Vernon Has Abused Law, Official Says

By Hector Becerra

June 30, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The California secretary of state contends that Vernon is abusing the electoral process by refusing to count ballots from its disputed April election and is backing an effort to strip the city’s power to administer elections for two years.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson called on Vernon to count the ballots, describing the stalemate as bizarre and legally questionable.

“This is an egregious abuse of the process,” he said in a letter to a lawmaker in support of temporarily wresting electoral control from Vernon.

Although McPherson controls all statewide elections, he has no authority over voting in Vernon or other cities. But he is the highest-ranking state official to publicly question Vernon’s tactics.

McPherson said California election codes state that if balloting is disputed, the votes can either be recounted or contested. But not counting the votes at all, he said, is an “extraordinary step.”

Vernon, an industrial town of only 91 residents, has refused to count the ballots since the April 11 election, saying three challengers and their roommates were not residents and should not have been allowed to register to vote or run for office.

Attorneys for the city have argued that the ballots need to remain unopened and uncounted to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of the city and against it.

Vernon fought for months to keep the challengers out of the election, the city’s first contested race in 25 years. But a judge said they should be allowed to run.

A bill introduced by Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton), now stalled in the Legislature, would give the county registrar of voters control of Vernon’s elections for the next two years. But the bill has garnered only modest interest, with some legislators saying they don’t want to delve into the town’s politics while court cases are pending.

State Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) said she wanted to wait until the lawsuits were resolved, though she said the state may eventually need to step in.

“It may be appropriate to change who conducts elections in Vernon. But right now, we don’t have the benefit of knowing everything that’s going on,” Bowen said. “We might cast a vote that we come to regret later on, or that makes things worse.”

Bowen said that despite her wait-and-see approach, she has been concerned by developments in Vernon.

“When you hear they haven’t had an election since 1980, it kind of makes me wonder, ‘Is that a city?’ ” Bowen said. “But the allegations and rumors about the conduct of the city and the conduct of the new challengers makes it clear that nobody has a halo in this situation.”

State Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), however, said he saw nothing wrong with having the county step in. “For a city that has nothing to hide, what do they care who manages an election?” he said.

Vernon officials did not return calls seeking comment. But its lobbyist sent the Legislature a letter opposing the election takeover bill.

“There is no evidence that the city of Vernon cannot fairly and impartially run their own elections like other charter cities,” Anthony D. Gonsalves wrote.

Vernon is an industrial powerhouse in the region but has few residential properties.

In early January, eight people moved into a building in Vernon and within days three filed papers to run for the City Council. In a town where most residents are city employees who live in city-owned homes, the newcomers’ actions drew suspicion.

Vernon City Clerk Bruce Malkenhorst Jr. accused them of being part of a plot orchestrated by former South Gate Treasurer Albert T. Robles, a convicted felon, and others, including a former Vernon city attorney.

Attorneys for the challengers have countered that Vernon was up to its old tricks, trying to do away with yet another election in order to maintain power. They point out that the mayor has been in office for 50 years, recently eclipsing the record of service put in by his grandfather, who founded the town.

Bowen said she questions whether a 5-square-mile city with a tiny voter base living in mostly city-owned housing “should exist as a city.”

But she added that “because of the nature of Vernon, you’re always going to have a lot of people salivating to run a slate and take over the city.”

Vernon officials say the people who moved into the city were living there illegally.

But Judy Whitehurst, a senior deputy counsel representing the Los Angeles County registrar’s office, said California election law weighs heavily in favor of allowing people to vote -- whether they are homeless or living in an illegal dwelling.

If a person lives in the place they say they live, that is usually enough for their registration to be valid, Whitehurst said.

Angelina Reyes, a city clerk for the San Francisco Bay Area city of Hayward, said an illegal dwelling does not translate into an illegal voter registration.

“If they live in a converted garage ... even though a converted garage is illegal in Hayward, you still have to accept their registration,” Reyes said.

The first trial over the April election recently concluded witness testimony, with both sides expected back in court in early August for final arguments.

On the stand, Malkenhorst Jr. said it was worrisome that eight people suddenly registered to vote in January.

If they could bring eight people into the city, Malkenhorst Jr. testified, they could bring 80.

Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz acknowledged, with some ambivalence, that he wasn’t convinced that there wasn’t a plan to wrest political control from Vernon’s longtime incumbents -- most of whom have been in office and unchallenged for 30 years.

But he added that trying to “steal an election” was part of the U.S. “tradition of grand old politics.”