Some election worries raised

Josh Kleinbaum

In her wildest imagination, Heidi Hagge never expected to get this

phone call. Not now, more than four months after her grandfather

died.

On Tuesday, Heidi’s mother, Laura, called to say Heidi’s

grandfather was in the newspaper.

The campaign promoting a controversial $264.2-million retail and

residential project in downtown Glendale took out a full-page

advertisement in Tuesday’s News-Press listing the names of Glendale

residents who support the project. The list included Norman Hagge,

Heidi’s grandfather, who suffered a stroke last year and died in

April.

In unofficial returns, Glendale voters narrowly approved the

Americana at Brand in Tuesday’s election by supporting three ballot

measures, A, B and C.

“I’m a little flabbergasted,” Heidi Hagge said. “Isn’t that

falsifying voters or something like that? I know [the advertisement]

is not an actual vote, but you’re advertising that someone who’s not

even on the planet is going to vote for something.”

The Hagge incident happened during the most scrutinized election

in Glendale history. Both campaigns had observers throughout the

city, monitoring the election workers and voters at the 20 precincts

and the basement of City Hall, where a team of volunteers opened the

absentee ballots and prepared them to be counted.

City Clerk Doris Twedt said the campaigns reported problems to her

office throughout the day, but she said most of them were minor. She

did not think any were serious enough to result in a challenge.

Arthur Sohikian, the spokesman for the “No on A, B and C”

campaign, provided two examples. Sohikian said one precinct opened

late because a volunteer could not figure out how to lock the ballot

box, which was problematic for voters on their way to work. At

another precinct, a shouting match broke out between voters and

volunteers, Sohikian said, because of a half-hour wait.

“The worker was telling people, ‘If you don’t like [the wait],

leave. You don’t have to vote,’ ” Sohikian said. “They shouldn’t be

sending anyone home.”

Kathleen Corry and Laverne Thompson, residents of the Broadway

Residential Care Center, said they requested absentee ballots but

never received them.

“The entire building requested absentee ballots,” Corry, 79, said.

“It’s a fouled-up mess. This is ridiculous.”

An airport service van, paid for by the city, drove Corry and

Thompson to Glendale Community Church to vote, but they said others

might not have bothered because of the hassle.

Sohikian said his campaign would note the incidents and figure out

how to handle them after the election. He did not rule out

challenging the election results, but said it depends on how close

the race is and other factors.

City Atty. Scott Howard said Americana opponents could file a

number of challenges but that the standard for overturning election

results is very high.

City Clerk Doris Twedt said Tuesday’s election was the most hectic

municipal election she’s seen.

“I haven’t had lunch yet,” Twedt said just after the polls closed

at 8 p.m.