ZOA’s In-Person Election Process Is Required by law

What follows is a press release from Mort Klein’s PR person.

The ZOA “In Person” Election Process Is Required By Law. ZOA’s Process is Fair and Fraud-Free:

New York State law and ZOA’s Constitution require delegates to be present at the convention to vote. Distance voting by electronic means or email would be invalid under the applicable New York State law and ZOA’s Constitution, and is thus impossible. The opponent knows full well that in person voting is the only lawful process.

In addition, electronic voting is highly subject to fraud. Dead people don’t show up at conventions – but they do somehow miraculously manage to vote by email. Delegates cannot vote twice at a convention, but they can manage to do so electronically. Software used for electronic voting can be manipulated. Email voting also lacks secrecy and does not protect voters’ security. There is no assurance as to how the opponent will use his “surveymonkey” straw poll.

We also note that the opponent’s surveymonkey straw poll is only being sent to a tiny fraction of ZOA’s members. In addition, known supporters of Mr. Klein have not received the opponent’s poll. The opponent’s phantom vote based on some incomplete list of a small select segment of ZOA members has absolutely no validity and no protection against the opponent’s fraud and manipulation.

At the ZOA convention, both sides will have poll watchers assuring that everything proceeds fairly. Similar protections against fraud are not available electronically.

The opponent is also misleading the public when he attempts to make an issue out of the convention location. The 2014 convention location in Philadelphia was established long before the opponent suddenly filed to run for president, at the very last minute, just a few weeks before the convention. The opponent’s accusation that the location was chosen to disadvantage him is absurd in light of the fact that the location was set months before the opponent announced that he was running.

Philadelphia was chosen because ZOA’s active Philadelphia region asked for the convention to be in Philadelphia. Mort Klein did not make the request. In addition, the cost of a Philadelphia convention is only one-third of New York convention sites. If Mr. Klein wanted to maximize his votes at the convention, he would have kept the convention in New York. The choice of Philadelphia was made long before ZOA had any inkling that anyone would oppose Mr. Klein.

People have been asking us what to do if they receive the opponent’s monkeysurvey poll. We ask that you carefully review the facts at Mort Klein’s website (reelectmort.com or http://reelectzoapresidentmortklein.com/welcome.html ) and get in touch with us if you have any questions at reelectmort@gmail.com.

It’s important to know the facts, because the opponent accompanied his monkey poll with more misleading falsehoods about ZOA and its highly respected president, Mort Klein. For instance, as the opponent knows, contributions to ZOA were over $5 million in 2013, and ZOA is in strong financial shape. Yet the opponent again misrepresents ZOA’s finances. The opponent also tries to pass off as his own the ideas that ZOA President Mort Klein and the ZOA board have developed and already implemented or are in process. Indeed, statements went out last week and a press conference is scheduled to occur in Washington D.C. tomorrow regarding ZOA’s joint community acitivism initiative with several other organizations.

And the opponent is again making false statements about Mort Klein’s compensation. ZOA President Morton Klein worked full time for ZOA with NO salary from ZOA during the first five and a half years of his ZOA presidency. After 6 years, convention delegates voted virtually unanimously to authorize Mr. Klein to receive a salary for his work. The salary Mr. Klein receives is recommended by the ZOA compensation committee, and approved by ZOA’s board of directors, without Mr. Klein’s participation. ZOA’s compensation committee consists of the following board members; ZOA’s National Finance Director businessman Henry Schwartz; Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt, and Chairman of the ZOA National Council Alan Mazurek, M.D. The opponent has sat on ZOA’s board of directors for the past 5 years and never raised an issue about or objected to Mr. Klein’s compensation prior to his misleading campaign. In addition, Mr. Klein’s compensation was analyzed, recommended and approved by an independent third-party compensation consultant. The opponent falsely portrays as salary a set aside of funds in 2008 for a then future one-time lump sum pension payment which the ZOA board of directors insisted upon providing for decades of Mort’s tireless work. The current average of Mr. Klein’s salary over 20 years to less than $210,000 per year. An older average was $184,000 per year. Either is modest considering Mr. Klein’s multiple roles, and prodigious fundraising for ZOA, which pays for his salary many times over.

Mr. Klein’s fully taxable one-time lump sum pension amounts to far less than a New York City sanitation worker’s pension. In addition, Mr. Klein does not accept speech honorariums for himself and instead asks that the honoriums be contributed to ZOA. (Other heads of organizations often keep speech honorariums, which can amount to thousands of dollars per speech.)

Mort Klein has never asked for a raise or a pension or anything for himself for his tireless, dedicated, round-the-clock work for ZOA. Moreover major donors specifically raised their donations by much more than Mort’s salary to make sure that Mort received a salary, without cost to ZOA’s programs (and ZOA’s programs were also made possible by the tens of millions of dollars that Mort raised for ZOA). Every penny paid to Mort for his tireless work has been well deserved.

For more information refuting the opponents falsehoods, please read “setting the record straight”.

We also suggest that you should be cautious about whether the monkeysurvey poll may violate your privacy or be manipulated. We would appreciate it if you would email us if you received the poll. Please let us know that you support Mort at reelectmort@gmail.com, and advise us whether or not you decided to vote on the opponent’s monkey survey poll.

Re-Elect ZOA President Mort Klein!!!