Sumner Narrows Gap to 29 as Recount Proceeds

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Bruce Sumner trailed Lyndon R. LaRouche follower Art Hoffmann by only 29 votes Monday night in the continuing recount of ballots for the Democratic nomination in the 40th Congressional District, Orange County Registrar of Voters Al Olson said. Moreover, Sumner is expected to take the lead as the recount progresses today, Olson said.

Sumner, a retired judge who mounted a vigorous write-in campaign against Hoffmann in the June 6 election, appeared to have won the election by 1,459 votes, based on a machine count of the ballots. But a subsequent hand tally of the ballots made Hoffmann the winner by 267 votes.

Last week, Sumner asked for a recount of the ballots, following disclosures of apparent irregularities in the vote counting. Several precinct workers revealed that they had been given misinformation about write-in ballot procedures from the registrar’s office and had, in some cases, prevented voters from casting write-in ballots.

When the recount began, Sumner quickly picked up 185 votes in the first two days. He gained 53 votes on Monday, said Olson.

“Sumner went in today behind 82 votes, and by the end of the day, he was 29 votes behind Hoffmann,” said Olson. “People were saying that the way it is going, Sumner will pick up the lead (in the recount) by the end of Tuesday.”

The Democratic Party was embarrassed to find earlier this year that Hoffmann was the only person filing for the Democratic nomination to run against Rep. Robert Badham (R-Newport Beach). Sumner agreed to mount the difficult task of being a write-in candidate.

Olson said that “the recount is a long, long way from being over--it’ll be several weeks yet.” He said that only about 100 of 705 precincts have been recounted so far.

But he added that it is likely that Sumner will take the lead by the end of today’s counting.