LONG BEACH - City Prosecutor Doug Haubert said Wednesday he is closing an inquiry into alleged voting irregularities involving the mayoral campaign of Vice Mayor Robert Garcia (pictured) after finding insufficient evidence to show any law was violated.
“Circumstances described as irregular do not mean any law was broken, and that appears to be the case here,” Haubert said in a statement.
More than three dozen people from the Cambodian community, many of whom primarily spoke Khmer, were transported by bus on March 21 to City Hall by the Garcia campaign to participate in early voting for the April 8 primary as part of a get-out-the-vote effort.
Haubert said Wednesday that 34 of the people voted, and nine were not registered and were told they could not vote. Six were later confirmed to be in the registration process. Campaign workers for Garcia pressured City Clerk Larry Herrera to allow the voters to cast provisional ballots, but Herrera refused.
Several irregularities stemming from the incident were reported to Haubert’s office, including a report that a person not eligible to vote had cast a ballot, and that some voters had the names of Garcia and Councilman James Johnson, a city attorney candidate, written on their hands.
According to Haubert’s office, the investigation found that some voters did have names or initials of candidates written on their hands by their neighbors because the voters were not fluent in English. Khmer does not use the English-language alphabet.
Real estate developer Damon Dunn, Garcia’s June 3 runoff opponent, has seized on the issue, sending out mail pieces referring to the investigation and requesting that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office open its own inquiry. Haubert said he will make all findings and documents available to that office.
Garcia campaign spokesman Eric Hacopian issued a statement thanking the City Prosecutor’s Office for its work.
“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Dunn spent tens of thousands of dollars lying about a non-issue in negative mailers and phone calls,” Hacopian said. “He owes the people of Long Beach and the Cambodian American community an apology.”
Dunn declined to comment.
Contact Eric Bradley at 562-499-1254.
1 comment:
Because he is an idiot and willing to sacrifice his reputation for the money from the CPP.. What an idiot.
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