Computer Breakdown Stalls Ballot Count in San Juan : Officials Forced to Send for New Vote Tabulator

Counting the votes in San Juan Capistrano’s election for two city council seats was delayed Tuesday night because a ballot counter wouldn’t work, and had to be replaced.

Election officials said the computerized ballot tabulator could not be made to function after polls closed at 8 p.m. Finally, at 9:45 p.m. they decided to request a new ballot counting machine from the private Lakewood company that provided the faulty machine.

Absentee and initial results were not expected until at least 11 p.m., City Clerk Mary Ann Hanover said.

“We cannot get the ballot counter (to give) an accurate test. (Company officials) are bringing a new one from Lakewood,” Hanover said.

Growth Issue

The malfunction of the ballot tabulator prevented early returns in the election in which incumbent Councilmen Larry F. Buchheim and Kenneth E. Friess were being challenged by Ilse M. Byrnes,, David A. Hanson, and Jean LaBurn, who are advocates of slowing the pace of development in the city that is home to historic Mission San Juan Capistrano. Two top vote-getters in the five-candidate field will be declared the winners.

Also on the ballot was Proposition C, which would allow the city to continue collecting an additional 2% tax on hotel and motel rooms in the city. The City Council adopted the increase in October, 1985, increasing the tax from 6% to 8%. A new state law requires voter approval of tax increases implemented between August, 1985, and November, 1986.

The council race pitted challengers Byrnes, Hanson and LaBurn--who each has run unsuccessfully for City Council once before--against veteran Councilmen Friess, 45, a general contractor, and Buchheim, 61, a property developer.

Friess has been on the council for 12 years while Buchheim has served the past 10 years.

Byrnes, 60, a local historian, ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1980. LaBurn, 60, an office supply store owner, lost a City Council bid in 1986. Hanson, 50, a real estate agent, lost a City Council bid in 1982.

One of the biggest issues in the campaign was the city’s slow-growth and traffic-control initiative, which will not be on the ballot until November. The initiative would block the city from approving development where traffic is unacceptably heavy unless road improvements are made first. There also is a similar county slow-growth initiative on the June ballot, which would apply to unincorporated areas.

All the candidates, except Byrnes, are opposed to the city’s slow-growth initiative because they believe the city’s growth already is controlled by the general plan, enacted in 1974, which enables the City Council to set a limit on the number of residential building permits issued each year.

However, Byrnes maintained that growth needs to be curbed in the city and the county because both are already at capacity.