Rights Group: Many Voters Intimidated or Rejected at Polls

A Latino civil rights group charged Thursday that large numbers of voters, including many new citizens, were intimidated or turned away from the polls on election day.

Vera Marquez, state president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said her office received dozens of calls from people who said they had registered to vote but were turned away at the polls because their names didn’t appear on the list of registered voters.

“They were scared. Some of them were crying,” Marquez said at a news conference outside the registrar of voters office. “They were simply intimidated.”

But Marquez had no documentation supporting the intimidation allegations. She said a coalition of Latino voter-rights groups, including the Southwest Voter Registration Project, will issue a report with such documentation in the next few weeks.

With Marquez were several Democratic Party volunteers who said they too fielded calls from frustrated would-be voters who couldn’t find their polling places or who were not allowed to vote because their names were not on the required list.

“I was really appalled at the disorganization,” said Marti Schrank, a volunteer coordinator for the Democratic Party. “It didn’t seem like the people working at the polls were being helpful. It was almost like they were being selective” in obstructing new citizens.

Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said her office noted no unusual problems on election day. “There were provisional ballots for everyone who wanted to vote,” she said.

For weeks, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who trails Democrat Loretta Sanchez by 665 votes in the 46th Congressional District, has charged that people who are not citizens voted and may have affected the outcome of the election. The registrar is expected to complete that count by 3 p.m. today.