Kelley’s Email Blast Backfires

When proponents of the MacLean recall were winding down the signature drive, Councilwoman Trish Kelley tried to throw MacLean a lifeline. She sent an email blast on July 22, supporting MacLean and telling those on her distribution list to rescind their signatures from the recall petition.

By July 22, ample signatures had been gathered to qualify the recall for the ballot. However, bad timing wasn’t the worst of Trish Kelley’s problems.

Last week, the OC Registrar of Voters revealed that 16 voters rescinded their signatures from the recall petition. That’s right – out of nearly 14,000 people who signed the petition, Ms. Kelley succeeded in subtracting only 16 from the total.

Kelley’s email campaign reached an organization of moms with preschool children. Incredibly, Ms. Kelley was asking them to rally around a man who had anger issues, a violent temper and a record of assault and battery on a co-worker. One of his neighbors reported that MacLean got mad at her children and chased them with a shovel.

In Kelley’s July 22 email, she states that voters signing the petition may have received “false information” about MacLean. Those who gathered signatures either quoted directly from the recall petition or handed voters a summary of data from public records and MacLean’s council votes. The information was well-documented, and Ms. Kelley didn’t challenge any of the points in her email.
 

Ms. Kelley’s email stated that voters can rescind signatures with an email or fax. No, they can’t. Of the 16 rescissions, how many were correctly executed, and did the city clerk and the county Registrar of Voters follow the law? The city clerk reported 22 rescission requests were received, and two were from people who weren’t registered to vote. The city clerk stated that 16 of the remaining 20 signatures were found in the 12,871 that were checked and “the other four were in the uncounted signatures.” How did she reach that conclusion? Given that more than 1,000 signatures weren’t reviewed or verified by anyone (because the minimum number had already been reached to qualify the recall), then the other four could have come from people who hadn’t signed the petition in the first place.

Whether 16 or 20 people rescinded signatures isn’t the point. Ms. Kelley’s campaign was a dismal failure. Her effort to save MacLean demonstrated that voters did NOT feel they signed the petition on the basis of false information.

If voters proceed to remove MacLean in the recall election, Ms. Kelley will very likely lose the lifetime healthcare benefits that she, MacLean and Councilman Frank Ury bestowed on themselves for three terms of part-time service. A new majority could overturn the decision. Saving her own healthcare benefits (estimated at $225,000 per council member) was at least worth a shot to Ms. Kelley.