Citizenship Check Asked for 448 in Juror Pool

SANTA ANA â€”  Secretary of State Bill Jones has asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to check the citizenship status of 448 people throughout Orange County who have claimed exemption from jury service, saying they are not citizens.

While many of these people may simply be seeking to avoid jury duty, Jones said, it is possible that “the problem [of noncitizen voting] may be more extensive than we know.�

Although juror rolls are filled from both Department of Motor Vehicle records and voter files, all of the 448 people were summoned to jury duty from voter registration records between Sept. 1, 1996, and Feb. 1, officials said.

The Orange County jury commissioner’s office compiled the list by using a computer to find those who claimed the noncitizen exemption and who appear on the voter rolls. The program was initiated last summer by Registrar Rosalyn Lever at the behest of Jones’ office.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is separately examining the same list of 448 people who sought exemption from jury service, but has not determined the next step in its investigation.

“It is part of our continuing voter fraud investigation,� said Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes.

The citizenship review is the third sought by the secretary of state from the INS since December. The first found that more than 700 people had been registered to vote, before becoming citizens with the aid of a Latino rights organization, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional.

The INS has not responded to the second request, made in March, that it complete a computer check for noncitizens from the county’s entire 1.3-million-person voter file. The INS has said the request has raised serious concerns about privacy and discrimination issues.

INS district Director Richard Rogers in Los Angeles said the request to check the juror list for noncitizens “is backed up behind� the larger review.

“We are not working on [the latest request] until a determination is made [in Washington] on the 1.3 million,� he said.

The latest request for INS information drew criticism similar to that after previous attempts to check the citizenship status of voters.

Arturo Montez, president the Santa Ana chapter of the League of Latin American Citizens, questioned the accuracy of INS documents.

“You have to remember there were a lot of people whose citizenship was delayed because of the Republicans and they may wrongfully be included on this list,� said Montez. “I also think it is an invasion of privacy and it deters people from wanting to take jury duty or participate in the system.�

The juror inquiry is separate from the one being conducted by Congress into former Rep. Robert K. Dornan’s challenge to the election victory of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in the 46th Congressional District.

In fact, the registrar’s office reported that only 21 of the people on the juror list voted in the 46th District in November, which would have made little difference in the outcome.

In late March, the registrar sent letters to the 448 people, notifying them that their registrations were canceled based on their claim of the noncitizen exemption on the jury summons. Both voter registration documents and jury response forms are filled out under penalty of perjury.

About 65 people who received the March 26 letter returned a form that states that the registrar’s “information is incorrect� and asked that they be reinstated as voters.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ormes said prosecutors are reviewing those responses, as well as the original forms.

“There are some people who may well be citizens who were trying to get out of jury duty and made a response with that in mind,� he said. “There could be other factors at work here as well, such as key-punch error, lies, misunderstandings, accidental marking on the jury summons card, or other reasons.�

According to data supplied by the registrar’s office, 296 of the 448 have never voted, while 152 have “some voting history.� Of the total, 200 have indicated on voter registration forms that they were born in the United States.