I. Background
The gravamen of Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) is that Defendants have engaged in various acts—often too vaguely described to be intelligible—that have disadvantaged Ron Paul in his quest to be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for President at the Republican National Convention commencing on August 27, 2012.
a. Parties
1 See Final Vote Results For Roll Call 374, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll374.xml
(reflecting vote on July 13, 2006).
Case 8:12-cv-00927-DOC-JPR Document 35 Filed 08/07/12 Page 2 of 20 Page ID #:474
The FAC describes the Plaintiffs as: (1) “National Delegates”; (2) “Alternate National Delegates”; and (3) “State Delegates who elected National Delegates.” FAC at 24:4-19. The National and Alternate National Delegates include “Delegates duly elected but having their Certification [sic] withdrawn.” Id. at 24:15.
The FAC describes the Defendants as: (1) the Republican National Committee (“RNC”);
(2) RNC’s Chairman, Reince Priebus; (3) “every State Republican Party and party Chairman within the Jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit”; and (4) “State Republican Party Organizations participating in a Federal Election for the purpose of nominating a candidate for President of the United States and a candidate for Vice President of the United States.” Id. at 24:15.
b. Allegations
While the FAC’s allegations are often duplicative and unclear, they appear to be as follows:
• “Defendants have unlawfully used State Bylaws.” Id. at 27:5-6.
• “Defendants have refused to Certify [sic] Delegates who were properly elected.” Id. at 27:7-8.
• “[I]n almost every state in the United States[,] Defendants engaged in a scheme to intimidate and harass Delegates who were supporting a Candidate that Defendants did not approve of. This harassment included the use of violence, intimidating demands that Delegates sign affidavits under penalty of perjury with the threat of criminal prosecution for perjury as well as financial penalties and fines if the Delegate fails to vote as instructed by Defendants.” Id. at 26:21-26.
• “Defendants have further harassed and intimidated Plaintiffs with untimely Rule changes designed to deny a quorum or to manipulate Delegates supporting a particular Candidate to be deprived of a fair election in furtherance of a scheme to deny Plaintiffs the right to vote their conscience on all ballots.” Id. at 26:27-28, 27:1-2.
• “Defendants have altered the voting ballot results to fraudulently reflect an outcome that is inconsistent with the actual voting ballot results for the purpose of certifying a fraudulently selected slate of Delegates to support the Candidate of Defendants [sic] choice rather than the Delegates properly elected all to prevent Plaintiffs from voting their conscience.” Id. at 27:9-12.
• “[T]here is a systematic campaign of election fraud at State Conventions including programming a voting machine in Arizona to count Ron Paul votes as Governor Romney votes; ballot stuffing, meaning the same person casting several ballots in several State Conventions; altering procedural rules to prevent votes being cast for Ron Paul, all as acts of intimidation to prevent National Delegates from voting their conscience.” Id. at 33:10-15.
• “Bones have been broken. A gun has been used to threaten a Plaintiff to vote as ordered while inside of a school. Plaintiffs have been followed. Plaintiffs have been threatened with future life-time harassment if Plaintiffs do not vote as directed. Plaintiffs have been threatened to remove their names from this lawsuit or face adverse consequences.” Id. at 34:12-16.
The sole allegation that references a specific Defendant and specific Plaintiff appears on page 32. There, the FAC alleges that “Plaintiff Renato D’Amico is a duly elected National Delegate from the State of Massachusetts who was unlawfully removed from the State Delegation when he refused to sign” an affidavit “presented by Defendant Republican Party of Massachusetts” requiring him to “swear[] under penalty of perjury that he would vote for Governor Romney.” Id. at 32. The FAC alleges that, “[i]n Massachusetts[,] at least 17 Delegates duly elected were ordered to sign” the same affidavit even though “no Party Rule . . . permits such an [a]ffidavit nor such an ultimatum, nor has said Defendant ever required such an [a]ffidavit in the past.” Id. Plaintiffs “request an order of this Court reinstating Plaintiff Renado D’Amico to his duly elected position as a Certified National Delegate and further requests that all Massachusetts Delegates be reinstated who were removed solely for refusing to sign the
unlawful [a]ffidavit.” Id.
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