Petition worker tells all; Rampant fraud exposed

When KnowThyNeighbor.org began collecting petition fraud reports through its website, the last person we expected to be contacted by was an actual petition worker. But that's exactly what happened.

Angela McElroy, 21, revealed to KnowThyNeighbor.org the details of bait-and-switch tactics that are allegedly standard practice for the thirty or more petitioners she worked with and even describes an instance where she witnessed another worker forging names and addresses directly from the wine-in-stores petition to the petition to end gay marriage in order to increase his earnings.

McElroy's former employer, YPM LLC, a signature gathering company run by Mark Jacoby, has partnered in Massachusetts with JSM, Inc., run by Jennifer Breslin. Both companies have been investigated for fraud in other states and appear to be working as subcontractors for Arno Political Consultants.

McElroy reports threats of violence from her former employers and KnowThyNeighbor.org has listened to phone messages that confirm her claims.

KnowThyNeighbor.org has flown Ms. McElroy to Massachusetts from her home in Florida where she had returned and is helping to coordinate a meeting at the Secretary of State's office today.  McElroy plans on testifying at the Joint Legislative Committee on Election Laws hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Read more about McElroy's story in today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Tom Lang & Aaron Toleos, Directors
Contact: (978) 335-0477, info@knowthyneighbor.org

Comments

[Kathy]

I just signed one of those petitions to allow the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores yesterday at the Stop & Shop in Somerville. I wonder if it was the same outfit. I pointedly asked the guy if it was a legit operation because I had heard of fraud being perpetrated regarding same-sex marriage. He said they were legit.

[Dean Allemang]

I did the same thing - signed a petition about liquor in my local store. I discussed the proposed legislation with the people collecting signatures, and read the document to check that it really was about liquor licensing.

Is there a place where I can go, to find out if my name has appeared on an anti-gay-marriage petition? If I do find it there, is there a class-action suit I can join?

[A&R S]

This is the highly organised, well funded groups of rightwingnuts who use poor youth to buy their betrayal with greed.

This group has twice selected your president, and with their lobbies, have removed both your treasure and your liberty and returned from Clinton took from them back to the oligarchs.

They have done this by promising the theocratic wingnuts action on social issues they NEVER want solved. Too many millions of dollars are earned decade in and out to "fight these ills."

[Eric]

If I find my name on the petition and it was put there against my will, how would I go about taking it off?

[soxfan]

Report it to your town clerk and to the Attorney General. The folks who made this site have more info about that here:

http://www.knowthyneighbor.org/remove.html

[Joe S]

This is just another example of the rampant fraud and to what lengths these people will go to cheat....its always WIN OR DIE....

The Catholic church was also sending home petitions with 10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN...encouraging them to get their parents and others to sign until, of course, many of the parents said they would pull their kids out of the school...and FAR more importantly...end their $$$ tuition $$$ dollars from coming in...as you see "great mother church" is far more concerned with $$$ money $$$ than souls....

I hope that after this rampant fraud is exposed that the entire petition is thrown out...AND...if they ARE allowed to continue...must begin from SQUARE ONE....with NO ADDITIONAL TIME GRANTED....

This is what happens when you get caught cheating in a demoracy...for all of their "high morals" they always turn out to be the lowest of the low!

Joe S.

[A&R S]

Please remember that Machievelli was a Catholic, and that the only Christian denomination that is also a nation with ambassadors (nuncios) and secret societies (Opus Dei) and papal knighthoods and other decorations (Knight of St. Gregory, of Malta) and for the plebes, the "Knights of Columbus."

The Catholic hierarchy is the penultimate boys club...(pun intended). There are documented cases of abuse, even from priest-victims whom, wanting the ordination, accepted abuse in seminary, and beyond. The cardinals and bishops have not only harboured paedophiles - they were often paedos themselves.

The gay prelates and priests who are in healthy monogamous adult relationships or who are celibate will be scapegoated to bait and switch the attention from their scandals. It is the second catholic inquisition, and this time, Torque is in the papal chair.

In QC and ON, the Catholic laity, having suffered a more pronounced theocracy than MA, will absolutely NEVER allow that religion's cardinal-archbishops to run the provinces ever again. Hallelujia !!!!

[A&R S]

You know, it might be very helpful, as it was in Canada on similar blogs during our struggle, for gay and lesbian couples with children, legally married, to discuss their lives and their challenges with inequality.

And yet, even without national recognition of their civil status, as many provinces were until earlier this year, it was one step and not an overturning.

You must understand the need for civil unions among the less strident opponents. These individuals include well-meaning and uninformed persons who think that marriage is an exclusively theologically conservative definition.

The problem lies in the fact that in both Canada and the USA, ANY clergy can register with the county of residence, and therefore able to sign the legal documents as well as perform their religion's spiritual exercise.

In most nations of continental Europe, the couple marry at the City Hall by the mayor or designate, and then, if they wish, a religious ceremony following. The religious is unnecessary, here and there.

It is NOT the Catholic Church who provides 1138 rights and privileges. It is the secular civil government. The Catholic Church opposes divorce (unless you are rich and connected, and "annul" it) but it recognises the fact that the secular civil state grants them to couples whom they call" separated " by the Church synods.

These individuals are told that civil union is equal to marriage rights. This is a lie, of course, and they know it. It is a two-tier reality, and they blur the lie with the sacredness issue, and the lie that marriage is a fundamentalist religious word.

Talk here to your REAL friends and family. Forget the trolls, no matter how conciliatory or compassionate they portray themselves. If they are not for you, they are indeed against you. We did it in Canada, AND IT IS THE STRAIGHT ALLIES THAT GAVE US THE FINAL VICTORY IN PARLIAMENT AS WELL AS JUSTICE IN THE COURTS.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME CONVERTING THE SWORN ENEMIES OF FREEDOM. THEIR DEVOTION - COUCHED IN SATIN OR A STEEL GLOVE - IS THE SAME. NO MARRIAGE, NO CIVIL UNIONS, NO DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP, NOW LET'S DISCUSS THE RECRIMINALISATION OF YOUR INTIMATE LIVES.

[John]

"During this moment in the culture war, we face a fight that will determine how LGBT Americans are treated for decades to come. Those who choose to be missing in action are running from the most critical fight of our generation."

taken from: Op Ed by Patrick Guerriero,
President Log Cabin Republicans

The political climate today in the U.S. is akin to the climate in 1930s Germany, deeply divided, and those in power looking for a national scapegoat to obfuscate the real issues.
While you work to deny our basic rights and freedoms, remember that Gays and Lesbians will no longer go quietly to slaughter. We may be slaughtered, but we will not be silent.

Equal Rights for ALL!!

[Michael Jackson]

Could gay marriage advocates get 60,000 signatures in support of their cause without paid signature collectors? The answer is no. Even with paid signature collectors I doubt they could do it.

The problem of fraud, which most likely does not exist except in the minds of the paranoid, is a result of paid signature gathering and happens whatever the cause the signature drive is for. When gatherers are paid by the signature it gives them reason to get lots of signatures, legit or not.

[Paul Jamieson]

The silence is deafening on this article from In newsweekly;

Why haven't we heard responses from Tom Lang, John Hosty about the battle they are fighting within their own community?

Are they trying to hide this story?

Seems like when I posted it, they archived it right away - here it is again for anyone who wants the whole truth

http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Op&article_code=509

Love thy neighbor

When it comes to calmer heads prevailing, the gay community should also beware of turning to Tom Lang and Aaron Toleos, co-directors of KnowThyNeighbor.org. Lang and Toleos are publishing an online list of names and addresses of everyone who signs the anti-gay marriage people's initiative amendment petition - allegedly to help Massachusetts residents "know thy neighbor" better. What it really amounts to is intimidation of neighbor.

Evan Wolfson, the popular leader of Freedom to Marry, often speaks of three types of Americans when it comes to gay marriage: Those who oppose gay marriage no matter what, those who support gay marriage no matter what, and the vast majority of rational, just people who are in the persuadable middle. His advice? Don't bother with the first group; it's a waste of time and resources. Rally the second group; they can be mobilized. And reach out to the third group; they will respond to personal stories which touch on the American principles of love, equality and fairness.

Those who sign the anti-gay marriage amendment petition, by and large, belong to the first group, the intractable anti-gay minority. Launching any sort of attack on these people - and making a high profile display of these people's signatures is an attack - is not only a waste of time and energy, but ultimately will backfire among those in the middle.

Furthermore, the title of the organization, Know Thy Neighbor, bastardizes the golden rule: Love thy neighbor as thyself. By perverting this universal maxim to justify intimidation only leads to setbacks and bad press, as witnessed by the justifiably condemnatory editorial in the Boston Herald on Friday, Sept. 9.

It's time that these activists return to the spirit of the golden rule and drop the intimidating hate tactics that we as gay people have had to endure most of our lives. After all, it was intimidation that provoked a bunch of drag queens in New York City to fight back against police force at Stonewall in 1969; imagine what intimidation could motivate in virulently anti-gay people.

[Tom Lang]

Paul,

You are correct. Enough has not been said about what is happening within the gay community and its lobby groups such as MassEquality. The reason that KnowThyNeighbor.org was created was to give a voice to those who believed that there was so much more to do beyond writing a check, putting our names at the bottom of a pre-written letter to a Senator or Representative, or collecting signatures on "post cards" which will be dropped off on Beacon Hill and thrown right in the trash.

My guest commentary as seen below was published in InNewsWeekly the following week to the editorial in your post. I originally entitled the following "The Forgotten Neighbor"

I am the founder of KnowThyNeighbor.org and am writing a rebuttal to last week's editorial which refers to what we are doing here as intimidation and hate. First of all, I and my co-director, Aaron Toleos, are not "new" to the political process. We have worked on campaigns, are active in our communities and we "did our homework" by talking to many gay rights organizations, legislators and Mass. citizens before we launced KnowThyNeighbor.org. Our website was a reaction to my own personal desire to participate in the very public process known as the Initiative Petition which places in the public forum 65,825 signers who become ad hoc legislators and are held to the same accountablity as any elected legislator.

I believe that not only is it my right to make personal choices for myself and my family but I feel that it is my responsibility to make sure that these choices are the absolute BEST that I can make. I am talking about the town I choose to live in, the people that I would expose my family to, and the establishments at which I would spend my money. Easy access to the public information connected with the Inititiave Petitition is what KnowThyNeighbor provides for you to make these choices. Question...why are you afraid for the gay community to have access to the names and addresses of the signers? The signature collectors will be databasing this information and using it for canvassing and voting purposes as well as will MassEquality and other lobby groups on both sides of this issue.

Evan Wolfson's overly simplified analysis of the "three types" of Americans involved in gay marriage leaves out two very important groups. One is the group which is on our side or can be convinced to be on our side, but cannot be trusted to actually go out and vote. I have seen this first hand with family, friends and other gay people even who for whatever reason cannot find the motivation to cast that lever at the polls. Can we really trust these people if our rights are being left to the voters?

The other group for to which my heart belongs, I will call the "Forgotten Neighbor." This is the gay community. When are we going to "rally" our own people? When are we going to give the GLBT community the information and encouragement to make its own choices? We cannot forget that there are many people that are not comfortable at a protest at the Statehouse or want to do more than collect signatures or sign their name to a form letter addressed to a Senator. I can still remember what it was like the first time I felt unashamed to say the word "gay" in public. My ears still perk up when I am in a restaurant and I hear people whispering about "the two guys" at the table together. When I am in Boston, I might make a choice as to what side of the street I walk on if I see a group of people that may not be "gay friendly." For God sake I still can't hold hands in public with my partner of 17 years without fear--the fear that someone may do harm against us for if I lost him my life would be worth nothing.

KnowThyNeighbor.org is my way of telling the GLBT community that I know how you feel, I have been there, I am there now. But it is also my way of empowering you with the information to be able to make personal choices that are best for you. I have trust and faith that you will do the right thing.

[Paul Jamieson]

Tom,

Thanks for at least answering the question.

[A&R S]

Tom, the operative words in a few words are "at least".

We are all aware how the Austrian Terminator California governor is related to the Kennedy clan. Are we all aware that the petition organisation hired to get names for the Catholics and the Fundy groups are also connected to Arnold Schwartzenegger.

My, how surprised I was, when thinking a successful legislative vote would ever happen, said he would sign, but when it happened, he sent it to those " activist judges" to decide.

Translation : I want re-election and anything that makes neocons the winners, despite the hypocrisy of it, I will, as Oxycontin Rush says, I will crackdown or be the victim of that GOP base.

Your opponents are cornered. They have used every trick in their arsenal. They must rely upon deception to get names. This is why KNOW THY NEIGHBOUR is so important. It will be a window on crime. No, a spotlight on crime and deception. No wonder trolls are here trying to shut you down. They try the satin glove first, then the steel one.

Tom, when the Equality Awards happen in 2007, we will nominate you both. While the gentrified gay activists play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules (both his sons were gay, one had an affair with prime minister, the other with Oscar Wilde. He himself was a whoremonger hypocrite.) the neocons play by the no-rules of the rumble.

When your major groups are LCR and the HRC, who attend political parties and are part of the K street crowd, no wonder the neocons are always able to throw a Hail Mary pass ( sorry for the Catholic reference) while sipping cocktails at the A-group parties.

Our riding MP was a pseudo-Liberal who voted with the Catholic opponents. He was given a Papal knighthood of St. Gregory. He had a safe seat in Toronto-Danforth. We hounded him, picketed his offices in Toronto and Ottawa, AND DEFEATED THE BASTARD AND REPLACED HIM WITH THE LEADER OF THE NDP PARTY, MORE LIBERAL THAN THE LIBS.

Gay and Lesbian Couples with Kids and Straight Couples with Kids walked the riding door to door to defeat those bastards so that eventually we won the Parliamentary vote as well as the Courts.

One point of admonishment, trolls are trolls. More than disagreeing with you, they sign petitions and when successful, they vote against you. These are the intractable foes, the "angry straight white men" often ill-educated and working for female supervisors and managers. They walk all day in passive aggression and are aggressive with the only woman who must accept the cave rules at home. He votes against all laws that enable his perceived foes who have castrated the alpha male.

It is evident that grandpa may vote against what he perceives is against his life experiences from the early twentieth century to the present. Grandma loves her grandson or granddaughter, and without telling her husband, would not sign the petition or vote against them.

Lurkers here and in Canada, are often silent witnesses for justice. You are making an impact, and I would not doubt that these neocons send particularly adept trolls to "visit" and discuss the reasons why you should sign. They are also speaking to the silent majority.

Keep it up, you too brave brothers, stay safe, for they play with all tools in the arsenal.

[Cherie Johnson]

I agree with Tom 100%. I have been asking myself for quite sometime just where my donations to HRC and the other groups are going. Perhaps it is just PC to donate and sign a generic letter to our legislators that will end up in their junk mail folder. It is time the Gay and Lesbian community found a voice and pushed the envelope. I understand that the other gay and lesbian organizations don't want to "rock the boat", but if we don't then everything that has been accomplished so far will be lost. We will have nothing. I understand completely what it feels like walking through the mall or down my street with my spouse and feeling uncomfortable for wanting to hold her hand. We are legally married and yet we can't hold hands without being stared at or have a comment thrown at us like we are second class. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I want to know who in my neighborhood signed that disgusting bigoted petition so I know to stay away from them. I want to know so I can make an informed decision whether or not to frequent a business owner who signed that petition. Why would I want to give my hard earned money to someone who thinks I deserve no rights?
Aaron and Tom...you are providing a great service to the gay and lesbian community. Thank you for doing what everyone else is afraid to do....standing up.

[CPT_Doom]

Given the evidence of potential fraud in the petition-gathering process, this site will also serve a very important purpose - to let people who support equal marriage rights for all humans whether they have been duped into signing a petition in favor of this narrow-minded amendment. By having the information in such a public place, the residents of Massachusetts will be able to guage whether there is fraud in the petition-gathering process and how extensive it is.

More importantly, why is there any presumption of intimidation via the information on this site? Is the gay community known for hounding innocent individuals? Is it not the "pro-family" movement that insists on picketing gay events and even funerals of gay people to press their point that gays are horrible and must be contained?

What is more likely to happen is the breakdown of personal relationships. If I find out that one of my friends or, God forbid, my family members has signed this petition in good faith, it will be incumbent upon me, as a reasonable person, to let them know how hurtful they have been to me and that our relationship will cease because of their actions.

Everyone has the right to stand up for that which they believe, but there are always consequences to such action, and being listed on this site is simply one such consequence.

[A&R S]

There is a new media phenomenom in the United States, and it is new. At one time, the US news media was an independent organ, or simply "the Fourth Estate".

News organisations were independent of the independently-owned profit making centre of NBC, CBS, and later ABC. I would have added DuMont, but that dates the both of us.

Raised on the Canadian/US border, the American television stations "bled" into our homes. The Today Programme with Dave Garroway, Jack Lescoulie, and Frank Blair. They were not owned by WMD manufacturers, or their puppet television corporations did not make the news part of the profit and entertainment sector.

More, the new journalism has no investigative arm to see who might be telling lies or telling the truth in the matter. You have, instead, an attempt to merely present both sides without giving the viewer the information they need to make informed choices.

You have, of course, biased editing and reporting on all cable stations. All fear the "liberal label" which is a lie, for no liberal bias exists in any US media, aural, visual or written.

Instead, you have panels with three rightwingnuts and one illiterate or apologetic centrist posing as a liberal.

It is all controlled by the rightwing and the extreme rightwing owners and oligarchs who bought these organs, bandwith by bandwith, and printing press by printing press.

You know who owns CBS and NBC and Fox and CNN and MSNBC - which one of those owners are flaming liberals? Clear Channel and their competitor bought up most of the radio stations in the USA. Flaming liberals?

You know who owns the WaPo and WaTimes and the LATimes....Flaming Liberals? The WSJ - flaming liberals?

There are two facts for sure : There are NO WMD in Iraq and NO liberals in the US Media.
General Electric and Westinghouse make fridges and stoves and lightbulbs...but they make their money selling WMD.

They all hire retired generals and colonels to "inform the viewer" about weapons systems- talk about the ultimate infomercial.

Same Sex Marriage - Massachusetts - Right Wing Lies and Dirty Tricks.....are you connecting the dots? Are you hearing the truth from WBZ or WNAC or all those "fair and balanced" news programmes?

No, you say.....it must be the LIBERAL MEDIA.

[A&R S]

Cherie - We applaud your activism. You are absolutely right. The gentrification of the "A Group Activists of K Street" have no stomach for committed value-oriented activism. These multi-million dollar non-profits seek compromise and accomodation with individuals who are genuinely evil in both their actions and intent. They do verbal violence, and then economic violence, to our families. How many would be diplomatic if the violence to our families were physical? Right !!!! No difference!!!!

You don't politely request human and civil rights. If they are truly a quest for secular equality under law, you demand them from the majority, and you show them that these rights are not refused without prejudice. What do you think is the economic strength of the GLBT community in MA? Imagine if those dollars are spent only with supporters and not with antagonists?

Well thanks to KTN, you will be able to know who your friends are, and whom, regardless of rhetoric, will fight against your rights.

[FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION]

Drs. - have a safe trip this week. I agree with your statements. I know that Canadian activists and their straight allies went to the streets and to rallies, etc...and demanded their rights under your Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The USA has "gentrified circuit party type" lobbyists..Only GLAD is worthy of the name activist, in my opinion. These guys and gals have six figure salaries and lobby without real "Act Up" Activists. You don't need Armani suits fighting for your rights right now.

"The Canadian neocon fascist knew that victory would be ours, or else there would be no domestic tranquility in the nation. Justice is not negotiable." I kept that quote from Americablog a year ago.

You guys and your family are free and equal, and the way we're going, it will take a century to catch up to where you are now.

[John Hosty]

Isn't it ironic that the people of the religious right who don't want any form of gay rights made into law, don't have a blog of their own that they can converse about their ideas in a democratic fashion? Is this to silence gays, or to keep their support from thinking, and possibly questioning their wisdom? I looked for one, let me know if I am wrong. How ironic, that they are the ones calling for democracy saying "Let the people vote." They are just looking for a continuation of prejudice.

Society will realize that we are all one body, and that doing harm to one part of the body does harm to the whole. For now we are a dog that bites holes in its own ass because it does not understand the nature of its pain.

Everyone has the right to be happy, but not at someone else's expense. Equality is a birth right as an American..... for all.

[For Decency]

I wish I was able to find one of these partitions to sign. I want my day at the voting booth. That is my right.

Using the Supreme Court to trash the Constitution and make law from the bench shows just how low the homosexuals will go.

Marriage is a social contract. The people of the community decides what they will and will not allow. Not being able to cast my vote takes away MY rights. Is that how the homosexual community wants to behave?

I cannot give my approval for two people of the same sex having sexual contact. It is unnatural and perverted. So I will be voting against homosexual "marriage".

[walt235]

I think if a couple of faggots put my name on the internet like these 2 faggots did, I'd have to hunt them down and make sure they don't breathe oxygen again!

Notice how faggots go after people who they know won't do anything back. Ever see faggots go after Moslems!?? Moslems wouldn't take it! Faggots are cowards, mentally and physically deviants. Faggotism can be cured with a 9mm-ectomy! Or AIDS!:)

[mark]

Wow Walt -

Extermination. Who would have thought to be the solution? Well, Hitler did. He tried it a few generations ago, but, well, like the Jews, we survived to live in your generation. Imagine all the ineptitude it took not to finish the job so that bright young heterosexuals like you would alone populate the world, and especially the USA, and especially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

Again, dude, you are saying EXACTLY what these rightwingnut religious nuts and fascist neocons WOULD LIKE to say on these blogs. Yeah, they use some of the stuff, and talk about NO rights for us and our families, but DUDE, seriously, you HAVE THE GUTS to actually say what you tell gay guys before you bash them for entertainment on Saturday nights, right?

[Michael Weldert]

Walt235 - thank you. I am saddened by comments from people like John Hosty and "for Decency". Why are they bothered by what consenting adults are doing in the privacy of their homes? This issue is about having the same rights inherent in our Constitution - one that is suppose to be free from secularism. They have every right to not agree or want to participate in a homosexual relationship - but the framework of our government is to grant to "ALL" people the same access to rights and privledges, period!

I find that the people who fight most vehemently against gay rights are those who are trying to hide something in themselves - So look closely in the mirror 'Decency' before you start waving your guns!

And John, if homosexuality is 'unnatural' - why does nature keep creating us? We exist because of nature, because your God created us, and we will continue existing no matter how many 9mm's (as put by Decency) try to silence us. We will speak out, we will get married, we will raise families, march in parades, penetrate your schools, your hospitals, your government buildings, your movie theaters, your office spaces - because we already are and we will continue to do so!

[John Hosty]

Micheal, I am reading some of the older posts and came across yours. I am one of the most outspoken supporters of gay marriage, and gay myself. You are confusing who posts what. Look to the end of each post to find out who had made the statement, not the top. I hope this helps, I will try to email you.