The Region - News from March 9, 1986

A judge seeking election to the Superior Court bench in the June 3 primary has filed suit in Los Angeles federal court, challenging a $52,000 fee being charged to include a statement of a judge’s qualifications in sample ballots that will be sent to voters before the primary. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Leon S. Kaplan, 41, said the fee imposed by the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder office was set “arbitrarily too high” and has “effectively prevented candidates for nonpartisan offices from using this state-sanctioned method of presenting their qualifications to the voters.” A spokeswoman for the registrar-recorder’s office said the fee was increased from $22,000 in 1984 to $52,000 in order to pay for printing and packaging changes since the sample ballots were put in a booklet format for the June primary. In the past, candidates’ statements have been inserted separately in envelopes containing the sample ballots.