Sanchez Asks End to Election Inquiry

Calling for a halt to former Congressman Robert K. Dornan’s “reign of terror,” attorneys for U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez said Wednesday that he had failed to prove allegations of massive voter fraud in his upset loss in November and urged a congressional committee to dismiss his election challenge.

Sanchez’s attorneys filed a 45-page report with the House Oversight Committee’s task force investigating Dornan’s contention that the November election was “stolen” from him by hundreds of illegal voters, including noncitizens who voted. Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) won by 984 votes.

Dornan had made repeated contentions that as many as 1,789 ballots were cast illegally. However, a review by The Times of Dornan’s crimes showed that many were overstated and riddled with inaccuracies.

In addition, an investigation by the California secretary of state’s office showed that at most, 372 questionable ballots were cast by voters registered to Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino rights organization, before they became U.S. citizens.

Hermandad is the subject of a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office for allegedly registering noncitizens to vote.

“There is not a shred of evidence that a single noncitizen voted in the 46th Congressional District other than those registered by Hermandad,” said the report. “ . . . It is obvious that there are no other specific, credible allegations of illegal voting by noncitizens, much less any actual evidence that a sufficient number of noncitizens voted to have changed the result of the election.”

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Sanchez’s attorneys asked the committee to throw out Dornan’s challenge and “finally put an end to his reign of terror.” The document also accused him of “terrorizing his political opponents and the entire constituency of Sanchez’s congressional district.”

Dornan’s attorneys condemned the report.

“Loretta Sanchez continues to be in massive denial and is virtually the only remaining person on the face of the planet still talking about there not being a shred of evidence,” attorney Michael Schroeder said.

Sanchez’s attorneys said they found errors in the data supplied by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to state investigators. The INS checked the records of more than 500 people registered by Hermandad in the 46th district and who voted in November. Of these, the INS said about 230 became citizens either before they registered or before they voted.

INS officials said that another 97 people voted before they became citizens. However, the report said that Sanchez’s legal team interviewed 74 of the 97 people and found 56 who proved they became citizens prior to the November election, including some who were “naturalized years ago.”

The secretary of state’s office has said that even in those cases where someone registered as a noncitizen but was naturalized before the election, casting a vote would have been unlawful.

Sanchez’s attorneys estimated that the INS erred more than half the time when the agency said it had no records on some individuals or when officials confirmed that a voter was a noncitizen.

Sanchez’s “investigation reveals that there are fewer illegal noncitizen votes, regardless of whose definition of legal or illegal one accepts, than have been asserted previously based upon the INS records,” the report said.