Sumner Vote Total Up 135 on First Day of Recount in 40th

A spokesman for write-in candidate Bruce Sumner predicted victory Thursday based on an additional 135 votes that Sumner picked up in the first day of an election recount for the 40th Congressional District Democratic primary.

In the election, Lyndon R. LaRouche supporter Art Hoffmann beat Sumner, Orange County Democratic Party chief, by 267 votes.

“Based on what we’ve seen, we should win it,” Sumner’s attorney, Frank P. Barbaro, said. “If this pattern continues, Bruce will win by approximately 1,000 votes.”

However, Sumner described himself as “more cautious” after a recount of 32 of the 705 precincts in the 40th District.

“It’s too early to be confident of anything,” Sumner said.

Hoffmann’s attorney, Robert Levy, downplayed the additional Sumner votes, saying Hoffmann was “holding his own.”

Citing “massive irregularities,” Levy also said he will ask the Orange County district attorney’s office to examine at least 11 ballots cast at one polling place. Levy said the write-in votes cast for Sumner appear to have been written by the same person.

Esmond W. Vincent, polling place inspector at Seacliff Mobile Home Park on 15th Street in Newport Beach, said Thursday that on election day he wrote in Sumner’s name on behalf of “elderly people here with arthritis of the hands.”

Registrar of Voters Al Olson said it is permissible to assist voters who are physically unable to write. Olson said, however, that affidavits should have been filled out to indicate that voters were assisted. No affidavits accompanied the ballots that bore similar handwriting.

Nevertheless, Olson ruled Thursday that the 11 ballots would be counted for Sumner.

“I don’t see any indication of fraud,” Olson said.

It is expected that at least 10 working days will be needed to complete the recount of the more than 30,000 ballots cast in the 40th District Democratic primary.

Sumner, a retired judge, ran a well-financed write-in campaign to deny the party’s nomination to Hoffmann, the only candidate to appear on the Democratic ballot and a supporter of political extremist LaRouche.

The Democratic nominee will face incumbent Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) in the November general election.

At first Sumner appeared to have won the June primary by a 1,459-vote margin, based on an initial machine count of write-in ballots. But in a subsequent hand count, certified last week as the official election result, Hoffmann won by 15,143 votes to 14,876.

Hoffmann Win Predicted

Sumner picked up 102 votes Thursday in a recount of 10 precincts in which the hand count had given him no votes. Barbaro said those votes probably had not been counted by precinct workers because workers either had been erroneously advised that there were no qualified write-in candidates or had not been provided a list of eligible write-in candidates.

Sumner picked up his additional votes in 22 precincts that included polling places where hand-count totals differed from machine tallies.

Levy predicted that Hoffmann will emerge the winner. But he added that the Hoffmann camp is “very concerned about the discrepancies that showed up in this election.”

“We don’t believe that 15 different precinct boards counted votes erroneously,” he said, referring to the change in Sumner’s vote count.