ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE

A special task force from the House of Representatives has gone astray in restricting public testimony at a Santa Ana hearing Saturday that will delve into allegations of voter fraud. The members of Congress, two Republicans and one Democrat, are considering former Rep. Robert K. Dornan’s protest of his defeat last November by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

The decision of the task force to travel to the 46th Congressional District was right. It gives residents a chance to look at the way one part of the federal government operates and, more important, it gives people living in the district a chance to have their voices heard. But limiting statements to officials such as California Secretary of State Bill Jones and Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi is shortsighted. The visitors from Washington are depriving themselves of expertise from representatives of community groups experienced in voter education and registration programs, especially among immigrants.

Jones and Capizzi are investigating whether noncitizens voted in the Sanchez-Dornan race last November. Jones announced last month that several hundred people who registered to vote on forms supplied by the Latino rights group Hermandad Mexicana Nacional cast ballots illegally. The group has denied helping noncitizens to register. So far there has been no evidence that the number of allegedly illegal ballots was sufficient to shift the outcome of the election, in which Sanchez beat Dornan by fewer than 1,000 votes.

Sanchez has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the election. But the investigation of Hermandad, the fact that Sanchez is a Latina and a recent wave of immigrant bashing across California and in some other states have sparked concern among many Sanchez supporters.

Voting is at the heart of democracy, and voting fraud has to be stamped out when it is detected. But the way to investigate such allegations is to gather evidence and listen to as wide a spectrum of opinion as possible, not to limit the number of those who are heard.