Apparent errors by the OC Registrar of Voters and the Santa Ana City Clerk has injected uncertainty into the recall election of Councilmember Jessie Lopez that is scheduled for November 14, 2023.
On October 27, Registrar of Voters Bob Page sent a letter to City Clerk Jennifer Hall notifying her that his office recently “became aware” that while the recall election was being conducted in the pre-redistricting Ward 3 from which Lopez was elected in 2020, the recall petition was circulated in the post-redistricting Ward 3.
Recall proponents submitted their signatures on June 12 of this year to the city clerk, who then tuned them over to the ROV for verification.
READ: Campaign To Recall Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez Turns In More Than 6,600 Signatures
A month later, the ROV notified the city clerk that the recall petition contained enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
READ: Santa Ana: Recall Against Jessie Lopez Qualifies For Ballot
On August 15, the Santa Ana City Council on Tuesday certified the qualification of the petition to recall Councilmember Jessie Lopez and set the election for November 15.
READ: Santa Ana: Jessie Lopez Recall Election Set For November 15
According to Page, if voters from the current Ward 3 are excluded from the signatures submitted by the recall committee, then the petition would have fallen 230 valid signatures short.
This comes on the heels of the Registrar of Voters bungling the signature verification process for the Orange Unified School District recall petitions, requiring the ROV tore-do the verification in order to certify it.
The Registrar of Voters office appears to be washing its hands of the matter and placing the onus back on the city.
“This is a municipal election, thus [the City Clerk] serves as the City’s election official for the recall with the Registrar of Voters providing election services at the request and direction of the City,” Page wrote to Hall. “Accordingly, the Registrar of Voters will need direction from the City as soon as practicable regarding whether the City intends to proceed with conducting the recall election that is currently scheduled for November 14, 2023 given the issues described therein.”
The Lopez recall committee rejected any notion of halting the election due to bureaucratic errors by election officials, noting that ballots have gone out and citizens of Ward 3 are already voting.
“At no point during the recall process that started earlier this year, did city election officials notify or instruct the recall campaign otherwise,” according to recall chairman Tim Rush.
“Throughout this process, our campaign has, in good faith, followed the rules and heeded the guidance, advice and direction the city clerk and the Registrar of Voters, and accordingly we submitted sufficient valid signatures” said Rush. “Ballots have been mailed out and voters are already casting their ballots and returning them.”
“It would be outrageous for the city to disenfranchise the voters of Ward 3 due to errors by the City Clerk and the Registrar of Voters,” said Rush. “The city should honor it’s covenant with the voters and proceed with the election.”
Page told the OC Register that after receiving an e-mail from the Kings County Registrar of Voters asking other county election officials about a recall targeting officials elected before and after re-districting, he decided to re-examine his office’s review and administering of the Santa Ana recall.
The Santa Ana City Council will hold a special meeting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. to consider the matter. Given that Lopez will presumably have to recuse herself from the vote, the matter will likely deadlock on a 3-3 vote between Mayor Amezcua and Councilmen Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza, and Lopez’ left-wing council allies Ben Vazquez, Johnathan Hernandez and Thai Phan.
