, and is subject to enforcement.

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Politics Politics Feature

Bogus Is as Bogus Does

Photo: Jmci | Dreamstime.com

The practice of deception — perhaps one should say, the “art” of deception — is an ingrained aspect of how politics is practiced in Shelby County. Over the years, and even quite recently, much attention has been lavished in this space on the phenomenon of “bogus ballots” — glossy printed sheets bearing the likenesses and names of various candidates “endorsed” by shell companies purporting to be high-minded civic organizations.

In reality, the “endorsees” on such ballots have paid, sometimes dearly, to have themselves so advertised.

Sometimes the operators of these for-profit shell companies have clothed their enterprises with names suggestive of established political parties — like the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club.”

As a result of legal action brought by the actual Shelby County Democratic Party, special Judge William Acree has put the ballot vendors on injunction to cease and desist such deceptions on pain of criminal prosecution.

It remains to be seen if a similar fate will befall whoever it was that recently texted out several copies of an “endorsement” list of candidates under the auspices of “Republicans of Shelby County.” Recipients of the text will discover, after clicking on a provided link, that they are looking at a polished-appearing document listing preferred candidates for the judicial and governmental positions on the forthcoming August county election ballot. Another link leads to a page on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State containing instructions on how to find one’s legal polling place.

In something of a disclaimer, the document includes a brief section saying “Who Are We? Republicans of Shelby County is a group of indviduals [sic] that give you the information on candidates that judge / vote conservatively.”

Elsewhere the document features several artistic variations on the elephant iconography of the actual Republican Party, and the link provided in the initial text lists the sponsoring organization’s website as republicanpartyofshelbycounty.com.

Apprised of the document, Cary Vaughn, current chairman of the actual Shelby County Republican Party, pronounced it a “rogue effort” and “bogus.” Vaughn said the party has decided on a list of its actual endorsees, which it intends to distribute widely later this month.

As for the “endorsees” on the “Republicans of Shelby County” list, most of them appear reasonable for a GOP endorsee list. The one exception is in the list of endorsees for countywide office. Everybody on it is the official nominee of the Republican Party, except for assessor candidate Melvin Burgess, who is the Democratic nominee for that position.

Asked about his inclusion on such a list, Burgess said he had no knowledge of the sponsoring organization or the list or how his name got there.

The person most likely to be affected by the list, of course, is Steve Cross, the official Republican nominee for the post and Burgess’ opponent. As Vaughn had previously, Cross described both the “Republicans of Shelby County” and its alleged list of endorsees as “bogus.”

Bogus it undoubtedly is, and the aforesaid art of deception is well evidenced in a note attached to the text copy received by the Flyer. The note read, “Judges recommended include Stewart [sic] Breakstone and Joe Ozment who marched in the pride parade. Wow!” This disingenuous bit — regarding the purported participation in Pride Week activities, along with numerous other public figures, of judicial candidates Stuart Breakstone and Joe Ozment — can be regarded as a misdirection of sorts, intended to obscure the question of legitimacy of the list and the sender.

For the record, the sender of the text is represented solely by a phone number: (901) 860-5640. Good luck trying to get an answer on that line.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

‘Bogus Ballots’ to Exist No More, Orders Judge

Judge William Acree

Remember the sample ballots you always saw at election time purporting to be “endorsements” of a group of candidates by this or that “Democratic” organization? Glossy with color mug shots of the lucky “endorsees,” these broadsheets did their best to resemble official documents of the Shelby County or even state Democratic Parties.

In reality, advertisements for the candidates in question is all they ever were — advertisements paid for by their campaigns and tricked out to look like official party statements by the local entrepreneurs who sold space on them.

“Endorsements” they were not, except in the technical sense that they signified the support of the shell companies that published and distributed them, most of these with the word “Democratic” in their name.

It was the misleading aspect of these advertisements that made them targets of litigation by candidates, Democrats in the main, running legitimate campaigns for office and boasting no such false endorsements.

Now, several hearings over several years later, a judge has imposed a permanent injunction against such published products.

The ruling comes from Judge William B. Acree, a senior jurist from Jackson, after a January 6th hearing in the case of Tennessee Democratic Party and candidate John Marek vs. Greg Grant, individually, & d.b.a. Greater Memphis Democratic Club and M. LaTroy Williams, individually, & d.b.a. Shelby County Democratic Club. This was the climactic one of three hearings — the others having occurred on October 20, 2019, and October 3, 2020.

Those prior hearings had imposed temporary injunctions against the defendants and imposed penalties for renewed infractions.

Judge Acree based his judgment Thursday on TCA statute 2-19-116, which reads:

No person shall print or cause to be printed or assist in the distribution or transportation of any facsimile of an official ballot, any unofficial sample ballot, writing, pamphlet, paper, photograph or other printed material, which contains the endorsement of a particular candidate, group of candidates, or proposition by an organization, group, candidate, or other individual, whether existent or not, with the intent that the person receiving such printed material mistakenly believe that the endorsement of such candidate, candidates, or proposition was made by an organization, group, candidate or entity other than the one or ones appearing on the printed material.

Acree’s order states:

The court finds that the Defendants engage in the distribution of campaign literature on behalf of candidates seeking public office, are paid for such activity, and have violated the statute and restraining order on previous occasions. Thus, the Court finds a permanent injunction shall issue enjoining the Defendants from: Distributing literature, disseminating information, or, in any way, communicating, utilizing work, symbols, or graphical schemes reasonably implying endorsement of or affiliation with the Democratic National Convention, the Tennessee Democratic Party, or the Shelby County Democratic Party.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Bogus-Ballot Entrepreneurs Get (Suspended) Jail Time

If either M. Latroy Wiilliams or Greg Grant had been harboring any plans to put out a version of their candidate tout sheets (a.k.a. “bogus ballots”) in time for the November election, they were advised Friday that it could cost their their freedom, in the form of 10 days in jail.

Judge Acree

That was the sentence meted out by special judge Bill Acree in the contempt case brought against the two habitual purveyors of such pay-for-play ballots by attorneys Jake Brown and Bruce Kramer, who represented variants of the Democratic Party.

Both Grant and Williams had been enjoined by Judge Acree to cease and desist from publishing and distributing tout sheets in prior elections that all too closely resembled recommendations made by the Democratic Party or its official offshoots.

One of the ballots not only seemed to falsify a party origin, it actually bore a headline streamer that misrepresented a previous judicial finding and even misspelled the name of the candidate (Williams) it was meant to boost: “JUDGE ORDERED M. LATORY [sic] ALEXANDRIA-WILLIAMS ON BALLOT AS DEMOCRAT NO ‘JIM CROW’”.

Brown and Kramer renewed a legal action against Grant and Williams after both offenders had openly flouted Acree’s previous injunction against their attempting to invoke the Democratic Party’s credibility in previous pay-for-play ballots — on which the “recommended” candidates had paid for the privilege of having their names included.

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Politics Politics Feature

Another “Bogus Ballot”

What a difference two years can make. Former Democratic chairman, Corey Strong, who challenged the legitimacy of the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” in 2018, is now an endorsee of their “ballot.”

In 2018, Strong was chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party and a champion of the official party against all efforts by shadow organizations — by verbal sleight of hand — to use parts of the party name for private gain. In particular, chairman Strong that year denounced the efforts of something calling itself “the Greater Memphis Democratic Club” to masquerade as an official Democratic Party organization, and, as such, to publish flyers boosting political candidates and causes.

Strong pointed out that a flyer being circulated that year by the “club,” boosting “endorsements” of various candidates and electoral referendum choices, was just an advertisement of sorts put out by Greg Grant, a political entrepreneur and one of several people locally who sell space on such flyers and distribute them during election cycles.

The “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” was not affiliated with the Shelby County Democratic Party or the state party, Strong said in 2018. “This flyer is nothing more than a paid advertisement.” The only reason Grant could “get away with this is by designating himself as a club,” Strong said. “They‘ll put anyone on the ballot that pays them.”

Two years later, Strong himself is a candidate, challenging 9th District U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen for the Democratic nomination for his congressional seat. And he is an “endorsee” of the same pay-for-play organization, the Greater Memphis Democratic Club, he denounced as phony in 2018.

The use of paid advertising masquerading as “endorsements” and borrowing variants of the word “Democratic” for the purpose is a familiar problem in Memphis elections and appears to continue despite public exposure and the reality of legal actions by actual representatives and organs of the real Democratic Party.

The issue came before the state Democratic Party executive committee earlier this year when another ballot entrepreneur, M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, saw his own candidacy in the 9th District congressional primary disallowed, substantially on grounds that his “Greater Memphis Democratic Club,” a perennial source of misleading “ballots” had been counter to official party efforts.

In an apparent effort to skirt legal difficulty, the current Grant ballot, boosting Strong and others, contains fine print at the bottom of a page noting that a photograph of Strong, a military reservist, in uniform “does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.”

Also included in the fine print is a disclaimer that the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” operates “independently of the Shelby County Democratic Party and its affiliates.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Bogus Ballot Battle on Hold; Candidates Line Up for 2020

So what’s the status of the “bogus ballot” question, which was due to be given a post-election judicial hearing last week?

“On hold” is the answer. Several factors have intervened to postpone a final reckoning about the legality of sample ballots circulated at election time by entrepreneurs on behalf of candidates willing to pay potentially thousands of dollars to have themselves “endorsed” by shell organizations.

One factor was a heart attack suffered by retired Circuit Court Judge William B. Acree of Jackson, who was imported before the election to rule on the propriety of “pay-for-play” ballots circulated by organizations calling themselves the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” and the “Shelby County Democratic Club,” respectively.

The former is operated by Greg Grant, the latter by M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams. Neither organization has an actual connection to any official organ of the Democratic party, and both “endorsed” candidates with demonstrable Republican connections in sample ballots mailed and handed out to prospective voters.

Lawyer John Marek, a candidate for Memphis City Council in the recent city election, the Shelby County Democratic Party, and the Young Democrats of Shelby County all joined on a request for an injunction against circulation of the ballots. Acree wound up hearing the case when all local judges, most of whom had previously patronized such ballots, recused themselves.

With three hours to go before the polls closed on election day, October 3rd, the judge issued a temporary restraining order against further circulation of the ballots and scheduled a follow-up hearing for last Wednesday, November 13th, to consider a permanent ruling on the matter.

Judge Acree’s heart attack was not the only event to intervene against that schedule. Defendant Alexandria-Williams, as was his right, filed a notice of removal of the case from state to federal jurisdiction. For his part, Grant has of yet not made a decision to join in the notice of removal. The case now rests in the hands of U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman, who has not yet ruled on whether she intends to keep the case or remand it back to state court.

Nor have the attorneys for the plaintiffs — Bruce Kramer, Jake Brown, and Melody Dernocoeur at Apperson Crump — decided on whether to seek the remand themselves. A goal of the attorneys, incidentally, in whatever is the final court of record, is a ruling of “unjust enrichment,” whereby the ballot entrepreneurs would be required to forfeit the profits they made from the sale of their endorsements.

• The 2019 Memphis city election may have come to a finish with the conclusion of last Thursday’s runoff elections for two city council positions in District 1 and District 7, won by Rhonda Logan and Michalyn Easter-Thomas, respectively.

But 2020, which will be chock-full of elections, is just two flips of the calendar away, and one of the races sure to draw much attention will be that for the position of General Sessions Court clerk, which will be vacated by current longtime clerk Ed Stanton Jr. (father of former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton III).

Three of the known contenders for the clerkship are, like Stanton, Democrats and well known to followers of local politics. The first name in the hat was that of Shelby County Commissioner Eddie Jones, who filed two weeks ago. At about the same time, Commissioner Reginald Milton began informing people of his interest in the race.

The two commissioners were just joined on the ballot by former longtime state Senator John Ford, who filed for the race on Monday. Yes, that John Ford, the controversial member of the Ford political clan who ran afoul of the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting in 2005, was convicted of bribery, and served a term in state prison.

Ford formerly served a term as General Sessions clerk, simultaneous with holding his Senate seat. Having long since regained his citizenship rights, Ford aims to re-establish himself as a public official. Despite his notoriety, he was regarded as someone with an in-depth knowledge of the ins and outs of state government and as a go-to legislator for mental health and various other public issues.

Milton, a community organizer and chairman of the commission’s community grants committee, which he brought into being, was a veteran of several political races before his 2014 election to the commission and his 2018 re-election. He greeted the news of Ford’s filing by saying, “I’ve never run an easy race. I’m used to it.”

Confiding that he would make a formal announcement next week, Milton said, “I appreciate those willing to offer themselves for public office, and I look forward to sharing with the public why I feel I would be best suited for this position.”

• As was noted in this space recently, state Representative Jim Coley (R-District 97) has decided to retire and won’t seek re-election in 2020. So far, two Democrats have made known their interest in seeking the seat — Allan Creasy, who got 45 percent of the vote in District 97 in a race against Coley last year, and Gabby Salinas, who gave Republican State Senator Brian Kelsey a close race in his 2018 re-election bid.

Republicans will try to hold on to the seat, of course, and there is an active GOP candidate in the field — John Gillespie, who works as a grant coordinator at Trezevant Episcopal Home and is making his first try for political office. Gillespie issued a press release this week claiming receipts of $47,000 at a recent East Memphis fund-raiser — not a bad first-time haul.

…

Jackson Baker

Democrat Edmund Ford Jr. (left) and Republican Amber Mills (right) co-sponsored County Commission resolutions providing $80,000 to the County Health Department for testing children for alleged exposure to lead in water sources at Shelby County Schools and adding to the Commission’s legislative agenda an official notice of the issue to the General Assembly and Governor Bill Lee. The Commission approved both resolutions unanimously.

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Editorial Opinion

Thing One, Thing Two

On November 14th, the citizens of two Memphis City Council districts will have an opportunity to finish up with the business of selecting their representatives to serve on the council. As grateful as we are that the current electoral system allows this opportunity to perfect the people’s will, we’ll say again, as we’ve said in the past, this is a lousy way to do it.

By the time that runoff election date rolls around, the always chancey Memphis weather will have had ample opportunity to turn sour on us, discouraging turnout, and it’s already a given that runoff elections are notoriously poorly attended even in the best of conditions.

We have no reason to expect otherwise for what amounts to judgment day for council Districts 1 and 7 — and an important judgment day at that. Depending on the outcome, there could be two council incumbents returned, with a disposition to continue the governing pattern of the past, or two new faces, those of candidates whose campaign rhetoric at least obliges them to consider serious change in the way city government does its business.

An even split between these prospects is also possible. Our concern does not necessarily lie with a commitment to either point of view or to any of the four candidates. What we worry about is the fact that the honest will of the people may not factor into the truncated totals of a runoff election — one in which the outcome could be decided by the weather or by the electorate’s lapsed attention, or, even in the best-case scenario, by the superiority of one campaign organization or another in forcing their cadres to the polls.

The solution to the runoff dilemma is no secret: It is the election process known alternately as Ranked Choice Voting or Instant Runoff Voting. This process has twice been approved by a large majority of Memphis voters — in a 2008 referendum and in another one in 2018. The process has so far been sabotaged by holdover council members who refuse to authorize the county Election Coordinator to employ it, and by state election authorities, who have intervened against its use. Come to think of it, that’s another good argument in favor of the new faces on the runoff ballot.

Regardless of what happens on November 14th, an event scheduled for the previous day, Wednesday, November 13th, also will have serious import for Memphis’ political future. On that date, retired Circuit Court Judge William B. Acree of Jackson convenes a hearing in Memphis to decide on the ultimate fate of bogus sample ballots that falsely claim to represent the endorsement choices of local political parties. For several election cycles, local entrepreneurs have been in the habit of fobbing off these travesties to local voters at election time.

The scandal is that an outside judge had to be called in to hear the case, since the judges of Shelby County have been as guilty as any other candidates in paying their way onto these fraudulent ballots and thus had to recuse themselves. It is for their sake and ours that we hope Judge Acree will see fit to decree an end to this fraud against democracy.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Latest Bogus Ballot

For the record, the latest entry on the bogus ballot scene is this one, purportedly by longtime pol and former City Councilman Rickey Peete. Billed as an “official” ballot for Democrats, it has no relationship to the Shelby County Democratic Party, whose position on the three ballot referenda is to vote No/Against.

Peete joins a field that at election time consists of ballots by the likes of such entrepreneurs as Greg Grant, Bret Thompson, and M. Latroy Williams — all of whom charge candidates (and, in this, case, backers of referenda) a pretty penny for the honor of appearing on sample ballots that are either handed out or mailed out to voters. It’s an industry.

Some of these balloteers have been the subject of lawsuits for their linguistic efforts to confuse voters about their party credentials. Peete’s ballot is unusually direct and misleading in that respect.