Votes in the tightly contested District 5 supervisor race are in
question because of a technicality involving absentee ballots.
After elections officials counted the final 201 absentees
Monday, Jaime De La Cruz overtook incumbent Bob Cruz and
unofficially won the District 5 race by 10 votes.
Votes in the tightly contested District 5 supervisor race are in question because of a technicality involving absentee ballots.
After elections officials counted the final 201 absentees Monday, Jaime De La Cruz overtook incumbent Bob Cruz and unofficially won the District 5 race by 10 votes.
Elections officials, however, could have disqualified at least 22 ballots – from all the districts – before tabulating votes if they had caught the procedural problem.
Of those in question, eight came from District 5 voters, according to County Clerk John Hodges.
Election law authorizes absentee voters to designate a family member or household member to turn in their ballots.
But according to a log book that designees signed at the Elections Office, at least 22 ballots were returned by friends or others not allowed to by the California Elections Code. A scattering of others signing in did not list their relation to the voter, according to the document.
It is unknown how those residents voted. Once the ballots are counted, officials don’t match identities, according to Hodges.
“It disqualifies those votes,” Hodges said. “But we don’t know who voted – it’s after the fact. If I had to make a decision, I am going to lean toward the voter.”
It is unclear whether Cruz or the county will take legal action, and the two-term incumbent refused to comment.
When De La Cruz heard about the potential problem Wednesday, he said he thought a few people are trying to stir trouble, “to discredit the public’s point of view.”
“I’m more concerned about the fact that the county voted, and they want change,” De La Cruz said. “All the incumbents are gone – that’s an indication the county wants a new direction.”
A representative with the California Secretary of State Office confirmed the 22 votes should not have counted. But he also said any court or government action must be taken locally, at least at the outset.
One of De La Cruz’s supporters and campaign volunteers, Ignacio Valezquez, handed in four absentee ballots and signed the log as a “friend” of the voters. The Elections Code also forbids campaign volunteers to return absentee ballots.
He said elections official Kim Hawk instructed him how to legally turn in others’ absentee ballots.
“Kim told me we could do it as long as (the ballots) weren’t open,” Valezquez said.
He went on: “We did nothing wrong.”
Hawk referred all comments to Hodges, her supervisor.
Hodges pointed out that he routinely directs people to drop their friends’ absentees in a mailbox outside the courthouse. It’s about 60 feet from the office, he said, and returning the ballots there is legal.
The issue adds yet another bizarre twist to the race for the District 5 seat.
Controversy sprouted during the campaign season after Cruz requested placement of a No. 1 before his name to distinguish their identities. De La Cruz says he believed his opponent was trying to confuse voters.
After election day results seemed to carry Cruz to victory – he was up 25 votes – the challenger gained 35 votes from the final batch of absentee ballots counted Monday, bringing him the apparent nod.
If the absentee ballot issue went to court, Hodges said he believes a judge would not disqualify the ballots.
“We don’t want to throw ballots away that are perfectly good,” he said.
