Oklahoma 1st District Republican Convention 2012

Republicans from Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District do hereby submit the following complaints in regard to the 1st District Convention held on Saturday, April 14, 2012:
Complaint No. 1: In violation of the Rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party (16f) the following occurred: The 1st Congressional District Chairwoman, Grace Farmer, failed to receive the reports of the Credentials Committee and the Rules Committee and instead held the Election of the Convention Chairman at approximately 9:15 AM in the absence of an established quorum and any duly adopted Credentials or Rules Reports and in addition, prior to the scheduled close of Convention Registration. Subsequently, the Convention Chairman, Jim Williamson, proceeded with the Credentials and Rules Reports as well as the further organization and business of the Convention.
Complaint No. 2: In violation of the Rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party (18e) and the Rules of the 1st Congressional District Republican Convention (VII.A) the following occurred: The Election of Delegates and Alternates to the Republican National Convention as well as Presidential Elector and Alternate were not called for or announced by roll call vote by each County.
Complaint No. 3: In violation of the Rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party (19b) and the Rules of the 1st Congressional District Republican Convention (III.B) the following occurred: A recess until 3:00 PM was duly motioned, seconded and adopted by the Convention. At 3:00 PM, a motion from Jake Peters was made to "suspend the rules and re-enact a modified version of the same rules, in which the remaining offices shall be filled through a live runoff among the top two vote-getters for each position" in the interest of sparing time since each "instant" ballot was taking almost an hour to count, positions were being declared won by as little as a half-vote margin (which would, under any normal election, trigger a recount and take an additional hour), Convention Rules stressed that we had to adjourn by 2:00 PM or risk penalties by the hotel, Delegates were uncomfortable having the ballots counted at a later date at an unspecified location and this motion would have allowed the Convention to finalize the election transparently and prior to adjournment. The Convention Chairman ignored the main motion and asked for a quorum count. A point of order was made by Jake Peters as to the motion already made and the point of order was denied by the Convention Chair. A simple head count was made in which the result was 138 Delegates present and the Convention Chairman ruled that there was not a quorum which he defined as 186 Delegates. Further points of order were made regarding the Rules that require the quorum be calculated with the weighted delegate votes and the Convention Chairman refused to acknowledge them even going so far as threatening to have Delegates ejected by the Sergeant at Arms. In addition, even had a simple head count sufficed for the calculation of the quorum, State Party Rule 19b states that "once a quorum is established, a quorum shall be deemed to be present until fewer than two thirds (2/3) of the original quorum remain" which based on the Convention Chair's ruling that the original quorum equaled 186 Delegates, a quorum should have been deemed to be present until fewer than 124 Delegates remained.
Complaint No. 4: In violation of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), pp. 348-349 the following occurred: Jake Peters appealed the ruling of the Convention Chair that no quorum existed and was seconded but the Chair refused to state the question and instead replied, "You can appeal the ruling of the Chair until the cows come home but the business of the Convention, we are going to be in recess until they announce the final vote. That's what's gonna (sic) happen."
Complaint No. 5: In violation of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.), 73 and pp. 650-652, the Rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party (3a) and the Rules of the 1st Congressional District Republican Convention (VIII.E) the following occurred: After the Convention Chair ignored another point of order and threatened to eject Delegate David Tackett for making a point of order, Jake Peters addressed the Chair with a motion to remove the Convention Chair but the microphones had been turned off and the Chair did not recognize the motion. Jake Peters then addressed the Convention Delegates and made a motion to remove the Chair which was seconded and then adopted by the Convention body. However, the Convention Chair ignored the carried motion and continued to preside over the Convention. Jake Peters then called for nominations for a new Convention Chair from the Convention body. The body nominated Jake Peters and elected him unanimously but the previous Convention Chair ordered the Sergeant at Arms to eject Jake Peters further in violation of Robert's Rules requiring a majority vote by the assembly.
We, the undersigned

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  People & Blogs

[D Shrake]

Well informed delegates, well documented, well done.

Ron Paul 2012

[ashwadhwani]

Ron Paul power channel on youtube

youtube.com/user/ashwadhwani

RON PAUL 2012

[sheikhyerbutay]

Continued... IF it was all illegal from the beginning, lawyer up and get it on! Best of luck to ya! There is no love lost between me and the Suits. As I stated earlier, I am pissed at the Repub. leadership in the Capitol over SB1569. The Suits have killed it ever since '08. I consider that tantamount to dereliction of duty. Every one of them took an oath to support & defend the Constitution.  Today, it's all about getting reelected, the Constitution & peoples' rights be damned.

[sheikhyerbutay]

The suits knew the game plan way out in advance (like four years in advance, 'cause it was tried in '08) Jake's side wanted to wear everyone down, have the old people leave, then take over. Again, I was there. Jake didn't ask for any "nays" the first time. The second time Jake self-promoted, there were nays, the third time Jake sought to elect himself, the "no" voters simply ignored him for he was out of order. Jake's team sz it's all out of order from the beginning (continued...)

[0bi1ken0bi]

Not only was the voting itself too complicated but there were far too many hands on the ballots. I helped sort the first runs into stacks and there were 12 others doing the same. The ballots also didn't need to be on tables in the same room as the voting. The district should really look into renting or borrowing a voting machine or basic scantron type machine that does the counting. Then you don't have to spend an hour each round tallying results and narrowing down a field.

[mightymik1970]

Funny thing is nobody from the Hotel ever asked us to leave and we didn't finish until well after 5:00 PM so I believe the whole 2:00 PM deadline was a sham.

[mightymik1970]

I agree! the voting was way too complicated. I watched as they were counting ballots and witnessed several ballots be invalidated because they weren't filled out properly due to the confusion. How come it was done differently than every other District Convention?

[mightymik1970]

I think most people give a nominated chair the benefit of the doubt so there was obviously no plan to nominate a different chair. What happened later came about as a result of how the chair behaved like he was a dictator or king. Also, the video shows pretty clearly that there were no nays on the vote to elect Jake Peters the new chair.

[sheikhyerbutay]

Another thing that must be noted: It was INCREDIBLY STUPID to convene the First District Convention with a 2 PM deadline. I have seen Repub conventions go far into the late afternoon before business was finally completed, and those were years without a Presidential election to deal with.