By Chris Salabaj
In this day and age, living in California means working long hours, six to seven days a week for some of us. It means after your work day, it’s time to take the kids to practice or time for the family. By the time we are done with our day, we’ve run out of time and energy. There are those who work this to their advantage, using our distraction against us, exploiting the opportunity to get away with something. We are doubly disadvantaged because of our lack of time to investigate things that just don’t seem right.
Many of us trust that our government is working for us in an honest and ethical way. To even mention otherwise puts you in a category with crazy conspiracy theorists. As an educator, coach and community leader, I have seen how our trust is being manipulated to put money in the pockets of those that are supposed to be working in our best interest. I’ve never come forward or pursued the decisions or actions of any of our local, state or federal leaders. However, this time I feel compelled to do so.
Approximately six weeks ago, our community mailbox was broken into. After two weeks of it being broken, I called to find out why it hadn’t been fixed. After going through the chain of command, I was finally told that there had been many, 15 in fact, that were broken into and they were in the process of fixing them. My concern was that my absentee ballot was coming or had come and I wasn’t able to have it delivered due to the broken box. Being that I work all day, I couldn’t pick it up at the local office during office hours. It wasn’t until today, election day, that I left work in order to pick up my absentee and sample ballots and then visit my polling location. When I got to the post office, there was a long line of people waiting to pick up their mail. When it was my turn, I explained to the worker that my mailbox had been broken into over 6 weeks ago and we haven’t gotten our mail for about a month. She headed to the back to get my mail. As I waited I noticed that the people that got there after me to pick up their mail had to wait in line twice. Finally, another worker asked me for my information and went to the back. They came out together and handed me a stack of mail that looked like two days’ worth. I looked through it for my absentee ballot. It wasn’t there, and neither was my sample ballot. I asked her to see someone regarding the missing ballots. After waiting for her to locate someone, I was directed to go through a door and into an office by the postmaster. He was very polite and respectful. Half way through our conversation he mentioned that he knew I was running for a council seat. It made me wonder if that’s why he was so accommodating. He told me that over 1,000 mailboxes had been broken into across the city and he didn’t know what to do. It’s been the worst wave of vandalism and theft ever. I asked where my absentee ballot was and he replied that he didn’t know, but felt it might be somewhere in the stacks of mail in the back. I left feeling sick to my stomach and with the sense something wasn’t right.
I headed to my polling location to vote. I had to fill out a provisional ballot form and was told by the worker that there had been a large amount of people doing the same for the same reason. She even mentioned that it seemed very strange that this was happening to so many people. It was then that I felt this has all of the elements to turn into a conspiracy. If I didn’t receive my absentee ballot and the post office didn’t have it then where was it? How many people did this happen to? Would anybody even care if I reported this?
I’m not sure what, if anything, will be done about this, but I reported it to the city clerk and county clerk. I felt it is important to get this story out to the public to find out how widespread this is. If this is linked to voter fraud, we need to find out who planned it and prosecute them.
This is our country. It is our right to choose our leaders. If someone has abused or manipulated our system in any way, we need to respond as a united people. We will not accept a corrupt and dishonest government. This is the United States of America and we will stand strong as one.
Salabaj was a 2016 Rancho Cucamonga City Council Candidate.