Exclusive Interview with Jan Conard

This was Jan Conard's first Republican Convention she has ever attended.  Thanks to Jane Beyer for referring me to her and her story from today.

I just spoke with Jan on the phone, and this is her story:

Jan was in Westridge precinct.  Voters were directed from the auditorium to the cafeteria when it was time to vote.  She saw someone with a white piece of paper that had both candidates names on it, and Faisal's name was already checked off!  The person had it in their hand as they were going in to vote.  Jan just assumed it was a sample ballot- but Jan tells us that when she got her ballot it was identical to what she saw in the person's hand. 

Somehow this person had the ballot before they got into the cafeteria where the ballots were being handed out.

Developing...

Comments

This convention was a fraud...a laughable, yet sad commentary on the current leadership there. NOW...RPV....this IS one where you get involved to make this right.

Wow!

[charles]

Were the ballots handed out just before the ballot box, or were they being "handed out in the cafeteria"?

At the last convention I was at, they handed out ballots in the cafeteria, but not in a controlled line. I was allowed to take my ballot whereever I wanted to fill it out in secret, and then get in the line to vote it. I actually left the rooom to fill my out because I didn't want anybody to know who I was voting for.

The ballots need to be secured ONLY between the time you 'x' out the nametag, and the time the ballot is placed in the ballot box. At the last convention I went to, that was a distance of 2 feet, with workers from BOTH campaigns watching.

Was this convention different? I can't imagine they handed you a ballot at the front of the line, and required you check it off in front of them before depositing it -- that would not be a "secret ballot".

[Eye On Fairfax]

Desperate Devolites

(Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post)

A seemingly angry and outraged Jeannemarie Devolites Davis rudely laid into a member of Historic Fairfax City Inc. (HFCI) last Saturday at the historic Civil War era Blenheim Estate in Fairfax City following a groundbreaking ceremony for a new visitor’s center at the site.

The HFCI member is also a member of the organization’s Blenheim committee, which worked on the Blenheim visitor’s center project.

Speaking in an uncalled for chastising tone, Devolites Davis told the HFCI member she considered it insensitive or inconsiderate of the HFCI member to mention Chap Petersen’s name twice and her name only once during the HFCI member’s public introduction of elected officials and other dignitaries at the Blenheim event, which was attended by about 100 people.

Devolites Davis seemed very hurt by that.

Devolites Davis then went on to tell the HFCI member that it was because of her efforts in the general assembly that $25,000 in state VDOT funds went to Fairfax City to pay for some part of the restoration of the Blenheim estate.

The HFCI member on Saturday publicly cited Petersen for his work prior to his being on the Fairfax City Council in getting the city to purchase the Blenheim property in 1999. And when Petersen was on the Fairfax City Council from 2000 to 2004, the council voted to spend much more than $25,000 of its own city money on the Blenheim project.

Devolites Davis was probably in the right to feel slighted the way she did, but her scolding tirade was no way to win votes in her upcoming election against Petersen for the 34th district senate seat. The HFCI member and about three other adults standing nearby within earshot of her rant are all residents of the 34th senate district.

[James Young]

You neglected to mention that Jane Beyer was part of "Team Lucas."

How does Jane Beyer's referral/allegiance taint or impact Jan Cunard's observations?

Are you calling Jan a liar?

[anon]

This sounds like bullshit to me. There were Lucas observers at EVERY voting station.

[anon]

This sounds like bullshit to me. There were Lucas observers at EVERY voting station.

We should start a pool to bet on how many more hours it takes the Democrats to announce a candidate and target the race...

[anon]

The Prince William GOP is the best thing the RPV has going for it in NOVA. To void their convention would cause huge resentment in the County, especially when Republicans in PWC feel strongly that the RPV has royally screwed things up in the last few state-wide elections. The Prince William Republican Committee wins despite the incompetent do-nothing RPV, not because of it.

[anon]

I would suspect that RPV interference in PWC would result in high-profile Republican elected officials in PWC distancing themselves from the RPV, which has done NOTHING for the Prince William GOP or Prince William Republicna candidates.

12:41 am.,

The dems already have a candidate.

Gosh it would be nice if people who were CLUELESS didn't comment.

[James Young]

I'm saying that "Jan Conard" is someone I've never heard of. I'm saying that it is quite clear that there are those among Julie's supporters who will do anything to win, including smearing an honorable man as a terrorist-sympathizer. I'm saying that I know that Jane Beyer has personally lied in the past to achieve her political ends. Does that mean she was able to find someone else to lie on behalf of her candidate? It's certainly more possible and plausible than the fantasy that Faisal Gill is a terrorist sympathizer.

Well, her name is Jan Cunard - it's a typo.

I certainly hope you've heard of HER.

"I'm saying that I know that Jane Beyer has personally lied in the past to achieve her political ends."

Ah, there's a little of that SLANDER that James Young likes to whine about being lobbed at him and Gill from time to time. I certainly hope he can PROVE this charge.

At the Chairman's convention last fall, the process to vote began in single file lines. When it came your turn, someone handed you a ballot and stayed with you until you completed it, another person watched the process up until the ballot went into the ballot box. At the 51st District, ballots were distributed and later collected.

17 over-votes were discovered, delegate forms were completed before filing for voter registration, an unverifiable address from a committee member attending as a Gill delegate, but her address was unverifiable in Westridge and the committee has her address listed in the Woodbridge District, other delegates at the convention claim to have witnessed duplicate ballots. Clearly there is a satsifactory amount of evidence to warrant an investigation for voter fraud?

There still is fraudulent concern regarding the convention filing process with Lucy Beauchamp for Clerk of Courts. Kopko obviously favored McQuigg from the start but it is rumored that Michele McQuigg was asked to vacate the 51st for GILL!

Steve Keen(I), a long time PW Republican didn't bother running as a Republican in Woodbridge. Chris Royse the Woodbridge candidate had Chairman Stewart’s endorsement the day he announced, soon afterward Royse’s wife became the committee treasurer. Kopko and Royse joined forces just before the vice chairman election, after Ulrich resigned her post from the committee.

Ulrich and Kopko agreed to recommend Trent Barton as her replacement, which prompted Denny Daugherty to run in opposition. Stewart warned Barton that he could never beat Daugherty. At the election for vice chair, voting tickets were randomly handed out with no check and balance system. Many people in the room who were there to vote were offered a ticket to vote 2 or 3 times. Ms. Royse accepted the voting tickets even though some visitors were unconfirmed members, some had lapsed, and votes were accepted from non-members holding a proxy supposedly from a member. Ironically, that night we had a visitor in the room, Attorney General Bob McDonald, who quietly departed at some point in the process but it gave some of us a false sense of security.

Questionable events surrounded the Occoquan convention, too. Faisal Gill was the Convention Chairman and a supporter of Mike May prior to the convention. Looks like May was able to return the favor to Gill but Julie may have helped inadvertently by trusting a person to work for her in credentials that is one of Chairman Stewarts close friends.

Over-votes do not just mysteriously appear, not 17 of them and all for Gill. I hope this is further invested by RPV because the arrogance and ignorance of a select few is reflecting poorly on all Republican’s in Prince William.

[anon]

Anonymous at 6:50:

Dear Ari Stotle,

Let’s see, you think that Kopko, Stewart, May, McQuigg, Gill and several others are in some grand conspiracy. You sound a lot like Mr. John Gray.

[Lyle Beefelt]

I was one of Julie's volunteers both during the campaign, at check in, and at the balloting table at the convention. I was also an observer when the votes were counted.

The procedure for voting was thus:
1. Ballots were printed with the precinct name and were numbered.
2. A Gill and a Lucas volunteer were assigned to each precinct.
3. There was no delegate list to check off those that voted (this would have helped).
4. Voters lined up and showed there credential name tag which had their name and precinct as well as their ID.
5 The volunteers both checked the ID against the credential, marked the credential and issued a ballot.
6. The delegate then marked the ballot and threw it in a bin.
7. My precinct went smoothly. A couple of old people had a hard time voting and the Gill volunteer tried to help them by pointing at the ballot, but I stopped her. At the end, we counted the number of ballots issued and the number of ballots in the bin to make sure they matched. We were not instructed to do this, we just did it. They matched.
8. The procedure at the other tables was the same, but there were obviously some problems.

In the end, this convention was probably not won by direct stuffing of the ballot box, although the process was not air tight and it would be possible, though difficult.

It was won in this way:
A group of republicans became intent on gaining control of the party after disappointing results in 2003. They were able to elect the unit chair in 2006, who immediately began to pressure GOP members of the BOCS.

Their record has improved significantly from then on using a single-minded dedication to holding conventions and controlling the calls and organization of those conventions.

In Saturday's convention, Julie came the closest anyone has come to breaking the lock, but Gill's ties to the muslim community proved decisive in a setting that only a convention could provide and then only with a liberal set of credentialing procedures.

Although 1248 forms were filed, only 1155 filings were certified. About 85% of the fallout was Gill's as his campaign filed numerous duplicates and non-voters. The Gill campaign then fought through 27 hours of credentials committee meetings to secure the most liberal credentialing procedures they could get. This is where the margin of victory was obtained as numerous faulty names, addresses and signatures were allowed to be cured using sworn statements at registration. Gill's muslim vote accounted for about 25% of the delegates on the floor and more than half of his convention workers. They also made up the overwhelming proportion of the problems that were cured at the registration.

Although Lucas was outspent, she came extremely close through working the past convention lists and voter vault like crazy.

Needless to say, this whole process has opened up rifts (sometimes between people who have worked together for 15 years) that will not soon heal.

[James Young]

Slander, Anon 3:22. OK, here are the facts: When I ran for Dumfries District School Board seat in 1995, I received the endorsement of the County GOP. Jane Beyer and Caddigan pissboy Eddie Boos didn't like that, because I was opposing the meals tax. So they wrote a letter to the Pot. News claiming that the "Dumfries District Republican Committee" did not endorse me, or voted not to endorse me.

The lie? There is no such thing as the "Dumfries District Republican Committee." There are representatives on the County GOP Committee from Dumfries, but no sub-unit committee (as there is in the Dem Party). 11th CD Chairman Ann Keast wrote a letter to the Pot. News exposing the lie.

A long response, but one necessary to rebut the allegation of "slander," truth being an absolute defense.

And BTW, Anon 6:50, there is no evidence that the overvotes were all Gill votes. What is most damning for the Lucas faction is that --- even if you PRESUME that they were all Gill votes, and disallow them --- Gill still won. Not as decisevely , but just as clearly.

[Freddy]

I also saw nothing wrong at the convention and actually thought the election was run fairly well. It’s not surprising or unusual that there is controversy when an election is close. With regard to the overvotes, my guess is that people who lived in Lake Ridge cast their votes in the Lake Ridge precinct box, even though they lived in a different precinct in Lake Ridge. In other words, some political newcomers may not have realized the difference between Lake Ridge the HOA and Lake Ridge the precinct.

[anon]

Lyle Beefelt actually provides a very accurate description of what occurred at the convention. At the end of the day, it was a very close vote. But Lyle, let me ask you this...if the Lucas campaign had problems with certain people being credentialed "liberally," (and I agree that perhaps an argument could be made to that end), why on earth did they not challenge the report of the credentials committee? This would have been done BEFORE the vote and the whole issue could have been debated by the entire convention body. But the Lucas campaign was silent. I suspect it is because they knew they might lose that vote. Now, AFTER the vote, they say, "well, certain people should not have voted" and they blame it on the "conservative conspiracy" etc. This is too little too late. If they had brought it up at the appropriate time, I could understand. But now it just looks like sour grapes. What the heck were they thinking not challenging the report if they were so concerned?