LaRouche Ally’s Lead Trimmed in Recount

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Bruce Sumner trails Lyndon R. LaRouche follower Art Hoffmann by 29 votes in a continuing recount of ballots for the Democratic nomination in the 40th Congressional District, Orange County Registrar Al Olson said Monday night.

Moreover, Sumner is expected to take the lead as the recount progresses today, Olson added.

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 after 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.

Rapid Gains Recorded

When the recount began, Sumner quickly picked up 185 votes in the first two days. He gained 53 more 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, a LaRouche supporter, was the only person filing for the Democratic nomination to run against Republican U.S. 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.