New Castle News
September 04, 2008 08:50 am
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Editor, The News:
The beleaguered League of Women Voters of Lawrence County would like to clarify the issues pertaining to the dispute with the Lawrence County Board of Elections.
On the advice of our attorney, the league paid certain fees and penalties related to registering and reporting of contributions and expenditures incurred in running an ad advocating a government study commission, even though we were exempted from having to register because of the protected nature of its issue advocacy in this case.
Under a United States Supreme Court case, such advocacy is beyond the scope of the state election code’s definition of political action committee.
Under FEC vs. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc., election laws may regulate only “express advocacy” as opposed to “issue advocacy,” i.e., only those ads that are “susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.”
These payments were made only in a spirit of compromise and the public’s right to know.
The league refuses, however, to pay the penalty of $1,750, asked for by the election board, because our intent was to advocate for an issue, not to endorse any specific candidate.
Because we did not appeal to vote for or against any specific candidate, we refused to sign documents to that effect.
Three other attorneys agreed with our attorney. They are the county solicitor, the attorney on the election board and the district attorney.
We strongly suspect that the complaint filed against us was made in retaliation for our efforts in successfully advocating the government study commission.
Janet Verone
vice president
League of Women Voters
of Lawrence County
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