200,000 Voters Have Spoken : Supervisors: Throwing out the results of 1st District election is no way to make up for past discrimination.

On June 5, more than 70,000 people cast their votes for me in the primary election to fill the 1st District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. As a Latino and as a woman, but most importantly as an American citizen, I can tell you that the American dream still lives.

I ran for supervisor because I believe in myself, the Constitution of the United States and the people. No one asked me to run. In fact, I was discouraged from entering the race. Yet I knew I had the most experience and was the best qualified, and I had my family’s support. When I went to church and the teen-age choir was singing “Be Not Afraid,” I decided it was time to run.

There are 31 cities in the San Gabriel Valley district and I was the first-choice candidate in 29 of them. In the other two cities, I came in second in a 10-candidate field. My campaign was positive, broad-based and nonpartisan. I collected money and support from Mexicans, Latins, Asians, Filipinos, Anglos, Italians and Armenians, from Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and from Jews, Catholics, Baptists and many other faiths.

U.S. District Judge David Kenyon’s ruling that the supervisors had discriminated against Latinos when drawing district lines was courageous and correct. Discrimination does exist. But that does not mean we should compound a wrong by disfranchising more than 200,000 people who voted for county supervisor on June 5. The people of the San Gabriel Valley have spoken.

I have petitioned the U.S. District Court and Judge Kenyon to not throw out the election results that were so honorably cast. Instead I have proposed three recommendations that I hope will be implemented as part of the reapportionment case settlement:

--The voters of Los Angeles County should have an opportunity to decide whether they want seven supervisors instead of five. I will work with the Board of Supervisors to place this issue on the November ballot.

--The Board of Supervisors needs to determine a fair and equitable way to allow community involvement in the 1991 drawing of fair district lines based on the 1990 census.

--All supervisors should be on the ballot in 1992.

Finally, it is crucial for me to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. I want to be part of the healing process. No matter what happens with the reapportionment case, I will run again. I want to work with the present board in a spirit of cooperation.

I believe that as part of the American family, each of us has a gift to give. I believe it is important to achieve cooperative relationships, not only with government but with all groups.

For Sarah Flores, who started as a secretary 33 years ago and who now seeks to become the first woman and the first person of Latino surname to be elected to the Board of Supervisors, the American dream is a living reality.

Unless the primary election results are overturned, Sarah Flores will be on the ballot in the November runoff against Gregory O’Brien for the 1st Supervisorial District seat.