Tuesday, October 21, 2008

School Board candidate Kate Smith disqualified

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Kate Smith, one of six candidates seeking a seat on the Santa Barbara School Districts Board of Education, was disqualified by the County Elections Office after officials discovered the woman did not live within district boundaries.
Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters Billie Alvarez said the county discovered Smith did not reside in the boundary late last week, when officials were told the would-be candidate announced during a campaign forum she was running for office illegally.


When Smith submitted her candidate filing forms with the county on Aug. 12, Alvarez said the woman verified her address was on Montecito Street, well within the boundaries of the school districts.
Alvarez said all candidate addresses are deemed legitimate if they correspond with their voter registration forms.
“We absolutely check every candidate to make sure they’re in the district,” she said. This is “a very unique situation.”
When Smith filed her paperwork on Aug 12, Alvarez said she was registered to vote at the Montecito Street address. But during the investigation, Alvarez said she discovered Smith had submitted a new voter registration card on the same day that she filed her candidate information. And the new address, on Gibraltar Road in the Santa Ynez Mountains, does not fall in the district boundaries.
“I’ve been in the elections office for 21 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “I’ve never had a candidate do this before.”
Alvarez said 50,000 mailers have been sent to residents who vote-by-mail informing them Smith, whose name is on the ballot, is not a valid candidate. Voters residing in the school district boundaries who vote at the polls will also be informed of the change prior to voting.
Alvarez said the cost of notifying voters is $25,000 to $30,000.
She said the elections office has not yet decided whether it will seek legal action.
“It’s a shame,” Alvarez said of the cost. “Our primary concern is first and foremost the voters, regardless of cost, it has to be done.”
Smith speaks regularly at School Board meetings and also addresses the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and Santa Barbara City Council.
In an e-mail to media yesterday, Smith said she was using her candidacy to draw attention to what she calls the “school to prison pipeline.”
Smith said the recent approval of gang intervention officers in the schools and a revamped dress code constitute “institutionalized racism.”
“I used the public speaking platforms of political candidacy to alert the people of our community and our nation to the institutionalized racism of the school to prison pipeline,” she wrote in the e-mail.
According to the Web-site Noozhawk.net, Smith filed a complaint with the California Special Education hearing office in 2002 accusing the Santa Barbara School Districts of not providing adequate special-education services for her daughter. The district appealed in federal court and wound up settling the case for $400,000.
The remaining candidates for school board are: Jacqueline Inda, Susan Deacon, Charlotte Ware, Ed Heron and incumbent Annette Cordero.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

THANK GOODNESS!!!!!

Anonymous said...

THANK GOODNESS!!!!!