Latino Group Seeks Protection for O.C. Voters

A Latino civil rights organization has asked the U.S. Justice Department to protect polling places in Orange County next Tuesday, saying some newly registered voters may be intimidated by signs from anti-illegal immigration activists that warn noncitizens not to vote.

“There is an overall strategy by individuals to discourage new voters who are registering in record numbers to become citizens and participate in the democratic process,” said Arturo Montez, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“We know who it’s directed at,” Montez said. “It’s directed at us.”

The fliers, to be posted near polling places throughout the state, were designed and distributed by backers of Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration measure passed by voters two years ago but tied up in the courts since. In large block letters, they warn: “Only citizens can vote! Violators will be prosecuted!”

Barbara Coe, who founded and chairs the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, said the fliers, mailed in a monthly newsletter to hundreds of coalition members, are meant to prevent widespread voter fraud.

The coalition urges members to post the fliers at least 100 feet from polling stations in areas only where other notices are posted and to hand them out only to people who ask for them. On the back of the flier, the group makes recommendations on 16 state propositions.

“This is the only ratty little vehicle that we as private citizens have left,” said Coe, a Huntington Beach resident who was investigated by federal agents two years ago after she distributed similar fliers.

Coe claimed large numbers of noncitizens have been registered to vote as part of a high-level plan to support Democratic candidates.

But Rosalyn Lever, the registrar of voters in Orange County, said no evidence supports such a theory.

“There has not been any incident in any recent years of noncitizens voting in Orange County,” Lever said. She added that county employees have been trained to document and report any efforts to intimidate voters at the polls.

In Los Angeles on Tuesday, a coalition of civil rights activists unveiled a nationwide plan aimed at countering possible harassment and intimidation of voters.

The effort--dubbed Latino Election Watch ‘96--includes toll-free hotlines for complaints and a team of lawyers from California to New York ready to investigate potential violations of the Voting Rights Act and go into federal court seeking injunctions or other relief.

“We have made great efforts to ensure that our community comes out to vote, and we want to make damn sure they will be given the opportunity,” said Antonia Hernandez, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The activists said they acted because of a political climate they said is hostile to immigrants and could lead to intimidating tactics at polling places.

“It’s not unlikely that people are going to show up at the polls and start asking voters for proof of citizenship--which is illegal,” said Arturo Vargas of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

Concern is especially high this year, election monitors said, because hundreds of thousands of new citizens will head to the polls for the first time. Intensive registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts are underway to help boost Latino participation.

In Orange County, Montez said he would ask for help from Latino organizations based in Los Angeles, as well as from the federal government. He wrote to the Department of Justice civil rights division Monday, asking for federal agents to monitor polling stations.

A department spokeswoman said such requests are usually forwarded to units formed by the U.S. attorney’s office during election periods, and that any complaints would be investigated by the FBI.

Such was the case two years ago, when Coe posted similar fliers outside polling stations several days before the election. Almost immediately, she was questioned by an FBI agent. No charges were filed, and Coe claimed the interrogation, which lasted for three hours, was a form of intimidation.

“We are well versed in what the laws are, and we have no desire to violate the law,” she said.

Coe said “I have no idea” how many fliers would be posted or how effective they would be, “but it’s the only tool we have left at our disposal [to eliminate fraud].”

Montez said the campaign was meant to discourage new citizens from voting in contests where a strong Latino vote could make the difference. “We say it’s a racist tactic because it’s being done selectively,” he said. “I don’t think they’re posting these things in Newport Beach or Beverly Hills.”

The current conflict stirs up ill feelings that date back to 1988, when the Orange County Republican Party posted 20 private security guards at polling stations in a heavily Latino assembly district.

The guards carried signs in English and Spanish warning noncitizens not to vote. At some precincts, guards sat behind tables with poll workers. One guard was said to have handed ballots to voters; another asked a voter to produce identification.

Five Latino voters sued the GOP for violating their rights. The party later settled the suit for $400,000.

“You would think that people would learn from the past,” said San Francisco attorney Kathleen Purcell, who represented the plaintiffs. “What occurred in 1988 was at best ill-advised and at worst blatant interference with people’s right to vote. Apparently, some in [Orange County] have not learned the lesson or choose not to respect it.”

Told of Coe’s group’s plans for this election, Purcell said, “It sounds like a replay of what happened in 1988. Theoretically, they’re targeting people ineligible to vote, but in reality it has a chilling effect on people who have every right to vote.”

The local Republican Party is not involved in the distribution of fliers, and Coe said her group is bipartisan. “I’m sure it probably made some [Republicans] very nervous,” she said of the fliers, “but I never got a call from anyone” in the party.

Raoul Silva, a Republican activist from Garden Grove and former Assembly candidate, said he has never found evidence of illegal voting by residents.

“I’ve walked all those Hispanic precincts, knocked on doors and have never found anybody registered to vote who is ineligible,” Silva said. “They’re doing a very stupid thing.”

Silva said that GOP officials will alienate potential Latino members unless they distance the party from Coe and her group.

“A lot of people, including Republicans, have got to understand that certain districts in Orange County and California are going to be almost entirely Hispanic in the near future,” Silva said.

“Just because these areas are almost all Hispanic doesn’t mean that there are ineligible voters registered there,” he said. “If [Republicans] want to start carrying California in future presidential campaigns, they better start understanding this.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell.