Opinion ID: 1314181
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Absentee Voter Campaign

Text: In July 1991, the Fresno Chapter of the Black American Political Association of California (BAPAC) launched its Voter Education Project (VEP). The project was described by Mel Sanders, president of the Fresno Chapter of BAPAC, [2] in his October 1991 written report to the statewide annual BAPAC conference in Sacramento, as follows: This project has targeted 13 seats of several of the smaller school district boards that serve the southwest urban area of metropolitan Fresno. The central strategy in the election involves a highly selective process of both voter registration and absentee ballot applications. With some $10,000 in cash, equipment and materials, we are projecting a landslide in seven of the elections and comfortable wins in the others. Frank Revis, a BAPAC member, was appointed director of VEP. Revis recruited his family members, BAPAC members and their families, and other nonmembers of BAPAC, as volunteers for the project. Some VEP workers were also paid. The trial court made the following findings of fact, among others, regarding the manner in which VEP's voter registration and absentee ballot strategies were effectuated (numerical paragraph designations and references to trial exhibits have been omitted): A BAPAC solicitor would visit registered and unregistered voters' residences to ask the resident to sign a registration affidavit and an absentee ballot application for the coming election. The prospective voter would be told that BAPAC would mail the executed documents to the Elections Clerk and, when the ballot was received from the Clerk by BAPAC, it would hand-deliver the ballot to the voter. Paragraph Three of the absentee ballot application form which called for the address to which the voter wants the ballot to be mailed by the Clerk, was with a few exceptions, never filled out by the voter. In some instances the paragraph was preaddressed and signed by the voter. In most instances, the application was left blank when the voter signed the application and [was] filled in by BAPAC later. The BAPAC solicitor would take the executed documents to BAPAC headquarters where a BAPAC address would be written on the application form as the address to which the voter wanted the ballot mailed. BAPAC would hand carry the registration and application forms to the Clerk. When BAPAC received the absentee ballots from the Clerk, it would identify from its records the school district in which the voter resided; it would notify Voter Education Project workers, the candidate and/or [the] candidate's workers to pick up the ballot for delivery to the voter. Ballots were delivered to voters either by BAPAC members, volunteers, paid workers, or by the candidates themselves. If a voter was not home when delivery of the ballot was attempted, a notice was left at the door asking the voter to call a BAPAC telephone number listed on the notice so the ballot could be delivered to the voter as soon as possible. When a ballot was delivered, the voter was encouraged to vote in the presence of the solicitor. In some instances, the solicitor would offer to answer questions about the candidates or issues. After the voter punched the appropriate number opposite the candidate names, the voter would place the ballot in the envelope, seal, sign and date the envelope and hand it to the solicitor. The solicitor would then return the envelope containing the ballot to BAPAC headquarters where it would be mailed to the Clerk. Prior to the election, [VEP Director] Frank Revis and [BAPAC Fresno Chapter President] Mel Sanders met with Susan Anderson, the Fresno County Clerk, and Norma Logan, the head of the Elections Division of the Clerk's Office. One purpose of the meeting was to be sure the applications for absentee ballots being distributed by BAPAC conformed to law. Revis revealed that BAPAC had already obtained a large number of absentee ballot applications  by his own estimate, approximately 800. A number of these applications were then examined by Anderson and Logan who raised concerns that someone other than the voter was completing the portion of the application specifying the address to which the ballot was to be sent (Paragraph 3). Revis' attention was directed to Elections Code § 1006 which provides that the voter must `personally affix[]' the address in Paragraph 3. BAPAC chose to ignore this warning and to follow its own ideas about permissible absentee ballot application and mailing procedures. During their meeting, Anderson and Logan sought some assurance from Revis that BAPAC was not a political organization and that the ballots would not come into the possession of any candidates. Revis assured them that candidates would not have access to ballots and that BAPAC was not sponsoring candidates. Subsequently, 1,292 completed [absentee ballot] applications were submitted in which paragraph 3 specified one of two BAPAC addresses, 2017 Tuolumne or 9584 South Chestnut. Anderson and Logan believed these applications did not comply with Elections Code § 1006 because the address in Paragraph 3 was not personally affixed by the voter. Anderson and Logan also suspected BAPAC was a political organization which should not receive absentee ballots under Elections Code § 1006. BAPAC was unable to secure the ballots at 2017 Tuolumne, where it shared space with another entity, and so Revis filed a request with the postmaster that all absentee ballots sent to 2017 Tuolumne [were] to be held for pickup by BAPAC. No hold arrangement was made with respect to 9854 S. Chestnut, though that address was a rural postal box, also incapable of holding and securing all the ballots. Eventually, all the absentee ballots sent to BAPAC addresses were delivered to 705 Mayer, the headquarters of the Voter Education Project [which was also Revis' home address]. Absentee ballots were provided Defendants Mel Sanders, Oscar Robinson, Linda Andrews, Tim Sanders, Samuel Hearnes, Mary Bess, Lawrence Cato, Tony Taylor, Steve Franklin, and Carrie Schoals directly by the Voter Education Project for delivery to voters. Lawrence Cato gave some ballots to Defendant Rosemary Garcia for delivery to voters.