Blaszcak Fans Hope to Void Recall by Showing ‘Election Misconduct’

Supporters of recalled Vice Mayor Frank Blaszcak are seeking an investigation of alleged “election misconduct” in hopes of nullifying last week’s recall vote.

Gary Meredith, a member of Citizens for Responsible Development, which had campaigned to keep Blaszcak in office, said Tuesday that supporters of the controversial vice mayor would turn over evidence of specific instances of irregularities to the state attorney general, the secretary of state and the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Blaszcak lost his seat last week by a margin of nine votes in a bitterly contested election in which almost 3,800 people went to the polls. He is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Meredith acknowledged that winning a court-ordered nullification of the May 23 election, or even having the final tally modified, appears to be a long shot. Although such an action is not without precedent in California courts, previous cases involved races that were decided by smaller margins than last week’s election.

Challenges Rarely Succeed

“Not only is a challenge to an election very rare, but very rarely do they succeed,” Meredith said.

“In this century, I don’t think there was a case where the gap was more than five votes,” City Atty. Stephanie Scher said about previous elections that have been successfully contested in California.

She said that a state civil court could address one of two issues: whether the particular ballots were properly counted or whether to invalidate the entire election. But she could not give an example of where an entire election had been nullified.

Meredith said most of the alleged violations were caused by sloppy administration of the vote.

“The city did not know how to run this election,” he said. “How many elections have they had in the past 75 years? They just didn’t know how to run it.”

Control of Ballots Questioned

The “most incriminating accusation” Blaszcak supporters are making, Meredith said, regards the control of ballots during the counting process on Election Day. “After the ballot boxes were delivered to City Hall, they were literally--physically--placed behind closed doors and out of sight of the public,” he said.

Because of city staff’s “antagonistic relationship with Vice Mayor Blaszcak,” Meredith said, there was motivation to tamper with ballots in favor of recall. Deputy City Clerk Cindy Bookter, who led the vote-counting team, denied that ballots were handled by her or other city employees before their arrival in the City Council chambers, on the second floor of City Hall, where the tally was conducted. She said sealed precinct ballot boxes had been registered on the ground floor by election inspectors, then delivered to her upstairs, still sealed.

“I was not even downstairs when the ballot boxes were being received,” she said. “I was upstairs the entire time.”

Challenge Welcomed

She said she welcomed a challenge to the vote-counting procedures. “The ballots were handled according to state law,” she said. “I don’t know what more I can say. If there’s a formal challenge, I’m ready.”

Meredith also charged that there were instances of irregularities at the polls, including two individuals who may have been posing as registered voters, because they “failed to spell their names correctly when signing in.”

He said that there were serious concerns about electioneering at two polling places and that one voter had submitted an absentee ballot although he had not lived in San Gabriel for five years.

Bookter said she had heard no such reports from election workers at the polls.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Hickey said Wednesday that he had not received any documents or reports from Blaszcak supporters regarding the election. He said his office could get involved if it determined that some form of criminality had been shown in election procedures, such as bribe-taking or fraudulent voter registration. But he emphasized that only a civil court can overturn an election.

Constitutional Provision

Meredith said Blaszcak supporters will await the outcome of the investigations before deciding whether to go to court.

A state prosecutor, who asked that his name not be used, said Blaszcak might also use a provision in the state Constitution under which an election can be overturned if libelous or slanderous statements were a major contributing cause in the outcome. Blaszcak has initiated a lawsuit, alleging libel against 11 San Gabriel residents who had worked for his recall.

“But (the constitutional provision) is hardly ever used, because of the difficulty of establishing a major contributing cause,” said the state prosecutor. Meredith said Blaszcak is considering such action.

Although Blaszcak said last week that he would request a recount, Bookter said that, as of Wednesday, she had not yet received formal notification from him.

The recall election was certified by the four-member City Council on Tuesday. Blaszcak has until Monday to request the recount, which would cost him about $1,000, according to Bookter.