the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the vote suppression group One Village One Vote has now headed to the courts to fight the Village of Ridgewood’s rejection of their voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression petition .
Dear Ridgewood Community,
Last week, the Village Clerk rejected the One Village One Vote supplemental petition. She did so despite the fact that we corrected the purported deficiencies identified in our first submission and went on to submit 582 signatures (172 more signatures than required) in ten days in pandemic conditions exacerbated by a tropical storm and ensuing power outages. The clerk failed to provide a reason for her rejection, despite being legally obligated to do so. She stated that her reason would be given at the September 2nd Village Council meeting, three days after any changes to the November 2020 ballot must be submitted to the county.
After the clerk’s rejection, our committee explored our options, none of which were attractive. Essentially, given the August 31st deadline for ballot changes, we were presented with two choices. We could walk away or engage legal counsel. After much debate and discussion, we have filed for emergency relief and are requesting that the court place our question on the November 2020 ballot.
We do not take this step lightly. We began this journey as citizens believing that a citizen’s petition should be accessible and executable without legal counsel. Sadly, this has proven impossible and if we wish to achieve our initial mission (giving the Ridgewood electorate the opportunity to vote in November 2020 on the issue of election consolidation), seeking professional legal assistance is now necessary.
We are forever grateful to the Ridgewood Community for their thoughtful discussion on this topic.
Thank you Ridgewood and stay tuned!
Bob Fuhrman
Matthew Lindenberg
Stacey Loscalzo
Deborah Steinbaum
Siobhan Crann Winograd
If you comply with the rules, you get on the ballot.
Maybe you should have hired the attorney a month ago to explain the rules to you.
One Village, One Vote seeks to remove tax payers’ ability to have direct control of taxatio, government, and spending. That anyone supports that cause is alarming. We should have more voting control over government, not less.
If Siobhan is for it, I’m against it.
You are wasting your money. Legal counsel would have been advisable months ago if you care so much.
Do you realize how many people hate you now? You are merely pressing to remove freedoms. Too bad all that time, energy, and now money are not going to something positive and worthwhile.
Here’s hoping the judge throws out your case in disgust and you give up.
Governments are not saving any money. They are spending every penny they get before someone takes away from them wake up. There is an overwhelming of people moving into the surrounding suburbs by us that they can’t even downsize anymore. You just wait six more months until all this housing is completed and people start moving in you’re going to see How many city. No more Village that’s done. They should change the name the city of Ridgewood
Thank you so much for forcing the Village to spend my tax dollars defending against you taking my right to vote away. Well done OVOV.
Do-gooders in town (SW & JJ) are nice until you disagree with them.