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One Massachusetts Republican with a Backbone, in a Sea of Democrat-Enabling Republicans

SPECIAL COMMENTARY
by Lonnie Brennan
Publisher, The Boston Broadside

Not sure if you’ve been following the story of a certain Republican poll worker in Weymouth who got booted a week before the Sept. primary.  Seems the Democrat town clerk of the city of Weymouth, known as the town of Weymouth, for unknown reasons went rummaging through the March 5^th election ballots, that she is charged with safekeeping, about three months after the March 5^th election.

The clerk did this with only her Democrat staff workers present – with no Republican Registrar oversight. The clerk then demanded that the Republican Warden for Precinct 7 get fired, because the Republican Warden’s tally team failed to count the names on two write-in ballots. (Note: The votes didn’t affect the outcome of the election.)

I know the warden for Precinct 7 – Marie Stoeckel. I stand with Marie. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. There are few stellar folks of moral fiber that cannot be twisted, cannot be manipulated, cannot be corrupted. Marie is the female John Wayne (less 100+ pounds!).

What ensued after the Democrats pulled their clandestine searching through the ballots and declarations should send a warning to ALL Republicans: if they can sideline Marie, they can sideline you.

And what is at stake? And what is really the reason that one poll worker, Marie Stoeckel found herself in the crosshairs?

Go back a few years, and there were very few Republican poll workers in Weymouth – almost entirely controlled by Democrats. In the 2020 November election there was only one Republican Warden in 18 precincts!  Marie enters the scene, and works hard, publicizes, recruits, and educates workers, to the point where this fall there would have been 53 Republicans making up the 114 poll workers in Weymouth. Such work puts a target on one’s back, and Marie certainly has a reputation for never playing by the seat of the pants, never going along to get along, and never backing down from what is good and what is right. In short, she’s what a Democrat would call a “troublemaker.” And gosh, I wish there were more of her in every precinct in every city and town in the state.

Now enters the feckless Republican-controlled top dogs in the town: what did they do when the town clerk leveled her verbal charges? Suspended Marie. Seriously? They took her off the list, removed her from her position, and tried to rapidly move on from the “problem.”  Oh, and they also were magnanimous in their apparent opinion: before sidelining Marie, they gave her the option to resign. Ha! They obviously once again underestimated the gal.  She refused to resign in the face of questionable accusations.

Fortunately, there is a very specific state law the defines the procedure for removal of poll workers. MGL Ch 54, Sec 13 demands that the Town Clerk initiate the removal of an appointed Election Officer with a “written charge of incompetence or official misconduct” which the Clerk has never done!

This same law ensures that Marie gets her equivalent to a day in court: she’s entitled to a hearing on the matter. She’s entitled to receive written complaints. She’s entitled to know and question all those involved.

So, that’s when things got even more interesting.  Despite repeatedly asking (and again, this goes back to June!), Marie has not been told what a hearing consists of, how it is run, who decides what and how, and what evidence is presented (charges against her are supposed to be in writing – but nothing has been given to her so far, just a: we don’t have time for a hearing, so you’re out/suspended letter).

If Marie Stoeckel can be removed so easily from a position of election oversight in one precinct in one town in Massachusetts, watch out folks. Today they came for Marie. Tomorrow, they come for you.

For her, part – remember, I said that Marie is a fighter – she signed on as a poll “watcher” for a candidate in the Sept. 3rd primary. Marie voted in Precinct 17, then went to Precinct 7 as a poll watcher. She complied with all laws. She did her volunteer job. There were no incidents (just some surprised Democrats to see Marie did not cower, did not hide, did not run and duck, did not wither away like a fragile flower petal.

But, when the night ended, that’s when things got interesting.

You see, Marie noticed something about the machine used to tabulate votes: The Democrat Town Clerk apparently screwed up. Although the machine showed the correct voting date, the machine’s printout – posted to the wall for all to observe, as is done in every precinct in the state – had the wrong election start time, and date. The machine was off by 12 hours, and 11 years!  The Town Clerk apparently screwed up the voting machine calibration she is charged with conducting.

Democrat-programmed machine off by 12 hours and 11 years!

Marie is expected to have a hearing at some point. Again, she has repeatedly asked what the format is, how it is run, etc., and has been ignored in all the e-mails she has sent.

But, she did get one interesting response from a useless Democrat-enabling well-known Republican establishment hack: Representative Dave DeCoste. His advice? Let it be. Move along, get along. Nothing to see here. Just get lost. Don’t fight. Let the Democrats have their way, after all, by making a stink of this, he apparently believes Marie causes problems for other elected Republicans and such in the town, and by extension, across the state.

No, their silence, their complicities with the Democrats, and DeCoste’s Democrat-enabling non-actions, represent everything that is wrong with the feckless Republican Party in Massachusetts, and why the Democrats control all state-wide offices, and have super-majorities in both the House and the Senate.