Two Noncitizens Testify They Were Coaxed to Vote

Two noncitizens testified in the Compton election fraud trial Thursday that the campaign for a councilwoman who is allied with Mayor Eric Perrodin recruited them to register for voting and even directed them how to cast absentee ballots in the June 5 election.

The two women insisted, however, that they did not realize they were voting, let alone violating election laws.

Their testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court about alleged illegal voting marked some progress for former Mayor Omar Bradley in his lawsuit alleging that the June election was riddled with wrongdoing. Perrodin, who denies any such fraud, defeated Bradley by 281 votes.

Bradley’s attorney, Bradley Hertz, told the court Thursday that he would prove that City Councilwoman Leslie Irving, a Perrodin ally, had registered more than 150 voters for the June election, many of them noncitizens such as the two witnesses.

Elvira Andrabe and Anatacia Boap testified in Spanish through an interpreter that they were visited at their trailer park homes by then-candidate Irving and later by Irving’s associates. Irving and the others told them that the paperwork involved a campaign to help schoolchildren, the women said.

“It was to have better schools for the kids . . . and nothing to have anything to do with government,” Andrabe said, recalling what she said Irving told her about the voter registration forms.

The women said they informed the campaign workers that they were not citizens but were assured that they would not get in trouble with immigration authorities.

When her absentee ballot arrived in the mail, Andrabe said, an unidentified Irving supporter came to pick up the voting card. She said she signed the absentee ballot form and handed it, still not punched for any candidates, back to Irving’s representative.

“I asked what should I do with this. She said to leave it like it is, just sign it, that’s all,” she recalled. “I signed it in her presence.”

Boap said a campaign worker instructed her to “punch here and punch there” on the ballot card. “I was punching but I didn’t know what it was about.”

Witness Fears Deportation

Boap, who walks with a cane and said she suffers from high blood pressure, sobbed several times during her testimony. She and Andrabe said they feared that their illegal registration and voting may affect their status as legal residents in the country.

“I’m afraid that after 25 years here they will throw me out,” Andrabe said.

Under question from Hertz, Boap said she too was told by Irving that the paperwork was for the betterment of children. Boap said that she was motivated to sign because she felt it was a good cause.

“I told her I didn’t want any problem with the government,” Boap said of the unidentified Irving campaign worker. “She said it had nothing to do with the government.”

Irving is scheduled to take the stand today for testimony that is expected to last much of the day. She was not in court Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

After the court session, Bruce Gridley, an attorney representing Perrodin and Compton, said he was skeptical about the women’s recollections. He stressed that the two witnesses could not remember any of the campaign workers’ names, other than Irving herself.

Effort to Void Election Results

Bradley and two City Council nominees who ran on his slate have sued Perrodin, City Clerk Charles Davis and Compton and are seeking to have Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin throw out the election results.

After an election expert physically inspected ballots last week in the courtroom, the judge said there was no proof of widespread counterfeit ballots. But now, Bradley hopes his case can be won based on such issues as voter intimidation and ballots cast by noncitizens.