Tricky paid signature gatherers subject of complaint filed Nov 1

Residents file complaint and protest to Santa Clara County District Attorney, Registrar of Voters and City of Mountain View about voter deception in Mountain View by paid signature gatherers.

Registered voters tricked into signing "sneaky repeal" petition, and then pressured into signing more than once!

Yesterday, 28 residents of Mountain View filed a complaint with the County of Santa Clara and City of Mountain View demanding that the deceptive petition “The Mountain View Homeowner, Renter, and Taxpayer Protection Initiative”, recently submitted on October 9, 2018, by proponents John Inks and Bryan Danforth, be fully investigated by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, the District Attorney's office, and the City of Mountain View. Not only was the petition full of false statements, distortions, half-truths and misleading statements, the paid signature gatherers pressured registered voters into signing a second and even a third time!

More than 350 Mountain View voters submitted signature withdrawal forms to the Registrar of Voters via the Mountain View City Clerk's Office. These voters withdrew their signatures because they were misled by paid signature gatherers into thinking that the petition that they had signed would help renters, help mobile home residents or address other problems Mountain View renters still face. Many residents who signed the petition reported that signature gatherers either misrepresented or did not mention the 3% vacancy rate clause buried in Section 8 of the petition. But this clause was the critical instrument the drafters used to deceive the public.

The drafters knew that if they are able to get the ballot measure to pass, this seemingly innocuous clause would immediately revoke all of the protections Mountain View residents voted for under the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act (CSFRA). Even an educated voter would not know that the vacancy rate in Mountain View always exceeds 3%, so the drafters made revocation of CSFRA dependent on this very common condition. It was an unethical, shabby attempt to deceive Mountain View residents into voting against their own interests. Trevoli Welsh, one of the signers, says, "The fact that voters were continually deceived about the nature of the petition tells me the petition sponsors knew it was bad business for our community."

Trey Bornmann, another one of the signers, explains, ”Mobile Home residents were deliberately misled by signature gathers telling people to sign to get mobile homes included under rent control” which was completely untrue!

Kara Sanchez, another signer, stated, "I personally witnessed five different paid signature gatherers claiming their petition supported and expanded renter protections in Mountain View.” She added "I called and reported these specific incidents to the State of California elections committee, whose chief investigator acknowledged that this type of purposeful misrepresentation is all too common. I ask that the signatures be thrown out, or that due diligence be done in following up with signatories to determine if their signatures were fraudulently obtained."

We are confident that many more of the voters who signed the petition would not have signed if they had had access to truthful statements about the petition. It is very likely that many more of the residents tricked into signing would also want file signature withdrawal forms if they were contacted and asked if they knew that the proposed ballot measure would destroy, rather than enhance, the CSFRA.

Heather Phipps, another signer, says, "I experienced a paid signature gatherer on Castro Street spreading the lie that the “Mountain View Homeowner, Renter, and Taxpayer Protection Initiative” would cover all rentals in Mountain View if passed. We need the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters and the District Attorney to investigate the deceptive practices that were used to con voters into signing this sneaky petition, because I know of other Mountain View voters who experienced the same types of lies."

The so-called " Mountain View Homeowner, Renter, and Taxpayer Protection Initiative” contains false statements, distortions, half-truths and misleading statements, and it needs to be exposed as a blatantly fraudulent attempt to deceive Mountain View voters. We hope that you will defend and protect the mission of the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to "Protect and Ensure the Community’s Right to Participate in Fair, Inclusive, Accurate, and Transparent Elections."