Ballot Count to Resume, Judge Rules : Election: Feinstein stretches her margin over Huffington as absentee votes are tallied. Harman overtakes Brooks in congressional race and Kuykendall pulls ahead of Karnette in crucial Assembly contest, but both remain too close to call.

Rejecting Republican charges of widespread voter fraud, a Superior Court judge Monday ordered absentee ballot counting resumed in Los Angeles County, as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein widened her lead over challenger Mike Huffington.

That action also came as a Republican pulled ahead in a crucial legislative race that would give the GOP control of the state Assembly for the first time in 25 years. And a Democratic congresswoman took her first lead in an effort to retain her seat representing the South Bay.

Judge Robert O’Brien ordered the tally of absentee ballots resumed two days after Republican Party activist Allen Brandstater persuaded another judge to temporarily halt the count, claiming that illegal immigrants, children and even a dog had been registered to vote.

The lawyer who led the effort to halt the vote tally argued that current ballot counting techniques do not allow authorities to determine how fraudulent absentee voting affects the outcome of elections. Stephen Fleishman told O’Brien that information might later be needed to help the U.S. Senate determine the winner of the Senate contest, should the dispute reach that level.

But O’Brien headed off the possibility--at least temporarily--that the Senate, where the GOP will take control Jan. 1, would have any say in the close race between Democrat Feinstein and Republican Huffington.

O’Brien ruled in a terse order that Brandstater “failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant deviating from the established statutory election process.” But some Republicans said they might continue to press their legal challenge.

Feinstein’s camp charged that the attack on the vote-counting procedures was orchestrated by Huffington out of “desperation”--a charge denied by Huffington aides, despite ties between those mounting the legal challenge and the Huffington campaign.

With tabulation of nearly 100,000 Los Angeles County absentee votes added to the statewide vote totals Monday, Feinstein had stretched her margin to 132,540--nearly 9,000 votes more than on Election Day.

In Orange County, Registrar Donald Tanney rejected only 30 of the county’s 48,000 absentee absentee ballots Monday. The ballots, which were part of 300 ballots challenged by Huffington and Feinstein camps, had voter signatures missing or just were “too far from the signatures we had on file to determine it was the same person,” Tanney said.

Tanney made his ruling with attorneys from both political camps in attendance, he said.

“These 30 ballots are not just thrown away, but locked up and kept for 22 months,” Tanney explained. “If this issue goes to court and if the court asks, then I can tell them my reasons for rejecting them.”

In Orange County, Huffington swept the Senate race with 59% of the vote to 32% for Feinstein.

Statewide, the tally for absentee ballots is crucial. Tanney said his office completed signature verification of the absentee ballots, which will be counted Wednesday.

“Hopefully, we will have the 48,000 counted by Wednesday evening,” Tanney said. “We plan to have the election declared official by next week.”

Another 3,500 ballots, classified as “provisional” still must be counted, Tanney said.

Provisional absentee ballots are those sent to voters who instead decide to vote at a polling place, he said. “We have to make sure the person doesn’t vote twice,” he said.

The new ballots in Los Angeles County helped reverse, for now, the election night result in the race for the state Assembly seat currently held by Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach). Her 64-vote lead was turned into a 476-vote advantage for challenger Steve Kuykendall, a Rancho Palos Verdes Republican, in a race that could help give the GOP control of the Assembly.

The newly tabulated votes also helped push Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) to a narrow 260-vote lead over Republican Susan Brooks, reversing the 93-vote lead that Brooks had after election night. Harman’s advantage came as something of a surprise, since she trailed the Republican challenger in absentee ballots that were counted on election night.

None of the election results, however, were final. More than 500,000 votes statewide, including 120,000 from Los Angeles County, remain to be tallied. Election officials said they hope to have another update later this week and to complete all tabulation by next week.

Feinstein’s lead seemed to be safe, given the trend of absentee ballots in her favor. Huffington would need about 62% of the remaining ballots to make up the difference. The two other races remained too close to call.

The focus of all three races shifted Monday morning from the registrars’ counting rooms around the state to O’Brien’s courtroom in Downtown Los Angeles, where representatives of several candidates gathered to monitor the proceedings.

Huffington spokeswoman Jennifer Grossman sought to distance the candidate from the court action, saying that the campaign had not directed the effort. “We are not the plaintiff in the case and we merely have counsel now to represent our interests,” Grossman said.

Brandstater’s lawyer, however, said that individuals affiliated with the Huffington campaign had been among those who approached him seeking to challenge the ballots. Another of Brandstater’s attorneys works in the law firm advising the Huffington campaign. And Huffington’s father, Roy, was present on Saturday, when a judge issued an order temporarily blocking the vote count.

The Huffington campaign declined to discuss the presence of the candidate’s father at Superior Court Judge Coleman Swart’s home, where the order was issued. None of the other parties involved could offer an explanation.

“Sen. Feinstein is pleased the judge saw through the charade of this lawsuit and turned it away,” said Feinstein spokesman Bill Chandler. “Each passing day makes Sen. Feinstein more confident the results of Election Day will be upheld.”

Brandstater is a longtime Republican activist and self-described “arch conservative” who is host of a radio talk show. His court papers requesting a halt to the vote count claimed that Democrats had been involved in widespread voter fraud.

Brandstater had earlier complained that voter rolls had been padded with illegal immigrants, children and others--complaints that were forwarded to the district attorney’s office and became part of an ongoing criminal investigation. The activist had said that the standard counting technique would separate ballots from the voter-signed envelopes in which they were received, therefore destroying crucial evidence that could be used to contest the election later.

With the courts closed over the weekend, Brandstater’s attorney sought out a Superior Court judge at home to obtain the order that temporarily halted tabulations. Swart was a Republican Party activist before he took the bench in 1982 and has described himself in interviews as a close friend of Republican County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Swart declined Monday to discuss the case or the presence of Huffington’s father.

On Monday, Brandstater’s attorney argued again that it was important to preserve the ballots and envelopes as evidence of potential voter fraud. He said the materials might later be used to “bring evidence before the U.S. Senate.”

O’Brien said that he had been presented with no evidence to prove that improperly registered voters had voted illegally. Under sharp questioning by the judge, Fleishman, the Republican attorney, conceded that he had submitted only one declaration that indicated an absentee vote may have been cast improperly.

A spokeswoman in the secretary of state’s office said that the court action was worrisome because it might have postponed final certification of the election beyond the Dec. 17 legal deadline.

That sort of question could potentially have thrown the Feinstein-Huffington contest into the U.S. Senate, an unusual but not unprecedented event.

The Senate has no set procedure for such decisions, in which it must decide whether to seat a new member, refuse to seat the member or seat the member “without prejudice,” pending an investigation.

In the last case, the Senate can subsequently remove a member.

Times staff writers Paul Jacobs, Ted Johnson, Hugo Martin, Carl Ingram and David Reyes contributed to this story.