Voting irregularities mar Democratic committee election
Democratic officials in Sacramento Monday ordered a redo of the election of local delegates, ruling about 15% of voters were not qualified to cast a ballot.
At least 114 people of the 738 who voted in January either did not live in the 43rd Assembly District or were not members of the Democratic Party -- both requirements to vote for the party-specific positions -- according to a memo from Chris Myers, managing director of the California Democratic Party.
Delegates, who are elected for two-year terms, attend the state convention and choose the party’s official endorsement for races in its jurisdiction.
Myers said he ordered a partial review of the votes after an appeal by Ryan Basham, Christina Ellixson and Burbank Unified School Board member Charlene Tabet, who did not win in the election and challenged specific voters.
“After, indeed, finding potential problems with the eligibility with some (though not all) of these voters, I then directed the [California Democratic Party] staff to conduct a full review of the registration envelopes and sign-in-sheets,” Myers said in the memo.
In the review, staff members also found seven people identified as registering after the cut-off date of Oct. 20, 2014, according to Myers’ memo.
“Although it is possible they were registered as Democrats in AD43 prior to the cut-off date and subsequently re-registered,” he added.
The 43rd District includes Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge. Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) said that he appreciated the move by the state party, especially since the integrity of the election was in question.
Many, if not most, of the people elected in the now-tainted election are supporters of Gatto’s Democratic opponents.
Every other year, seven men and seven women are elected as district delegates and one person is elected as an executive board representative.
In the delegate election, only two candidates, Berdj Karapetian and Shant Sahakian, received enough votes that the number of ineligible voters would not have affected their outcomes.
“The two top vote-getters will remain,” said Eric Bauman, chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and vice chair of the California Democratic Party. “They’re good.”
May 9 is the deadline to file an appeal of the commission’s ruling, Bauman said.
If an appeal is filed, it will be heard at the state Democratic Convention in Anaheim next month by the credentials committee, which will have the final say on the matter, Bauman said. The convention will run May 15 through 18.
If no appeal is filed, another election will be held after the convention, he added.
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This story was updated at 10:19 p.m. to include information from Assemblyman Mike Gatto.