Many Dornan ‘Suspects’ Prove Legitimate Voters

Former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, who is seeking to overturn his congressional defeat by claiming voter fraud, alleges that as many as 700 votes in last year’s election are “suspect” because they were cast by large groups of voters who share common addresses.

But a review of the allegation turned up a large number of registered voters, including U.S. Marines, nuns, senior citizens and even some Dornan supporters.

“I don’t have time to comment about Dornan’s charges,” said Sister Leticia, the mother superior who runs St. Francis Home, a board and care facility for the aged and infirm in Santa Ana whose 18 Catholic nuns--16 Democrats and two Republicans--made Dornan’s list.

“We’re busy taking care of the residents,” said Sister Leticia, whose given name is Lorenza Rodriguez.

However, Dornan’s claim prompted an angry retort from another nun, who did not want to be identified.

“He’s just a sore loser,” said the nun, pointing her finger at a reporter. “Several of the sisters here vote. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” said Dornan attorney William Hart, who is helping the ex-congressman investigate claims of voter fraud. “It was strictly the number [of voters at St. Francis Home] that caught our attention. We’re not saying that Catholic nuns, or families, are suspicious.”

In seeking to help prove that voter fraud by noncitizens, particularly Latinos, caused him to lose his seat in Congress to opponent Loretta Sanchez, Dornan filed an affidavit last month with a congressional committee questioning more than 700 “suspect” votes. The list contained 127 examples of large numbers of voters sharing the same address.

Those 700 votes, along with Dornan’s claims that 1,789 illegal votes were cast in the 46th Congressional District last November, helped convince the House Contested Election Task Force to give Dornan subpoena power to gather documentation of voter fraud. The subcommittee voted to hold a formal hearing on the merits of his claims.

Bill Schweitzer, the attorney hired by the Republicans on the committee, said the Republican-dominated subcommittee did not rely solely on the claim of the 700 “suspect” votes before deciding to investigate further. Among other things, members were swayed by the ongoing voter fraud investigations by the Orange County district attorney’s office and the California secretary of state.

Dornan’s representatives say they came up with the 700 “suspect” votes by locating 127 addresses throughout the 46th Congressional District and finding instances where at least six voters had registered from each address.

Times reporters interviewed residents at 60 of the addresses listed by Dornan as suspicious. In each case, the residents confirmed there were multiple registered voters living at the locations and The Times found no evidence of illegal or nonexistent voters at any of them. In a handful of cases, residents said there were more registered voters in the household than Dornan included in his list.

Most of the locations on Dornan’s list with 10 or more voters each were apartment complexes, mobile home parks, convalescent homes and the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin.

Steve Jost, chief of staff for Sanchez, said Dornan owes Congress and Orange County citizens an apology.

“It seems his support of men and women in uniform extends only so far as they advantage his reelection,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear what the bishop thinks about one of his flock questioning the right of nuns to vote.”

Many of those who learned from The Times they were on the list were outraged, including some Vietnamese American voters, many of whom have been Dornan’s most loyal constituents because of his anti-Communist beliefs. Doan Bui, who shares a home with five other family members who vote, responded with an obscenity.

“Just because we live in Santa Ana doesn’t mean we’re all . . . illegal,” said Bui, who said he voted for Dornan.

But not everyone shared Bui’s opinion.

Anaheim resident Anthony Quan, whose home was used as a residence by 10 voters, said he will continue to support Dornan despite the former congressman’s attacks on immigrants, particularly Latinos.

“I don’t care if they’re targeting immigrants,” Quan said. “I voted for Dornan because he helped my family” on immigration matters.

Norma Hinkson, a Dornan supporter whose home is used as a residence by seven voters, said she was not upset that her address was included on Dornan’s list.

“We all voted for him. I understand why he’s doing this. If there was fraud involved, it should be proved,” she said.

In the affidavit filed last month, Dornan said the disclosure of the 127 addresses from throughout the district resulted from “our investigation.”

In the document, Dornan representatives said: “As many as 12 registered voters actually voted from some of these residential addresses!! This is a suspect category of the vote that must be thoroughly investigated.”

However, Dornan attorney Hart said Thursday that he and others helping Dornan try to prove he lost because of voter fraud did not talk to any of the “suspect” voters before submitting their addresses to the congressional committee.

Instead, Hart said that Dornan’s team simply looked for multiple voters living at the same address.

“Multiple people giving the same residence as a voting address is something that has been done in other districts,” Hart said. “It’s a common feature of voter fraud. . . . It’s not a very typical living situation, having six to 12 voters in the same residence.”

That came as news to Joyce Georgieff, whose North Santa Ana address made Dornan’s list because of the six registered voters who had been living there as of last year’s election. They include Georgieff, her husband, a daughter, two sons and another family member, now deceased, who voted before she died.

Georgieff and her daughter, both Green Party members, are the only non-Republicans in the household.

“We’re a family, for Pete’s sake! I used to be a Republican, but Dornan frustrates the crap out of me. His blustery antics get tiresome after a while,” Georgieff said. “He and the Republican Party have gone off a cliff and left us behind. I’m not surprised we make him paranoid.”

Marine spokesman Chris O’Leary declined to comment on Dornan’s charges, but he too was surprised that the ex-congressman had included the Marine base among his list of addresses.

After confirming that the 17 voters--not a Democrat among them--who listed the Tustin Marine base as their residence are active-duty Marines, O’Leary said, “Marines vote too.”

Hart conceded there was nothing suspicious about Tustin Marines. “If 17 Marines there are registered to vote, that’s OK,” he said.

Raymond Zamora, a retired construction worker whose Santa Ana home includes six voters, reacted with scorn when told his address was on Dornan’s list.

“Tell the guy to give it up,” said Zamora, a lifelong Democrat. “Dornan’s problem is that he can’t accept the fact that a Hispanic woman beat him.”

Although many on the list were never Dornan supporters, Hart expressed some concern that some Republicans who voted for Dornan may have been alienated by hearing their addresses called suspect.

“I’m not saying there might [not] be a home somewhere with eight adult voters [legally] living there and all voted. . . . We have never asserted that any one of these people voted improperly,” Hart said.

Instead, Hart said the 700 voters became suspects because they fell in the category of “one more unusual feature in the context of a lot of irregularities.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer Lily Dizon, Times correspondents John Canalis and Lori Haycox and Dick Lewis, a Newport Beach computer analyst.

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