Mayor Declared Winner in Close S.D. Election

The county registrar of voters officially declared Mayor Dick Murphy the winner over write-in challenger Councilwoman Donna Frye, just minutes after a state appellate court lifted an order blocking such a declaration.

Tuesday’s announcement may not settle the issue, however, even though Murphy is scheduled to be sworn in for a second term today.

Frye said Tuesday she might seek a vote recount or file a lawsuit demanding that so-called empty-oval ballots be counted.

Those are ballots on which voters wrote in Frye’s name but did not darken the oval on the line next to her name, as required by state law. Frye’s supporters assert that if those ballots were counted, she would beat Murphy.

The day’s activities began when a three-judge panel of the 4th Appellate District, sitting in Santa Ana, turned down an appeal by business attorney John Howard aimed at blocking Murphy from being declared the winner.

Howard wanted the court to rule that Frye’s candidacy was illegal and order a new election between Murphy and the third-place finisher, county Supervisor Ron Roberts, without Frye.

The court ruled that Howard should have filed his lawsuit before the election, not after. Howard asserts that the city clerk and city attorney never should have allowed Frye to become a write-candidate because the City Charter forbids write-ins in runoff elections.

The court avoided taking sides in the legal arguments of City Charter vs. Municipal Code but decided that Howard’s timing was faulty.

Murphy, in a hastily called news conference, praised the court’s decision to lift an order issued last week blocking county Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson from declaring him the winner.

“This is another defeat for the obstructionists who have tried to frustrate the will of the voters,” Murphy said.

The mayor wouldn’t say whether he would ask his attorney to try to block the county Elections Department from recounting the votes and possibly counting the empty oval ballots too.

“I don’t want to commit until I know what’s going on,” Murphy said.

The official count from the Elections Department showed Murphy with 157,959 votes, Frye with 155,851, and Roberts at 141,884.

Frye’s supporters believe there are 4,000 or more ballots for her that were not counted because voters, despite directions on each ballot, did not darken the appropriate oval.

A lawsuit by the League of Women Voters demanding that such votes be counted was rejected by a Superior Court judge. The league has opted not to appeal.

Frye has refused to concede to Murphy. She said her legal bills already exceed $30,000; though she has not filed any lawsuits, her attorneys have appeared in three cases filed by others. She has insisted that the only fair election would be for all votes to be counted, even those without darkened ovals.

“Democracy isn’t so much about the voting as it is about the counting,” she said.