Last month I was forwarded an email Marsha Sellers sent out. She sent the email to, among others including employees of the WECRD, Betty Ashcraft, the district Election Official, as well as another employee, and someone under contract with the WECRD asking them to vote for her and Jana and to tell ten friends. Maybe not a big deal but one would think inappropriate for someone who signs the recipients' paychecks to ask the recipients to vote and campaign for her.
Betty Ashcraft is the Election official. She was hired by the WECRD board to be in charge of getting the ballots, hiring people to work the election, counting the ballots, and ultimately declaring the winners of the election. Ms. Ashcraft has also been the Public Liaison for the WECRD for years, in addition to serving alongside Jana's husband, David Borgolthaus, on the nonprofit Recreation Foundation's Board. It seems inappropriate that someone so closely tied in with the WECRD and the foundation would be hired to be the Election Official. This email shows Ms. Ashcraft not being an impartial Election Official. Ms. Ashcraft is campaigning for the current appointed board members that Judy and I are running against. How are we supposed to get a fair election when the election official is sending off emails in favor of our opponents? What else is she willing to do to get her employers and associates elected? Only time will tell. You can see in this video, Admonishment when Tracy Lauric objected to the WECRD board hiring Betty Ashcraft as the district Election Official. I wonder how many votes it’s going to take to overcome this kind of prejudice by someone whose office at least requires the appearance of impartiality.
I wonder if Ms Ashcraft's email was sent using a district computer during time she was being paid as a district employee. If so, the district could be on the hook for using tax dollars to pay a district employee to solicit votes for the directors, which I think even in Idaho may be illegal. Someone should look into when the email was sent and from where. Since the district's computers are public, not private, property, it should be fairly easy to determine.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what we pay her to be the election official? Who allowed this to happen? How can someone like this be put in charge of an election?
ReplyDeleteDoes nobody look at what these people do? Are there no checks and balances.
Looks like a good place for my comment, under is this really an election. I don’t believe Betty should ever be a paid election officer. She is way to bias in support of the WECRD to be trusted with any ballot or having anything to do with them. She has shown in the past she will lie to get what she wants, like on the HUD application for a grant. My problem is are we going to have the same nightmare as the School District did over a trustee election, where people outside the WECRD vote when they shouldn’t The boundaries are not that clear where someone across the road could make a mistake and vote and it may not get caught. The last WECRD board member election you only had to fill out an addivate stating you were in the District and a registered voter. How easy when it is not checked at the time if you can vote on the board members. The only reason the voters in the Trustee vote that made the mistake was someone knew after the ballots were checked and they weren’t in the Zone. I also don’t feel Betty should have anything to do with absentee ballots or those that may vote early at the WECRD office. Betty hasn’t shown a very good track record when it comes to being honest and up front with everything. The WECRD office or people working there shouldn’t be sending out e-mails to get their votes. Go campaign like Judy and Art is doing and keep it all above board. I have no trust in anyone in the office to keep everything honest. I already know if you get caught voting and lie on the adivate you are subject to heavy fine and prison time. Buts what to stop it from happening and slipping thru the crack. Surely this won’t be as close as the School Trustee election was but everyone saw that come out as a tie when those 3 people told how they voted which you can’t ask someone how they voted. This board has shown more than once their interest has been spending taxpayer’s money on themselves and recreation hasn’t come out of it.
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