Excerpts from op-ed column by John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 26, 2004
Today’s topic is the importance of free and fair elections. Not in war-torn Iraq or some Third World backwater, but inside the doors of Las Vegas Local 872 of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA.)
Earlier this month, the Department of Labor quietly filed a civil complaint through the U.S. attorney’s office against Local 872, alleging its September 2003 elections had been manipulated. That’s bad news for LIUNA…
The offices potentially affected include president, vice president, recording secretary, business manager/secretary treasurer, sergeant at arms, three auditors, three executive board members, and three delegates to the district council.
Following the Sept. 18 elections, Local 872 member David Martin filed an official protest with election officer Daniel Clifton, who denied his complaint.
Undaunted, Martin appealed the denial to special elections officer Joseph Guerrieri Jr. By January 2004, Martin tired of waiting and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor. A department investigation found probable cause to believe election violations had been committed after campaign literature and a newsletter containing opponent information arrived after ballots went out to the membership…
…[T]he government already has found Martin’s information credible enough to seek a new slate of elections…
The complaint would be bad enough had Local 872 had a pristine history, but the 2003 election was its first in several years due to previous questions of leadership impropriety. It had operated under the supervision of the international…
He [Martin] alleges, ‘Members were never asked what kind of election they wanted, whether walk-in or mail-in ballots.’ The eight-year union member says hundreds of ballots from that election are unaccounted for in the 3,000-member local…
The union has two choices: Fight the government in court, or pitch the elections and start over. It might be cheaper in the long run — and an enhancement to its shaky credibility — if it began anew.
Who knows, some day Local 872 will set a standard for free and fair elections.
Hey, brother, democracy begins at home.