An election scandal that has grown to include allegations of an
inner-office affair and counter-charges of extortion began over
questions of a few improperly returned ballots.
An election scandal that has grown to include allegations of an inner-office affair and counter-charges of extortion began over questions of a few improperly returned ballots.
The local League of United Latin American Citizens hired two private investigators to look into the District 5 Supervisor’s race after Jaime De La Cruz unofficially won on March 8. Then the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to investigate the election results. Supervisors Bob Cruz – De La Cruz’s opponent – recused himself. LULAC’s detectives dropped out at that point.
District Attorney John Sarsfield hired Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office inspector Aaron Tripp to conduct the investigation. Tripp returned a report recommending six felony charges against De La Cruz and five against his campaign adviser Ignacio Velazquez for alleged Elections Code violations.
Through the course of the investigation, four voters told Tripp that De La Cruz retrieved their absentee ballots, according to the report. One woman said Velazquez and De La Cruz pressured her to vote for De La Cruz, while giving her a ride to a polling place, according to the report. Someone said they saw De La Cruz electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place. And Tripp concluded De La Cruz signed a document that would reduce his filing fees to seek office when a campaign worker should have endorsed it instead.
De La Cruz and Velazquez deny most of the allegations, and say advice from the Elections Office led to the other mistakes.
Tripp also recommended Velazquez be charged with four felony counts for illegally returning absentees to the Elections Office – though elections officials have admitted it was their fault.
