The Democratic National Convention submitted notarized certifications of nomination to Secretarys of State in order to place the names of electors and/or candidates on the 2008 general election ballot. However, the process used by the Democratic party for placing Barack Obama's name on the ballot is under fire by citizens in several states where complaints of election fraud have been filed with Attorneys General. In the case of Mr. Richie, the complaint of election fraud states the following:
Specifically, under Texas law, if the candidate for President of the United States ("POTUS") from the major political party meets the federal requirements of the job, then election officials must print the candidates name on the general election ballot. Under the Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution, the POTUS must be a Natural Born Citizen ("NBC"). To get Barack Obama's name on the general election ballot, Mr. Richie formally submitted to Ann McGeehan, Director of Elections, Office of Secretary of State, 2 (two) Certifications of Nomination swearing that Mr. Obama was "duly nominated" as the candidate for POTUS for the Democrat Party and had met the legal qualifications for the job. However, overwhelming circumstantial evidence points to the fact at the time he signed and forwarded these Certifications he could not have ascertained Mr. Obama is a NBC. And in Texas, swearing he is a NBC without ascertaining he is, for the purpose of obtaining a place on the ballot, constitutes election fraud.
Click here and here for further details.
Shalifa Williamson was selected by the DNC to notarize these certifications. Thus, when she put her notary seal on those certifications, she became a witness to election fraud. For this reason, I began to learn what I could about her, and to attempt a FOIA request for access to her notary journal.
Ms. Williamson received her notary commission on September 6, 2007; her commission expires September 6, 2011. She is married to professional boxer, DaVarryl Williamson, and resides in Aurora, Colorado. After checking two campaign contribution sources I could find no record that Shalifa or DaVarryl contributed to any political candidates, not even Barack Obama. Her Application for Notary Commission includes the following business address, phone number, and email:
No business name cited
1560 Broadway
Denver, CO 80202
303-318-9765
WilliamsonS@DemConvention.com
Since she lists a Democratic Convention email address in 2007, this suggests Ms. Williamson was employed in some capacity by the Democratic party well in advance of the national convention.
A reverse directory check of the business phone revealed the owner of that number was Lailah Tuhgalag, whose address was listed by Intellius as 1235 Grant, Denver, CO. Unfortunately, I could find no further information about this individual. As for the Democratic Convention email, it is now defunct, and so is the phone number.
Rules for notaries vary from state to state, but generally notaries are expected to maintain a journal of every notarial act. Some states also allow public access to those journals. In order to determine the rules for Colorado, I filed an open records request directly with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office since I initially did not have Ms. Williamson's contact information. Notary Program Assistant, Lori Lennartz, in the Licensing & Enforcement Division, replied back by sending me a copy of Ms. Williamson’s Application for Notary Commission. She also said,
Our notaries were not required to keep a journal until July 2009. Even if she did keep a journal it would be up to her to release it to you as we do not have any jurisdiction over there[sic] journals.Unfortunately, as this 2004 FBI matrix shows, Ms. Lennartz’s statement appears to be correct.
Following the 2008 election, the Colorado legislature recognized that notarial laws needed to be changed “. . . to correct instances of fraud in relation to circulator's affidavits during the 2008 general election".* The new notarial laws became effective July 1, 2009, making journals a requirement. For more details read Colorado's New Notarial Law FAQs.
I then wrote back to Ms. Lennartz and asked for a copy of or a link to the notary rules which were in effect prior to July 1, 2009. Ms. Lennartz replied again saying,
No I don’t have them anymore. Once the new law took affect we recycled the old law books and the web site only has current information on it.Ms. Lennartz’s reply seemed illogical because historical records must be available somewhere as a reference for law enforcement purposes. Since I found her answer dissatisfactory, I wrote to Richard Coolidge, Director of Communications for the office of the Colorado Secretary of State. After explaining my correspondence with Ms. Lennartz, I said “Surely, for legal purposes, a copy of the old notary rule book still exists somewhere, and thus should be available to the public upon request. Would you please look into this for me?” I also asked him if he could help me find the old statutes as well as the open records laws in effect in 2008 that might apply to notaries. Although Mr. Coolidge did not provide me with a copy of a notary handbook for 2008, he did provide the following information:
Attached is the legislation passed last year that outlines changes to the old law, which is now current law, as it relates to Notaries.The Act, which Mr. Coolidge attached, confirms that as of July 1, 2009, notaries must keep a journal of all notarial acts. The “missing” 2008 notary handbook may not be an oversight since the National Notary Association currently does not link to a notary handbook for Colorado, even though the NNA links to handbooks in 43 other states. (However, Ms. Lennartz’s comments above suggest that some kind of handbook did exist in 2008.) As for access to “public” records, Colorado statute 24-72-203, which was cited above, states the following:
Also, below is a link to the Colorado Open Records Law:
http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpExt.dll?f=templates&eMail=Y&fn=main-h.htm&cp=cocode/6ffa0/3b841/43003/43005/430ad/43131
And, the following link are “allowance and denial of open records”:
http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpExt.dll?f=templates&eMail=Y&fn=main-h.htm&cp=cocode/6ffa0/3b841/43003/43005/430ad/43131
Let me know if you need anything further.
(1) (a) All public records shall be open for inspection by any person at reasonable times,Of course, there are a large number of exceptions to the rule too numerous to list, but they can be read at the link shown in Mr. Coolidge's reply.
Because of this next statute, it’s likely that Ms. Williamson would be compelled to get permission from Nancy Pelosi or someone in the Democratic party before releasing any existing records. What are the odds of that happening?
(2)(b) If an official custodian has custody of correspondence sent by or received by an elected official, the official custodian shall consult with the elected official prior to allowing inspection of the correspondence for the purpose of determining whether the correspondence is a public record.If Ms. Williamson does not renew her commission on or before September 6, 2011, she will be required to turn over her records (as far as they exist) to the Colorado Secretary of State. Once in possession of the State, the notary’s records clearly become public records. However, if Ms. Williamson renews her commission, her journals will remain in her possession.
An unanswered question in my mind is this: If records were kept by Ms. Williamson in 2008, (even though the law did not require a journal), would those records be considered “public” while still in her possession?
Not to leave a stone unturned, I have submitted an open records request directly to Shalifa Williamson just to see if she responds. So far, she has not replied, but only a few days have passed. However, I can say that the email I sent to her private address was not returned by the mail server.
If anything of interest happens, I will post an update.
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*"What is the circulator's affidavit? A circulator's affidavit is a form that is attached or annexed to the signatures gathered in support of a citizen-initiated petition, wherein the circulator attests or swear to various facts. Since the affidavit is in essence an oath, the circulator's signature must be witnessed and the facts in the affidavit sworn to or affirmed before a Notary or other officer authorized to administer oaths in Colorado."
