Local : Absentee Ballot Count Resumed

Workers today resumed counting about 50,000 outstanding absentee ballots from the Nov. 6 election after attorneys for Democratic attorney general candidate Arlo Smith dropped their demand to halt the tabulation.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney said this morning that his staff will begin processing the remaining ballots immediately in the same manner they previously were counted. He hoped to have the count completed by Tuesday.

“There’s nothing really to change,” Tanney said. “We intend to work through the weekend and have the results certified before the Board of Supervisors on the 27th.”

At issue was whether or not Tanney was required to compare signatures on applications for absentee ballots with signatures on original affidavits of voter registration before counting the votes. Tanney, following guidelines issued by the secretary of state, contends that he need not do that, while Smith’s campaign claims it was required by law.

“Our original purposes have been clearly satisfied,” said Allan Stokke, an attorney for the Smith campaign. “We wanted to draw attention to the fact that illegal votes were being counted.”

Smith’s campaign intends to press forward with a second lawsuit challenging the legality of the bulk of absentee ballots cast statewide. That lawsuit, filed against the secretary of state’s office, which issued instructions to county registrars on how to process absentee ballots, is scheduled for a Nov. 30 hearing in Santa Ana.

“We’re going to go with the other case. It makes a lot more sense,” said Smith campaign manager Marc Dann. “Instead of litigating it twice, we’re going to litigate it once.”

The Orange County vote count had been frozen since last weekend, when attorneys for Smith’s campaign obtained a writ ordering Tanney to either change his method of processing absentee ballots or stop counting altogether until today’s court hearing.

While most local races have already been decided, council races in Costa Mesa and Anaheim are still close enough that they could be decided by the remaining absentee votes.