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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

ELECTION REFORM ACTIVIST ELLEN BRODSKY ARRESTED

From my email:

From: mark.miller@nyu.edu
Reply-to: newsfromunderground+owner@googlegroups.com
To: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
Sent: 11/13/2008 9:34:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: [MCM] ELECTION REFORM ACTIVIST ELLEN BRODSKY ARRESTED

OpEdNews
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/...y-Joan-Brunwasser-081113-118.html
November 13, 2008
Election 2008: Spotlight on Banana Republic/Broward County, Florida
By Joan Brunwasser
A little while ago, I received this disturbing email from Susan Pynchon:

Ellen Brodsky was arrested today and taken away to the Broward County Jail. No one has heard from her and it's been over 3 hours since she was arrested. Following is an account of what happened as witnessed by Maida Genser, the woman who was with Ellen when she was arrested, re-printed below with Maida's permission.

Poor Ellen -- this is outrageous -- these people are out of control, and this sounds like an oppressive third world country.

Susan Pynchon
Florida Fair Elections Coalition

I called Maida to get permission to tell her story. She describes herself as a private citizen and member of the Broward Election Reform Coalition which Ellen founded. She is retired and happened to be with Ellen today. It's lucky for us. Otherwise, we would have only one side of this very disturbing story.

From Maida:

In case anyone reading this possibly does not know, Ellen was a candidate for Broward County Supervisor of Elections in the 2008 general election.

I went to be a witness today when Ellen went to observe the Canvassing Board meeting this afternoon at Broward County SOE. Predictably, they did not let her in and we (hopefully) got some good videotape of that.

We were told that the meeting was cancelled and that the Canvassing Board went home. We had to argue to get them to let us up close enough to the building to see the official sign that was posted. The sign specifically said there was a meeting at 1 PM. We were there at approximately 1:15 PM. There was no posting of a cancellation.

The police were called (and all we were doing was asking questions). I do not know the name of the man who works high up for Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County SOE. Ellen can fill you in later. He was on the phone the whole time, and videotaping while we were videotaping. He kept saying to Ellen that she was not allowed to be there. Ellen had been at an earlier Canvassing Board meeting and asked some questions. The SOE is saying that she was abusive (kinda doubt that, but she didn't have any witnesses). She was arrested for trespassing. They claim she refused to leave. I was there. She did no such thing. All she did was ask questions in a perfectly assertive manner. She never refused to leave. (I will probably have to go to court to testify on her behalf).

One more thing: I called her family and met her son to pick up her car because the deputy told me that her car would be towed if it was left overnight. By 3:30 PM, they were already getting ready to tow it away. We got there just in time.

Maida Genser

Update:
As of 7:00 p.m. EST, Ellen still had not been processed. She will probably have to spend the night in jail.
Maida will keep us apprised of any news.