On Thursday, April 22, the King County Superior Court finalized ballot language for the recall effort against Councilmember Kshama Sawant, upholding the Recall Campaign’s preferred version of the synopsis which obscures the fact that the allegations against Kshama are simply that…allegations.

What you may not realize is that under Washington State’s recall law, charges do not need to be proven and the accused party is not given any ability to dispute their truthfulness.

Kshama did not break the law. Nonetheless, despite the recall process explicitly saying that courts do not decide on innocence or guilt, the way that the charges will now appear on the ballot makes them appear as statements of fact upheld by a court. This is profoundly undemocratic.

It is no accident that two of the three charges against Councilmember Sawant are for unambiguously standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, with the remaining charge connected to her leadership in the Tax Amazon movement. We should be clear: this attack against Kshama is part of a broader assault on democracy which includes 81 anti-protest laws currently being introduced around the country.

Let’s take a closer look into the three charges. Continue reading →