The first 90 minutes of the hearing had one obvious surprise. The Supervisor of Elections office has video on the Childers visit to qualify Bruce Childers to run for Supervisor of Elections. The video has no audio.
When Pam Childers testified, she described how she showed the Form 6 on her laptop to SOE staff. She said that Bruce had completed the Form 6 before their first visit to SOE.
However, Pam Childers does not have her laptop in SOE video of the first visit.
Childers’ attorney Ed Fleming objected to the video being shown. However, he said it was clear Pam Childers didn’t have the laptop on the first visit. The judge told Bender’s attorney, George Levesque, to hold the video during his portion of the hearing.
C.J.,
You have watched the hearing. All your questions were answered.
Above it says that Bruce Childers did not submit any part of the Form 6 to the SOE! However, in his Statement of Facts, in his Petition for Emergency Writ of Mandamus and for Declaratory Judgment, Ed Fleming asserted on behalf of his client, “At the time of filing, Plaintiff filed all documents required by law, including the summary page of Form 6.” Was that a lie? Seems so. Bruce Childers had to know what he did or did not submit and presumably knew what his attorney was filing on his behalf. In court, did anyone mention that the Qualifying Check List doesn’t even provide a place to document receipt of a full Form 6? Aren’t the forms standardized statewide? If not, shouldn’t they be?
And, the PNJ reports that Bruce Childers – acting not on his own but through his wife – was going to submit the full Form 6 by e-mail. Can you do that? Can you submit qualifying documents by e-mail, or fax, or FEDEX? Don’t you have to submit them in person in hard copy? The Department of State needs to review the recurring types of problems that arise in the qualifying process both to protect the candidates and the SOEs, in this case from their own staff. On June 12th, did Sonya Daniel tell Robert Bender that she “had” certified receipt of Childers Form 6 that could have been sent by e-mail in seconds but was never sent or received? When did Sonya Daniel and Keelie Sekerka know that Bruce Childers had never submitted any part of the Form 6? Didn’t they even have a 3M Post-It note on the folder that said, “Awaiting Form 6 by e-mail”?
When did Bender know what was being done on his behalf? He must know. Is there a paper trail? Will the media get it and report out the timeline? What if this SNAFU involved a different office and candidate who was a friend of Sonya Daniel “and” Keelie Sekerka and they agreed to say nothing about a missing Form 6 or other document? What if Bender found out and waited until “after” the election to disqualify Childers? Could he have done so? Does he have that much absolute authority? What will Bender do to restore integrity to his office? Fire both of them? I would. If you can’t trust someone working in the Supervisor of Elections Office who can you trust?
Which is most likely why, when Ed Fleming asked Pam Childers the simple question of whather their financial advisor was with them at the Supervisor of Elections office, she didn’t answer his question directly–to the best of my memory–but instead said something along the lines of “We drove down in the car together.”
I immediately asked out loud, “Why didn’t she answer the question?”
Guess she didn’t want to get into the subject of how he wasn’t present during their SECOND entry to the office, once Pam had grabbed her Ipad, and when Ms. Sekerka tesified she told them in no uncertain terms that their Form 6 was not completely, and Pam said she’d go to another computer to print it out and submit it to their office.