题图：左：马萨诸塞州共和党众议员候选人莱尼·米拉；右：涉嫌靠舞弊胜选的民主党人克里斯汀·卡斯纳

作者：Lenny Mirra /《波士顿舷边》/ 2023.09
翻译：约瑟 / 2023.12.18
发稿：2023.12.19

【《波士顿舷边》编者案】

2022年的中期选举的”红潮“没有让70多位马萨诸塞州共和党挑战者中的任何一位得胜，不仅如此，该州众议院还丢掉两个共和党的席位。这个故事就是关于其中一个席位的争夺。莱尼·米拉（Lenny Mirra）是该州2022年中期选举寻求连任的共和党众议员，他的选区包括乔治城（Georgetown）、汉密尔顿（Hamilton）、伊普斯威奇（Ipswich）、纽伯里（Newbury）、罗利（Rowley）和托普斯菲尔德（Topsfield）的一部分。

【正文】

我不相信选举被盗的阴谋论，但我是一个选举会被搞砸的活证明，尤其是当选举是由腐败的一党（民主党）专制州中的党派狂热分子主持时，为了赢得竞选他们会做任何事。

腐败立法机构的一个标志就是利用重新划区来确保权力。在马萨诸塞州，这项行动是由议长罗恩·马里亚诺（Ron Mariano，昆西民主党人）的忠实拥护者迈克·莫兰（Mike Moran，布莱顿民主党人）负责实施的。我的原来的选区比较红，他们就决定重新划区。与灯塔山（Beacon Hill，马萨诸塞州议会所在地）的其他事情一样，重新划区也是在完全保密的情况下闭门完成的。莫兰会从他最亲密和最有权势的朋友开始，与州众议员会面，了解他们想要和不想要的选区。像我这样的人只能承受之后的后果，2022年我最终失去了我所在选区的大约70%。

尽管我们必须从头开始在重新划定的选准备我们的竞选，但我们仍然对这应该是红色浪潮的选举充满信心，况且我的对手克里斯汀·卡斯纳（Kristin E. Kassner）从未参加过选举。但随着民主党在全州范围内组织起来，而马萨诸塞州共和党内讧、自相残杀，选举变成了又一次蓝色浪潮。

选举之夜，我以一百票的优势以为我们放心地取得了胜利（总共收到超过22,000张选票）。但由于在选举几周后他们仍在统计的邮寄选票，我的领先优势逐渐缩小。我所在的六个镇中，有五个镇的邮寄选票分布比较平均，但在伊普斯维奇，最后有超过一百张晚到的邮寄选票，几乎所有这些选票都交给了我的对手克里斯汀·卡斯纳。最后，我的领先优势只剩下了十票。

这毫无道理，当我们核对晚到的选票信封上的签名和邮寄选票申请上的签名时，我们发现有十几个不匹配。这就是为什么我们中的许多人投票反对允许邮寄投票的法案，因为镇政府的书记员们不是笔迹鉴定专家，也没有其他后备措施来确保选票确实是由注册选民填写的。

由于我的领先优势只有十票，我的对手要求重新计票，我仍然很自信，因为我从未看过手工计数后的选票数量有超过几票的变化。前三个镇都是这种情况，我的领先优势变成了九票 – 然后到了12月7日，星期三，我们在伊普斯维奇和罗利举行了重新计票。

重新计票的第一步是通过机器运行所有选票，以确保选票数量与选举期间的数量相同。每个镇都是这样做的，除了伊普斯维奇镇以外，因为计票员不知何故“发现”选票数量比选举期间多出14张。没有人对此做出解释，并且我们还了解到存在“监管链”问题，因为一些选票在市政厅被放错了票箱。选票没有放在只有镇书记员才有钥匙的选票专用箱里，而是也放进了好几个人都有钥匙的用于支付税单的箱子里。

重新计票仍在进行，双方都因选民使用错误的墨水颜色、杂散的标记或在一个竞选中填写多于一个圆圈等事情质疑了数十张选票。民主党的律师格里·麦克唐纳（Gerry McDonough）非常狡猾和诡诈，在每次选票有争议时，他都能够改变解释选民意愿的规则。马萨诸塞州共和党给我们提供的律师经验不足，根本不是对手，在重新计票结束时，卡斯纳又多得了五票，将我的领先优势缩小到了四票。

接下来发生的真是丑闻，甚至可能是犯罪。为了赢得竞选，卡斯纳还需要五票才能获胜，她的手下就在罗利镇的一堆废票里进行翻找，并挑出了其中的五张，这五张选票都是投给民主党的票。这种做法在其他五次重新计票中都是不允许的，因为每个负责这些工作的官员都说我们可以看损坏的选票，但不能计入选举结果。

然而，来自另一个镇的镇书记员特鲁迪·里德（Trudy Reid）却允许这样做，出于某种原因她被授权来进行罗利镇的重新计票。我的对手卡斯纳当时和我一起在伊普斯维奇镇，她的行为很奇怪。她本该为他们为她“找到”五张选票而使她在她的第一次竞选中领先而感到震惊和惊喜，她应该跳起来欢呼，但她却把脸埋在手机里，一脸忧心忡忡的样子，就好像她刚刚让她的人去非法“找到”另外五张选票，而他们也确实这么做了。

特鲁迪·里德的党派背景非常深厚，她曾对我妹妹桑德拉（她当时正在罗利镇的重新计票现场）说，她离开北安多佛镇（North Andover）书记员一职是因为“无法忍受与那里的共和党人共事”。我不知道她是如何获准重新计票的，但党派政治显然在选举中起到了决定性作用。

所以在这种似是而非的情况下，一百票的胜利变成了一票的失利，我们只好聘请律师在法庭上代表我们，他们肯定会看到所犯的错误，并至少进行审判，他们将审查证据。至少我们是这样认为的。

我们最终通过 Zoom 电话在法官托马斯·德雷舍（Thomas Drescher）面前举行了一场庭审，从一开始，它就呈现出一种袋鼠法庭的状态。德雷舍法官显然对我的律师迈克尔·沙利文（Michael Sullivan）恨之入骨，并严厉批评他在没有提供任何证据的情况下在法庭上提出申诉。他想看有争议的选票，我们不得不向他解释，我们不被允许碰这些选票，在法官要求之前，它们被锁在保险库里。然后他说，我们至少可以把选票的复印件带给他，我们不得不解释说，我们甚至不被允许用手机拍照。

这个法官甚至不懂法律！但他肯定认识我的律师。通过谷歌搜索，我了解到德雷舍是前众议院议长托马斯·芬纳兰（Thomas Finneran）的朋友和前法律合伙人。他曾在一起著名的案件中为芬纳兰辩护，但以失败告终，芬纳兰在该案中被认定在选区划分计划中犯有伪证罪。而该案的公诉人正是我的律师迈克尔·沙利文。

我无法理解为什么德雷舍没有被强制回避这个案子，但我仍然相信他会看到证据，并意识到这是一场完全搞砸了的选举。他要求第二天将有争议的选票送到他的法院，但在去法院的路上发生了一件有趣的事情。卡斯纳的律师格里·麦克唐纳以某种方式说服法官不公开证据，称这超出了法院的管辖范围。州务卿办公室的律师们表示，此案属于法院的管辖范围，但德雷舍法官不同意，称此案属于众议院的管辖范围。

根据我们州的宪法，议长的任务是成立一个特别的众议院委员会来审查选举中的差异，并最终决定谁将在众议院获得席位。他可以从自己的党派中选择两名成员，而众议院少数党领袖可以选择一名。任何熟悉灯塔山政治的人都能猜到这是怎么回事。

民主党议长马里亚诺（Ronald J. Mariano）选择了忠实的民主党人迈克尔·戴（Michael Day）和丹·瑞恩（Dan Ryan），而共和党人布拉德·琼斯（Brad Jones）代表少数党。在一场虚假的听证会之后，我竞选的候选人以及米德尔塞克斯（Middlesex）第一选区的候选人发表了他们的证词，委员会假装考虑了这些情况，而实际上他们只是在等待议长告诉他们该怎么做。格里·麦克唐纳坚持的一件事是，他们不能打开有争议的选票。他竭力确保证据保持密封，使公众永远不能看见。

有传言说，马里亚诺受到党内愤怒的左翼极端分子的纠缠，要求他立即让两名民主党人入席。在假装“调查”了几个月之后，民主党人决定继续掩盖证据，确保没有人看到有争议的选票。他们要求在2月3日的众议院全体会议上进行投票，届时戴将作为议长的傀儡，告诉议员们，他们无权在选举中“判定有球还是无球”，并让民主党人当选。

民主党人以典型的灯塔山方式屈服于议长的命令，投票同意这样做，确保有争议的选票永远不会见光。唯一与共和党人一起公开证据的民主党人是罗素·霍姆斯（Russell Holmes），他是少数几个敢于站出来反对议长的民主党人之一。这就是我们今天的处境，选举完全失败，规则和法律明显遭到破坏，一党制腐败不堪，民主党人甚至拒绝调查，因为这对他们的政党有利。我们甚至连上法庭的机会都没有。

Botched Election – The Whole Story

by Lenny Mirra | Boston Broadside | September 2023

I’m not a believer in stolen election conspiracy theories, but I’m living proof that an election can certainly be “botched,” especially when they’re run by partisan zealots in corrupt one-party states who will stop at nothing to win a race.

One hallmark of corrupt legislatures is the use of gerrymandering to secure power. In Massachusetts it’s carried out by Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) loyalist, Mike Moran (D-Brighton). Like everything else on Beacon Hill, redistricting is done in complete secrecy behind closed doors where Moran will meet with state reps. to see which neighborhoods they want and don’t want, starting with his closest and most powerful friends. Guys like me are left with the aftermath and in 2022 I would end up losing about 70% of my district.

Despite having to start all over with a new district we were still confident in what was supposed to be a red wave election and we were up against an opponent who had never run before. But it turned into yet another blue wave as Democrats organized across the state while the MassGOP was imploding and fighting itself.

On election night we were relieved to win by a hundred votes out of over 22,000 cast, but that lead would dwindle as late arriving mail-in ballots were still being counted weeks after the election. Five of my six towns saw a fairly even distribution of these, but in Ipswich there would end up being over one hundred late arriving mail-in ballots and almost all of them went to my opponent, Kristen Kassner, cutting the lead to just ten votes.

This made no sense and when we compared the signatures on the late arriving ballot envelopes to the ones on the applications, we found over a dozen that did not match. This is why many of us voted against the bill allowing mail-in balloting – because town clerks are not handwriting experts and there’s no other back-up to ensuring that ballots were in fact filled out by the registered voter.

With my lead at just ten votes, my opponent demanded a recount, and I was still confident as I’ve never seen a vote count change by more than just a few votes after a hand count. This was the case in the first three towns as my lead went to nine votes – then came Wednesday, December 7, when we held recounts in Ipswich and Rowley. The first step in a recount is to run all ballots through the machines to make sure we have the same number as we did during the election. This did happen in every town except Ipswich where somehow counters “found” fourteen more ballots than were counted during the election. Nobody had an explanation for this, and we would also learn that there were “chain of custody” issues as some ballots were put into the wrong box at Town Hall. Instead of placing ballots in the box intended for ballots, which only the town clerk has a key to, ballots were also put in the box used for paying tax bills, which several people have keys to.

The recount proceeded anyway and dozens of ballots were challenged by both sides for things like voters using wrong colored ink, stray marks, or filling out more than one circle in a race. Democrats had a very shifty and conniving lawyer in Gerry McDonough who was able to change the rules on interpreting the will of the voter each time there was a contested ballot. The inexperienced lawyer given to us by the MassGOP was no match and by the end of the recount Kassner had picked up five more votes, lowering my lead to four.

What happened next was truly scandalous, and maybe criminal. Needing five votes to win the race, Kassner’s people rifled through a pile of spoiled ballot in Rowley and pulled out five of them, all containing vote for the Democrat. This was not allowed in any of the other five recounts as every official running them said we could look at spoiled ballots but not count them towards the election.

Yet this was allowed by Trudy Reid, a town clerk from another town who for some reason was deputized to run the Rowley recount. My opponent, Kassner, was in Ipswich with me at the time and her behavior was peculiar. She should’ve been shocked and very pleasantly surprised they “found” five votes in giving her the lead and in her first election. She should have been jumping for joy, instead she was walking with her face in her phone a very concerned look on her like she just told her people illicitly “find” five more votes and they did just that.

Trudy Reid has a very partisan history and actually said to my sister Sandra, who was at the Rowley recount, that she left the town clerk job in North Andover because she “couldn’t stand working with the Republicans there.” How she was even allowed to run a recount is beyond me, but partisan politics clearly played a part in determining the election.

So with a hundred vote win turning into a one vote loss under these very specious circumstances, we were left with hiring an attorney to represent us in court where they would certainly see the mistakes made and at least have a trial where they would review the evidence. Or so we thought.

We ended up before Judge y Thomas Drescher for a hearing over a zoom call and right from the beginning it was shaping up to be a kind of kangaroo court. Judge Dreschler clearly had an outright hatred of my attorney, Michael Sullivan, and excoriated him for filing a complaint in his court without bringing any of the evidence. He wanted to see the contested ballots and we had to explain to him that we’re not allowed to touch them, they remain locked in a vault until a judge requests them. He then said we could have at least brought copies of the ballots to him and we had to explain that we’re not even allowed to take pics with our phones.

This judge didn’t even know the law! But he certainly knew my lawyer. Upon doing a Google search I learned that Dreschler was a friend and former law partner for former House Speaker Thomas Finneran. He unsuccessfully defended Finneran in the famous case where Finneran was found guilty of perjury in a gerrymandering scheme. The prosecuting attorney in the case was my lawyer, Michael Sullivan.

It’s beyond me how Dreschler was not forced to recuse himself from this case, but I was still confident that he would look at the evidence and realize that this was a totally botched election. He demanded that the contested ballots be delivered to his court the next day but a funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Kassner’s lawyer, Gerry McDonough, somehow convinced the judge to not open the evidence, saying it was outside the court’s jurisdiction. Lawyers from the Secretary of State’s Office, the people who actually run elections, said the case was in the court’s jurisdiction, but Judge Dreschler disagreed, saying it was in the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives.

Under our state Constitution, the speaker is tasked with creating a Special House Committee to review election discrepancies and make the final call on who gets seated in the House. He gets to choose two members from his own party while the House Minority Leader gets to choose one. Anyone familiar with Beacon Hill politics can guess how this went down.

Speaker Mariano chose loyalists Michael Day (D-Stoneham) and Dan Ryan (D-Charlestown) while Brad Jones (R-North Reading) represented the minority party. After a sham hearing where candidates in my race, as well as the First Middlesex race, made their spiels, the Committee pretended to take the cases under advisement when in fact they were just waiting for the speaker to tell them what to do. The one thing that Gerry McDonough insisted upon was that they do not open the contested ballots. He fought hard to make sure the evidence remain sealed so that the public could never see it.

Rumor has it that Mariano was pestered by the angry left-wing extremists in his party to seat the two Democrats immediately, and after several months of pretending to “look into it,” the Democrats decided that they would continue to bury the evidence and make sure no one would ever see the contested ballots. They called for a vote before the full House on February 3 where Day, acting as the speaker’s puppet, would tell the members that it was not up to them to “call balls and strikes” in an election and to seat the Democrat.

In typical Beacon Hill manner, Democrats bowed to the speaker’s orders and voted to do just that, making sure the contested ballots would never see the light of day. The only Democrat to join Republicans in opening the evidence was Russell Holmes (D-Boston), one of the few Democrats with the guts to stand up to the speaker. This is where we stand today, with a totally botched election where rules and laws were clearly broken, and a corrupt one-party system where Democrats refuse to even investigate because it benefits their party. We never even got our day in court.

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