False Narratives

False Narratives pushed by “Yes”

The vote yes side was completely blindsided when they saw the vote NO side was not concerned with sidewalks, but was concerned with losing rights. They chose to attack the slogan and mislead voters instead of simply voting on the issues.

Keep Your Rights!

The slogan Keep Your Rights was chosen because the council was telling people the only way to have sidewalks approved was with a charter change.

The proposed charter change shifted the approval process from residents to village council, and was not “needed” as highlighted by the village attorney.

Misinformation Campaign

Charter Amendment

The group focused on the fact that our charter was “old” and “outdated” and needed to be changed to reflect the changes in the village.

The fundamentals of the Village Charter do not need to be changed. We could have had these same sidewalks approved by a simple ballot measure put to voters and approved by voters.

Q: Why did this power have to be shifted from the people to council?

A: Because they simply wanted the power. They will be able to misapply money approved for projects like roads to their pet projects like sidewalks, instead of needing to ask for voters to approve a plan with funding.

These people who were either ignorant of the law, or were intentionally misleading voters attacked the slogan claiming it made no sense. They told voters they were giving up nothing. What never made sense was to lie to voters by telling them they were not giving up their rights.

Representative Democracy

The Connect Franklin and Village Council Majority were lying to residents about the structure of our local government. They “informed” voters that our government was a representative democracy where we elect leaders to make decisions.

There are a few issues with this

First

Residents of Franklin have the complete authority to approve many different aspects by a direct democratic process where each resident gets one vote and the majority decides the outcome.

• Sidewalks
• Water
• Sewer
• Drains
• Lighting
• Road Funding

Second

Not all members of our government leaders are elected.

Pam Hansen for example lost her position as president, and although she just received far less votes than two other candidates was appointed to council.

This was majority rule, not democracy.

Summary

The Vote yes campaign was extremely divisive and dishonest. They had no qualms about:

• LYING to voters about the fundamental structure of their government
• MISINFORMING by attacking the other side with propaganda
• HIDING the truth from voters
• ATTACKING the character of opponents by assigning their own misdeeds to them

Contrast that to NO:

• TRUTHFUL ran a campaign based on facts
• CONSISTENT fact based arguments throughout campaign
• FACTUAL wanting voters to vote simply knowing the facts