never a good headline

from San Francisco— Seven candidates vying to become this city’s next mayor have requested that federal observers and state election monitors be dispatched to San Francisco immediately amid allegations of ballot tampering by interim Mayor Ed Lee’s supporters.

“Depriving someone of their ability to freely exercise their vote is the most unconscionable crime,” Jeff Adachi said during a news conference Monday. The public defender is among those who signed the letter seeking intervention from the U.S. Justice Department and California secretary of state. “What we are seeing here is a pattern of corrupt activity,” Adachi said.