Bell Gardens : 4 Candidates to File Voter Fraud Charges

Four candidates who lost the race for two seats in the municipal election last month intend to challenge the balloting, alleging that the newly elected council members used intimidation, bribery and other illegal tactics in their campaigns, their attorney said.

Attorney Peter Wallin said he will represent former incumbents Rosa Hernandez and Josefina Macias and challengers Hugo Escalera and Maria Victoria Martinez in a complaint against newly elected council members Maria S. Chacon and Ramiro Morales to be filed with the County Clerk by May 16. Any challenge to an election must be filed within 30 days of its certification.

“From what I’ve heard there was a concentrated effort on the part of (Chacon and Morales’) No-Rezoning Committee to electioneer, which is against the law, and to carry ballots from voters, and such practices should invalidate those ballots,” said Wallin, who in 1992 resigned as Bell Gardens’ longtime city attorney after the No-Rezoning Committee organized a successful campaign to oust four white council members. He now practices with the Santa Monica-based firm Wallin, Kress, Reisman, Price & Pettit.

The four candidates have alleged that the No-Rezoning Committee bullied voters and engaged in other heavy-handed tactics, ranging from falsifying absentee ballots to illegally registering non-citizens and encouraging them to vote with absentee ballots. The new council members denied all charges of voter fraud.

“It’s not something we’re making up because we’re sore losers,” Martinez said. “Other people are seeing it too.”

The candidates are collecting more information to turn over to the Los Angeles County district attorney, Escalera said.

“People are telling us that ‘No-Rezoning was there when we voted, they told us what holes to punch, they gave us a stamp, then took the ballot with them and said thank you very much,’ ” he said. “If we let it go it will happen every election. . . . The problem is a lot people don’t want to talk. They’re afraid.”

Chacon vehemently denied the allegations, which dogged her throughout the campaign.

“Those are lies,” Chacon said. “We ran a clean campaign and I feel sorry for the people who are throwing those allegations because it’s hurting our Hispanic community.”

However, Chacon admitted to providing voters with stamps to mail their absentee ballots. Caren Daniels-Meade, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, said handing out stamps is a violation of the Election Code, but is rarely prosecuted.

Daniels-Meade said other allegations had “been brought to our attention, but we haven’t directly begun an investigation.” Reports of illegal registration or harassment of voters can be made by calling (800) 345-VOTE, she said.

If the candidates are to win the election challenge, they must prove that any illegally cast vote affected the outcome of the election, officials said. No-Rezoning Committee candidates won the April 12 race by a margin of more than 2 to 1, relying heavily on more than 900 absentee ballots.

It is “highly unlikely” that any voter fraud is widespread enough to affect the outcome of such a landslide, said Wendell Patterson, manager of voter records for the County Registrar.

The district attorney’s office would not confirm whether the allegations are being investigated.