<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of CBSLA (Los Angeles) at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/8wajqd9">http://tinyurl.com/8wajqd9</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">------------------------------------</div><div><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><h1 class="entry-title" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pot Prizes May Have Lured More Eagle Rock Residents To Vote</span></font></h1><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; ">EAGLE ROCK (<a href="http://CBSLA.com">CBSLA.com</a>)</strong> — Fliers offering $40 worth of free medical-grade marijuana were reportedly passed out in Eagle Rock to try and draw residents to vote in the local election.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Was the free pot an incentive to get a larger turnout? Politics ranked “high” on resident’s list of priorities. Nearly 10 times as many voters – 792 residents – turned out to the polls during the recent Neighborhood Council elections than last year.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s a little weird that people can’t come out and vote on their own. I see that as a problem, as a social symptom,” Eagle Rock resident Joerael Elliott said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many residents told CBS2′s Juan Fernandez they didn’t think enticing voters with perks was right.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You can’t pay your way like that, that’s not cool,” resident Danielle Sargent said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No one is claiming responsibility for the flier.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The fliers asked citizens to support the Progress and Collaboration Slate, which ran against the neighborhood council’s opposition to pot dispensaries.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The council had tried to ban pot dispensaries but residents collected enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, the Patch reported.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents the district, has submitted the flier to the L.A. City Attorney’s Office to see if any legal action can be </span><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">taken. He believes the record voter turnout had nothing to do with the pot giveaway and was instead motivated by residents trying to take control of their community.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While some argue the pot offer drove voter turnout, it didn’t lead to victory. A candidate from the Eagle Rock Neighbors Slate was elected president. Only two of the eight Progress candidates won – for the positions of civic director and sub-district 1 director.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The battle continues, however. Progress candidate Mark Smith has since filed a formal complaint challenging the election results.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Our opponents were just obsessed with the marijuana thing, because all of us, on the slate I was on, are for safe access, but we’re not for 30 dispensaries in the neighborhood,” Smith said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Smith said his opponents played dirty, using scare tactics to sway the vote.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“They called the slate that I was on and said we were a criminal syndicate, organized crime…my favorite one was when they said we were going to bring bordellos and cocaine to Eagle Rock,” Smith said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The flyer . . .</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><img src="cid:88488EF1-5610-4AD0-982A-32413CAC1192" alt="Free+Pot+for+Vote.jpg" id="88488EF1-5610-4AD0-982A-32413CAC1192" width="350" height="450"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">I don't know how much marijuana, or its quality, forty dollars could purchase now. But, back in 1976/77, in the Presidio of San Francisco area, forty bucks could get you an ounce of Columbian.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">LEGALIZE IT!</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">REGULATE IT!</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">TAX IT!</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br><div>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>