UPDATED 11:40am PST on Monday, Oct. 24.
SAN FRANCISCO—Campaign workers for Mayoral candidate Ed Lee have been observed engaging in activities that appear to violate California’s election law, at public events that are part of officially organized electioneering efforts.
At an official Ed Lee campaign event in Chinatown on Oct. 15, Lee workers pointed out whom to vote for on a Vote-by-Mail ballot, took the ballot from the voter, placed it in an envelope and put the envelope in a box, apparently to send it in on behalf of the voter, according to an eyewitness.
Further, at an Ed Lee office on Clay Street in Chinatown this past Sunday, a volunteer associated with Lee’s campaign had in his possession at least one Vote-by-Mail ballot that had not yet been filled in, which he took from a previously unopened envelope.
This eyewitness testimony follows video and testimony reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Citizen, which implicates an independent expenditure committee, the SF Neighborhood Alliance, that supports Lee. The evidence reported to and gathered by The Epoch Times implicates Lee’s directly controlled campaign.
The witness to the first incident, a reporter from New Tang Dynasty Television, a media partner of The Epoch Times, saw the activities take place in the 40 minutes she was in Portsmouth Square, at the center of Chinatown on Saturday Oct. 15, in the afternoon.
When the reporter arrived at the square she was approached by several workers who questioned her closely about her media affiliation (she provided vague answers), followed her, and tried to shield her from photographing the table. The witness said she felt intimidated.
Later she stood at the table—without her camera—and observed the instance of a Lee worker receiving a Vote-by-Mail ballot.
While standing against the campaign table, about three feet away from the voter and campaign worker, the reporter observed this scene: a campaign worker had the elderly voter’s ID card and a ballot, and filled out the individual’s particulars; he then unfolded the ballot and turned it around to the voter; he pointed to Ed Lee’s name in the first column of the ballot, and the elderly voter proceeded to fill in the space to vote for Lee in the first column; the campaign worker then pointed to names in two other columns, which the reporter could not make out, and the voter proceeded to fill those in as well. The campaign worker then folded up the ballot, placed it in an envelope, and put the envelope in a cardboard box with other envelopes. Few words were exchanged in the process, the witness said.
