Dornan, Sanchez Square Off Before House Task Force

Rep. Loretta Sanchez and former Congressman Robert K. Dornan faced off Saturday in a contentious hearing before a congressional task force, with Dornan blaming his loss last November on rampant voter fraud and Sanchez dismissing his contentions as the rantings of a desperate man.

The all-day hearing, held before about 300 people at the Orange County Hall of Administration while 2,000 protested outside, featured forceful arguments and caustic exchanges but ended without resolving whether Dornan would get a new election.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.), made no decision on whether Dornan would get another shot at Sanchez, who won by 984 votes.

But Ehlers declared that Dornan’s camp had made a strong enough case to continue searching for fraudulent ballots, and he urged the Sanchez camp to turn over the information Dornan wants.

“There’s no question there was fraud in this election,” Ehlers said. “The question is how much.”

Ehlers indicated that more hearings were likely and that it would be “several months” before the matter is finally decided.

Meanwhile, outside the hall, Sanchez supporters marched, chanted and decried what they called a Republican-led campaign to vilify immigrants and blunt Latino political strength. A handful of Republican volunteers and anti-immigration activists stood by quietly and cheered Dornan on.

“Viva Sanchez! Abajo con Dornan!” shouted labor leader Angela Keefe as hundreds cheered. “Up with Sanchez! Down with Dornan!”

The hearing, though inconclusive, appeared to force a showdown over the Dornan investigation. The panel reaffirmed Dornan’s right to compel groups and individuals to turn over sensitive information that might involve possible voter fraud.

Dornan’s lawyers said they particularly want to look at federal databases that would allow them to verify the citizenship of each of the 106,255 voters who cast ballots in the 46th Congressional District race.

Yet lawyers for groups who have received subpoenas from Dornan reiterated their contention that Dornan’s tactics were illegal. The Sanchez camp threatened to take their case to the full House of Representatives and possibly into federal court.

In response, Dornan’s team vowed a course of action that could have Sanchez--and anyone else who ignores a subpoena--held in contempt of Congress.

Saturday’s hearing marked the first time that Sanchez and Dornan squared off in the same room over allegations of illegal voting.

Dornan and his lawyers made their case first, outlining what they said was an unprecedented example of willful fraud--replete with phantom voters, double voters, noncitizens and illegal immigrants. They contended to have discovered hundreds of illegal ballots, as well as government vote-counting procedures so shoddy as to call into question the outcome of the Dornan-Sanchez race.

In papers filed with Congress in February, Dornan contended that his investigators had discovered 1,789 illegal ballots. On Saturday, Dornan and his lawyers backed away from some specific contentions but insisted that Dornan had been robbed of the congressional seat he held for 18 years.

“Hundreds of my constituents had their votes canceled out by fraud,” Dornan told the congressional panel. “My victory should be restored.”

Dornan asserted that his investigation ought to go forward because it had uncovered problems threatening the integrity of elections nationwide.

“I believe you will feel compelled to come to the same conclusion I have,” Dornan said from the podium. “That there is a historic, constitutional crisis of voter fraud. It is growing nationwide, and it is growing year in and year out.”

Sanchez fired back, contending that Dornan’s reckless investigation had smeared hundreds of legal voters and legal immigrants. She referred to the contentions as “Dornan’s desperate delusions.”

“It has been insulting and humiliating for these people to be named as players in a huge conspiracy when all they wanted to do was exercise their constitutional right to vote,” Sanchez said. “Bob Dornan’s case is composed of distortion, rumors and innuendo.”

Sanchez testified that her investigators had found Dornan’s contentions lacking in almost every respect. At most, she said, about 70 ballots could be nullified, far fewer than needed to require a new election.

Sanchez told the task force that Dornan’s case was so weak, and his request for investigatory powers so sweeping, that allowing him to go forward would threaten the rights of thousands of voters.

“For this committee to sanction such a broad-based investigation would be an invasion of every American’s right to vote,” Sanchez said.

The interplay among committee members showed that the ultimate decision would come down to politics as much as plain math. The division between the task force’s two Republicans--Ehlers and Bob Ney of Ohio--and the lone Democrat, Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, was clear from the outset.

Ehlers underscored the panel’s “very serious and weighty responsibility” in determining the correct outcome of the election. He said Dornan had clearly established that at least some fraud took place.

Hoyer indicated that he opposed the inquiry, saying Dornan had not found enough illicit ballots to change the outcome of the election. Hoyer said he opposed giving Dornan the power to compel people to testify.

“Six months into the process,” Hoyer said, “Dornan has not been able to produce credible evidence that if true would alter the outcome of the election.”

For the all the histrionics, few new allegations surfaced.

Dornan attorneys Bill Hart and Michael Schroeder, the chairman of the California GOP, told the task force that independent investigations have already established enough fraud to entitle them to dig deeper.

They pointed to evidence compiled by Secretary of State Bill Jones suggesting that at as many as 303 people registered to vote before they had become citizens and voted in the 46th Congressional District. All of those 303 signed up to vote at Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Santa Ana immigrant rights organization now under criminal investigation.

At Saturday’s hearing, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi used a larger number--547--which he described as those throughout the county who voted and were noncitizens when they registered through Hermandad. It includes 102 people born outside the United States for whom the INS could find no records.

Dornan’s lawyers said that if they were allowed to expand their investigation, they would undoubtedly uncover more voter fraud.

“We have uncovered what we think is the single largest example of voter fraud in a federal election in the last 50 years, and yes, maybe in this century,” Hart said. “That is extraordinary, and reason enough for us to examine all of the votes cast in the 46th Congressional District.”

Wylie A. Aitken, an attorney for Sanchez, said that Dornan’s case fell apart on critical examination. He said his investigators had found Dornan’s contentions grossly exaggerated, and that he had wrongly accused many people of breaking the law.

Aitken listed several Dornan allegations that he said turned out to be false: that many people voted twice, that others voted from their businesses while living elsewhere, and that illegal immigrants cast ballots.

“Dornan’s charges are a constantly moving target,” Aitken said. “You disprove one, and they make another.”

Aitken also attacked one of the principle findings of Secretary of State Jones--that 303 votes cast in the election were invalid. He said his investigators found that many of the 303 were in fact citizens who had lived in the U.S. for years.

“The true story of ‘voter fraud’ in Orange County is that Dornan tried to use 303 people to undo the will of the people,” Aitken said.

Aitken also argued that Jones was construing the law too narrowly. Just because someone registered to vote prior to being sworn in as a citizen doesn’t mean their votes are invalid, he said. Aitken said at least 55 people of the 303 unlawful votes listed by Jones were citizens when they voted.

Jones strongly disagreed, saying the vote of anyone who registered prior to becoming a citizen was invalid--no matter when the voter was sworn in as a citizen.

The fate of Dornan’s probe likely will hinge on whether the Immigration and Naturalization Service is willing and able to check the citizenship records for all the voters in the 46th District. Richard K. Rogers, director of INS’ Los Angeles office, couldn’t answer that question Saturday. He said the request was still being considered.

Ehlers said it is “technically feasible’ and that he was inclined to compel INS to provide the answers.

“It is simply a question of whether it can be done without violating privacy concerns,” Ehlers said. “And I believe that can be done also.”

The panel also heard impassioned testimony from Orange County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever.

Dornan’s lawyers had characterized Lever’s vote-counting methods as unreliable, and said her own election workers had broken so many rules on Election Day that there was no way to ensure against fraud.

“Ms. Lever’s testimony was selective, disingenuous and in many respects misleading,” Schroeder said.

Lever asserted that she had accounted for every vote cast. “Any allegation or insinuation that voters did not exist for ballots cast is not supported by facts and is simply false,” Lever said.

Outside, more than 1,000 Sanchez supporters marched to protest Dornan’s contentions of illegal voting.

Though vastly outnumbered, a few people demonstrated to show their support of Dornan. One was Brent Meyer, a Cal State Fullerton student and member of Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative political club.

“I don’t have anything against Mexicans--I’m just against voter fraud,” Meyer said. “I don’t think Dornan would win if there were another election.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Nancy Cleeland, Geoff Boucher and correspondent Jeff Kass.

* OUTSPOKEN OUTSIDE: Immigrant backers and critics exchange taunts during rally where thousands gathered. A34

* COVERAGE: A34