Absentee Ballot Count Alters 3 O.C. Elections

Three city council candidates in Buena Park, Newport Beach and Santa Ana fell from council members-elect to possible losers Wednesday after 48,000 absentee ballots from the Nov. 8 election were counted.

Looking like photo-finish winners on election night, candidates Larry T. Wieck in Buena Park, Ron Winship in Newport Beach and Alberta Christy in Santa Ana found Wednesday that they had been overtaken by their nearest rivals when the absentee ballots were counted.

But with 5,500 so-called provisional ballots still to be reviewed for validity, the results are not final, and no one in these tight races is ready to concede defeat.

Meanwhile, in other election results:

* Orange County Municipal Judge Dan C. Dutcher conceded the election to Assistant Dist. Atty. Caryl Lee, who was leading by less than 1% after Wednesday’s tally.

* There was no significant change in the outcome of the vote for Measure A, the controversial initiative that requires a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Those favoring the airport made up 51.2% of the votes cast.

None of Wednesday’s front-runners appeared more jubilant than Buena Park Councilman Arthur C. Brown, who moved ahead of Wieck, a city planning commissioner, by only 10 votes. The usually reserved Brown danced a goal-line jig in the lobby of City Hall when he heard that he had pulled ahead.

“I don’t think it’s going to change,” he said of his 10-vote lead. “I came out ahead of (Wieck) in the first count of absentee ballots.”

Wieck, who plans to wait until every ballot is tallied before deciding whether to seek a recount, said, “Boy, I’ll tell you, it’s been back and forth; it’s been an emotional roller coaster. You work hard all through your campaign to win, and for the registrar not to be able to come up with the results is as frustrating as it can be.”

Donald Tanney, the county registrar of voters, said that once the vote count is certified--probably next Monday--candidates have until Nov. 28 to submit written requests for recounts.

Tanney said the provisional ballots still being checked are from throughout the county, so he does not know if the lead in the three council races could switch again.

“History says of the provisional ballots that a lot of them will not be counted because the people were not registered or there was some kind of problem there,” Tanney said.

Provisional ballots can include those cast by voters who requested absentee ballots but instead went to the polling places on Election Day.

Perhaps the only nail-biting race decided by Wednesday’s absentee vote count was the caustic match-up between Dutcher, a 12-year member of the bench, and prosecutor Lee. Dutcher sued Lee for libel during the campaign.

With the absentee vote count showing Dutcher eight-tenths of a percentage point behind Lee--a 1,149-vote margin--an embittered Dutcher conceded the election. He contended that the campaign methods employed by Lee and her campaign manager cost them the respect of the legal community, which backed his reelection bid.

“I don’t envy them from two standpoints, either in the way they achieved (victory) or what life is going to be like from now on in the legal community,” Dutcher said. “There’s just universal opprobrium not only in our court, but throughout the courts in the county.”

Lee, who has denied Dutcher’s charges that she lied about his record, said: “ ‘All’s well that ends well’ is the saying that fits how I feel. . . . I plan to act professionally, and I expect everyone else will too.”

Dutcher’s defeat was the fourth in the last 16 suffered by a sitting Orange County judge, according to judicial officials.

Defeat also may not be easy for those who appeared to be leading in the three council races prior to Wednesday’s absentee ballot count.

Just a few days ago, Christy had said all she wanted was to “hear the fat lady sing” as a sign that she had survived the ongoing ballot count for the Santa Ana council seat. Instead, all she heard on Wednesday was a mean tune that soured her chances of taking a seat on the council. Her 150-vote election night lead fell to a 223-vote deficit.

“Let’s just wait till it’s over with,” she said, refusing to comment further.

The new front-runner, Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Tony Espinoza, was hopeful but hesitant to declare victory.

“I’m glad the trend changed, but it might change again,” Espinoza said. “I really won’t feel any emotions as far as whether I won or lost--I won’t be able to feel anything until Monday.”

A Christy loss would be a setback for the city’s political Establishment, including the police and firefighters’ associations and the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, which had backed her third try at a council seat.

The opposite may be true in Newport Beach, where Winship’s fall from the lead could cause a collective sigh of relief from the city’s business community.

Winship, a public relations consultant and part-time waiter, was the only council candidate to oppose a commercial airport at El Toro. Edwards, a member of the city Planning Commission, has aggressively campaigned for the airport development.

Both candidates said there is nothing they can do but sit and wait for the vote count to end.

“Twenty-six votes separated us (on election night),” said Edwards, who pulled ahead by 180 votes. “There’s nothing you can do. The die is cast and you have to sit there and see what happens. I hope this is final.”

Like others who saw their leads evaporate, Winship said he would not concede until all the votes were counted.

“Everything in this race has been unexpected,” he said. “Nothing has surprised me yet. I’m disappointed that we initially pulled ahead in the initial absentee ballots and I hoped that would continue. . . . It’s a real lottery right now.”

In Buena Park, Wieck seemed to have won the seat by 34 votes--until Wednesday.

“I am not conceding and I am waiting until all the avenues have been checked out,” he said, adding that he was too emotionally torn up at this point to say whether he would demand a recount now that he was 10 votes behind Brown, the incumbent.

Brown, meanwhile, said Wieck could demand a recount if he wants one.

“Let him pay for it,” Brown said.

Times staff writer Susan Marquez Owen and correspondents Jon Nalick, Holly J. Wagner and Leslie Wright contributed to this report.

Vote Summary

Absentee ballots are still being counted from the Nov. 8 election and so far the results in three council races have changed. The standings in these races as of Wednesday:

Buena Park / City Council

3 Elected

Votes % Patsy Marshall 8,044 22.3 Gerald N. Sigler 5,175 14.3 Arthur C. Brown* 4,353 12.0 Larry T. Wieck 4,343 12.0 Wiley S. Drake 4,145 11.5 Marilyn Kietzman 3,851 10.7 Lawrence J. Barstow 3,839 10.6 Les McAdams 2,227 6.2

***

Newport Beach / City Council

District 4

Votes % Thomas C. Edwards 11,645 50.1 Ron Winship 11,465 49.9

***

Santa Ana / City Council

Ward 4

Votes % Tony Espinoza 15,998 49.9 Alberta Christy 15,775 49.2

* Incumbent

Source: Orange County registrar of voters