Suit Planned to Void 72nd District Results

Democratic and Latino leaders said Monday that they will file suit to overturn the 72nd Assembly District election results, alleging that uniformed security guards hired by the Orange County Republican Party interfered with voters casting ballots in Santa Ana precincts.

The lawsuit was announced at a press conference at Our Lady del Pilar Church in Santa Ana, one of the 20 polling places where guards were stationed last Tuesday. Among those endorsing the lawsuit at the press conference was Raoul Silva, a member of the state Republican Central Committee.

The incident evoked outrage among Democrats, who say it may have affected the outcome of the race in the 72nd District. After a bitter, $2.1-million battle, Republican Curt Pringle apparently defeated Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach by about 700 votes, although some absentee ballots have not yet been counted.

But strong criticism was also leveled by Republican leaders, with state GOP Chairman Bob Naylor calling it a “terrible, terrible symbolic insult” to Latino voters.

Lawyer Lowell Finley of San Francisco, who is preparing the lawsuit, said it will be filed on behalf of “numerous” people who say in affidavits that they were intimidated by the presence of the uniformed guards when they tried to vote. Some, he said, never voted, and others returned later in the day when they were assured the guards had left.

Tanney ordered the guards, who were wearing dark blue uniforms similar to many law-enforcement officers, removed from the polling places when he learned of their presence, about 4 hours after the polls opened.

‘Leave Them in Peace’

While Finley did not name the possible plaintiffs, saying Democratic leaders wanted to “leave them in peace” until the suit is filed in federal court, he said the uniformed guards were clearly meant to scare away Latino voters.

“There can be no other purpose for the use of uniformed guards, looking as much as possible as if they’re government law enforcement officers . . . than an attempt to intimidate legally registered citizens from exercising their right to vote,” Finley said.

In addition to asking that the election in the 72nd District be invalidated, the suit will ask for damages for the individual plaintiffs, Finley said.

Three hours after the press conference at which the suit was announced, County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes held a press conference of his own at which he defended the party’s use of the guards but added that he was sorry if their presence had offended Latino voters.

His voice cracking, Fuentes, who is also director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Orange, gravely told a packed room of reporters:

“I invoke the name of the Virgin of Guadalupe, our patroness, the mother of God, to say to you that no wrong was ever intended toward the Hispanic community of Orange County. I recognize the consequence and gravity of this oath, and I know that any Hispanic must judge me by it.”

$4,000 for Guards

Fuentes said last week that he had authorized payment of about $4,000 for the uniformed guards, which he called “observers.” He added that Pringle consultant Carlos Rodriguez had requested that the observers be uniformed.

Fuentes said he and other Republicans had heard reports that there had been attempts by Democrats to register people illegally to vote and that there might be attempts to bus in non-citizens to vote illegally. Tanney has said, however, that there was no evidence of any orchestrated illegal voter registration drive.

Fuentes said he also recalled an incident 2 years ago in which illegal aliens were arrested by immigration authorities while putting up lawn signs for a Democratic Assembly candidate.

Given what was expected to be a very tight race in the 72nd Assembly District, Fuentes said, he and others concluded that this “made the day ripe for voter fraud” in the district.

Fuentes said that when Rodriguez asked for the party to hire the guards, he agreed.

“Pringle didn’t ask for it; Pringle had nothing to do with it,” Fuentes said.

Rodriguez, who joined Fuentes at his press conference at the county GOP headquarters in Garden Grove, said: “To imply that Hispanics are going to be intimidated by the use of a uniform, a private security guard, is, frankly and respectfully, as racist a statement as I can possibly ever imagine hearing.”

He added: “The fact of the matter is it is very simple to abuse the voting registration programs we have now, to the point that you can just manufacture voters, and that is not what the process is intended to do.”

Rodriguez said the Pringle campaign had received “reports indirectly from within the registrar of voters’ (office) of concerns about some irregular registrations coming in.”

Said Tanney: “If the Pringle campaign had all this information, it would have been nice if they had notified us.”

Abuses Encouraged

Tanney added, however, that the widespread practice of paying campaign workers for each voter they register encourages abuses and often results in registrations being disqualified.

Ruth Reinert, a clerk with the registrar’s office, said she discovered several instances of one individual registering several other family members to vote, which is illegal. The registrations were gathered, she said, by a worker who was paid by the Democratic Party.

“In that case we tossed out the registrations and called each of the individuals back, asking them to re-register,” Reinert said. “We see these all the time, particularly in competitive races or when there is a particularly strong registration push.”

Between the June primary and November general election, Tanney said, 150,000 voters, about a 14% increase, were added to the Orange County rolls.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Anthony L. Miller said Monday that a state investigator was on her way to Orange County to try to sort out what had happened in the 72nd District.

“Our first concern is the posting of the guards, which have the obvious effect of intimidating some voters,” Miller said. He said the secretary of state’s office is also concerned about the allegation that non-citizens may have voted.

“If there is evidence, we need to know about it so we can prosecute people,” Miller said.

He added that the secretary of state has followed up on every such allegation.

“It’s easy to say, easy to allege, that non-citizens are voting in California elections,” Miller said. But he said that, except for isolated instances, “we have yet to find them.”

Also on Monday, leaders of several local college chapters of the Latino group, MECHA, denounced the hiring of uniformed guards by the GOP.

“This time the Latino community was the target. Who will be the next target?” said Moises Plascencin, 20, of Cal State Fullerton. Plascencin was joined by about a dozen mostly Latino students from Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Rancho Santiago Community College in Santa Ana.

Racism Charged

In a stinging reference to Fuentes and Rodriguez and their Latino backgrounds, Plascencin said their “actions have no other explanation than racism. Don’t be shocked--even people of our own kind sell out. We call these individuals vendidos. “

Stephanie O’Neil, adviser to the MECHA chapters at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, recommended that a nonpartisan commission, made up of county Republican and Democratic leaders, be formed to investigate the matter. She warned that the issue has become a “political football” debated by “people who want to see their names in the paper. . . . The concern should be focused on preventing this from ever happening again.”

After their press conference, the student leaders were joined by others carrying signs for a brief protest outside the county Hall of Administration.

Pictures in Part II, Page 4.

Registrar of voters office investigates unlocked warehouse with absentee ballots. Part II, Page 1.