Dornan’s Subpoenas Cast Doubt on His True Intent

Robert K. Dornan’s claims that voting by noncitizens cost him his seat in Congress have already prompted criminal investigations by the Orange County district attorney and the California secretary of state. Given the evidence the probes have turned up so far, the investigations are warranted.

But Republican Dornan has also asked the House of Representatives to rule that he was defeated by Democrat Loretta Sanchez due to voting by noncitizens. A federal magistrate initially gave him the right to subpoena information in an effort to support his claims, but a federal judge Friday blocked enforcement of subpoenas issued by Dornan. It was difficult to see the relevance of the information Dornan sought to allegations of voter fraud. It appears that Dornan, four months after losing at the polls, is grasping at straws, unable to come to grips with the fact that voters in his 46th Congressional District decided they liked Sanchez better than him.

So far there has been no evidence linking Sanchez to illegal voting. She said that leaders of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, the Latino civil rights group that has been at the center of the investigation, supported one of her opponents in the Democratic primary. It is not known if she benefited from any ineligible ballots in the general election.

Sanchez beat Dornan by fewer than 1,000 votes, out of about 100,000 cast. So far investigators have said they believe Hermandad helped 227 people who were taking citizenship classes at the group’s offices to register to vote in the November election.

Registering to vote before becoming a citizen is illegal. So is voting by a noncitizen. Investigators are trying to determine whether Hermandad illegally helped people to register.

Hermandad has claimed that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service did not make it as clear as it should have to noncitizens that they could not vote merely because they completed citizenship classes. Only after being sworn in as citizens were they eligible to register and to vote. The criminal investigations also will consider whether ineligible voters were motivated by fraud or were merely negligent.

Representatives of Dornan had issued subpoenas to the INS and district attorney’s office and to numerous groups not directly involved in the election.

Catholic Charities of Orange County, a social welfare arm of the church that serves the needy, was ordered by Dornan’s forces to produce materials about the classes in English and citizenship that it conducts, as well as voter registration activities. Yet the agency’s deputy director said the group does not register voters. That raises the question of why a subpoena was issued.

Dornan also had demanded three years of records from the Orange County Social Services Agency showing the names of all those in the congressional district who were dropped from welfare rolls for not being citizens. Jury summonses returned by those claiming not to be citizens were also sought. That puts a large burden on two county agencies that will have to let more important work take a back seat in order to meet Dornan’s scattershot demands for information.

Most immigrants in the 46th District, which includes all or part of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, are Latino. Despite worries that the investigation could hurt Republicans’ standing with Latinos, Dornan’s subpoenas emit the whiff of immigrant-bashing.

The offices of the district attorney and secretary of state are accustomed to looking into charges of electoral fraud; investigations in this area come within their jurisdiction. Dornan, by contrast, appears to be less concerned with protecting the rights of legitimate voters by making sure their votes are not diluted by those ineligible to vote. He seems more concerned with making political capital.

The House Contested Election Task Force, which is investigating the election, heeded the calls by both Dornan and Sanchez to hold a hearing in Orange County. One is scheduled for next month. That is a good idea. So is winding up the House inquiry quickly unless more evidence surfaces that so many illegal ballots were cast that they won the election for Sanchez.