Registrar Set to Release List of Voters in House Probe

Orange County’s registrar of voters said Thursday she would release a list of 4,762 voters whose registration files were requested in connection with the investigation into last fall’s election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Registrar Rosalyn Lever said she would provide the records to Sanchez--whose 984-vote victory over Robert K. Dornan is being contested--as well as to the public by Wednesday unless the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), provides a legal reason why she shouldn’t.

Thomas aide Jason Poblete declined to comment.

The oversight panel asked Lever two weeks ago to provide copies of the more than 4,700 registration affidavits, which contain signatures. It has also requested files with signatures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. On Thursday, House staffers visited Lever’s office to begin discussing ways to collect the data.

Sources involved in the investigation say the committee plans to compare signatures as part of an ongoing quest to determine how many noncitizens registered and voted in the 1996 Orange County elections.

The files would determine whether the investigation is targeting Latinos--which Democrats contend and Republicans deny--and allow individuals to step forward and prove their citizenship to take themselves off the committee’s list of suspected illegal voters.

California law requires the release of all records held or exchanged by public officials such as Lever unless there is a specific provision exempting them. “There was nothing in their cover letter that said this information was confidential,” Lever said of Thomas’ request of the affidavits.

“Secrecy may be a way to do business in Washington, but we in California operate in an open and honest process under our laws,” Sanchez said in a written statement. “If [Thomas] decides to run roughshod over the laws of California and block access to public records, he will have to answer to the innocent citizens in Orange County falsely accused by his investigation.”

In Washington Thursday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Sanchez should stop acting like a “victim” and respond instead to the broader question of voter fraud in her district.

“What’s her reaction to discovering that her election may have been tainted by over a thousand noncitizens voting?” Gingrich asked at a press conference, referring to revelations last week that there remain 1,000 voters the committee suspects were not citizens. “What’s her sense of accountability and responsibility? I mean, she’s part of this too, and she needs to decide where does she stand on this issue.”