Lungren Now Leads Smith for First Time

For the first time since a statewide count of absentee ballots began last week, Republican Dan Lungren has forged ahead of Democratic rival Arlo Smith in the race for state attorney general.

The former five-term Long Beach congressman, who had trailed Smith by 28,836 votes on election night nine days ago, took a lead of 2,157 votes--out of more than 7 million votes cast--late Wednesday afternoon, according to the secretary of state’s office.

“Obviously, we’re very, very pleased,” said Lungren campaign spokesman Dave Puglia. “The only question remaining is: Will Arlo Smith abide by the voters’ will?”

Smith campaign aides conceded privately that the more than 100,000 absentee ballots statewide remaining to be tabulated--the bulk of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties--are virtually certain to increase Lungren’s lead.

But Smith has no intention of conceding, campaign manager Marc Dann said Wednesday. Instead, Dann said, Smith will announce at a press conference today that he intends to proceed with a pair of lawsuits filed in Orange County which, if successful, could invalidate hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots cast across the state.

The lawsuits charge that absentee ballots have been tabulated in most California counties without adequate safeguards to determine whether absentee voters applied for their own ballots.

State election laws require that voters must sign their own applications to receive absentee ballots. But the secretary of state’s office, in guidelines issued to county registrars earlier this year, declared that it was unnecessary to compare signatures on absentee ballot applications with those on original affidavits of registration.

Citing scattered reports that Republican Party workers may have improperly submitted applications on behalf of voters, the Smith campaign is demanding that all ballots not specifically checked be invalidated. A ruling in favor of Smith, Dann said, could swing the results back in favor of the San Francisco prosecutor.

The suit to invalidate the ballots is scheduled to be heard Nov. 30. Meanwhile, an earlier suit brought by Smith--demanding that the vote count in Orange County be halted until a full comparison of signatures was undertaken--is set for a hearing Friday. Rather than check the signatures, the Orange County registrar’s office has temporarily shut down its absentee ballot-counting operation.

State Republican officials, who mailed out more than 6.5 million absentee ballot applications to GOP households, have denied improperly submitting completed applications on behalf of voters.

Meanwhile, the chief of the secretary of state’s elections division contended that the Smith campaign is misreading the law.

“We certainly don’t advocate people putting in applications for other people,” said Caren Daniels-Meade. “But the fact of the matter is that election officials’ main purpose is to make sure the proper person votes. . . .”

The secretary of state’s office said that 37 counties across California, including all of the largest counties, do not check the validity of absentee ballot application signatures.