GOP Was Warned Against Use of Poll Guards, Registrar Says

As a controversy over a GOP decision to station uniformed guards at polling places continued to grow, the Orange County registrar of voters said he warned Republican officials four weeks before the election not to challenge voters at the polls.

Registrar Donald F. Tanney said he issued the warning at a meeting requested by two Republicans involved in the 72nd Assembly District race.

“They inquired about challenging voters about their eligibility to vote as they arrived to cast their ballot,” Tanney said. “I strongly cautioned them about any form of interference.”

GOP County Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes has taken responsibility for the decision to station guards at 20 polling places in heavily Latino areas of the 72nd District on Election Day. Fuentes said the guards were hired because of anonymous tips that Democrats were planning to bus to the polls large numbers of voters who had registered illegally.

State Republican Party Chairman Bob Naylor said Thursday that the GOP has guidelines specifically precluding the use of uniformed personnel at polling places because there is a “heavy-handed look to it that could cause people not to exercise their perfectly legitimate (voting) rights.”

Naylor added that he was outraged by the use of uniformed guards. “It’s a terrible, terrible symbolic insult to the Hispanic community to have these put in just Hispanic precincts,” he said.

The guards were sent to the polls carrying large signs in English and Spanish warning non-citizens not to vote. The same signs also were posted in various Latino neighborhoods several days before the election.

In Tuesday’s election, Republican Curt Pringle defeated Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach in the 72nd District by a margin of fewer than 700 votes, although the absentee ballot count is still incomplete.

Richard Martinez, executive director of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, said there may be legal grounds to void both the 72nd District and Santa Ana city elections if voters were intimidated or discouraged from voting. The polling places at which the guards were posted are in Santa Ana.

Martinez said a decision will be made “within a day or two” on whether to file a lawsuit. That decision, he said, will be based in part on the findings of a survey of Latino voters being conducted by a political consultant in one of the Santa Ana City Council races.

“This has a chilling effect on voters, particularly first-time voters who are gingerly taking their first steps in our political process,” said Martinez, whose nonpartisan group was formed to register Latinos in California and four other states. “This kind of effort was designed to confuse and discourage legal voters from casting their ballot.”

The pre-election meeting with Tanney was requested by Peter W. Godfrey of the county GOP Central Committee and Newport Beach political consultant Michael R. Williams, the registrar said. Godfrey, county chairman of Fair Count ‘88, a statewide Republican organization of lawyers reviewing registrars’ procedures, said in an interview Thursday that he was a Pringle supporter. Williams coordinated the hiring and placement of security guards.

Godfrey said Thursday that the meeting was held to review election procedures and added that he did not recall Tanney’s warning about challenging voters. He said his inquiries had to do with absentee ballots and registration affidavits.

Tanney said Godfrey and Williams told him they had received information that “vanloads of illegal citizens” were to be transported into the district on Election Day. Tanney also was told that “a number of people” had illegally registered to vote.

“They were concerned about ensuring that nothing irregular took place,” Tanney recalled of the meeting. “But there was never any mention of uniformed observers. I never even thought they would go that far.”

As for the reports of non-citizens being transported into the 72nd District to vote, Tanney said: “I find it stretches my imagination a little too far.” At a press conference Thursday, Orange County Latino leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties sharply condemned the use of the guards and called for Fuentes’ immediate resignation.

“It’s not only illegal,” state Republican Central Committee member Raoul Silva said of the guards. “It’s immoral. It’s un-American, it’s unconstitutional, and it’s despicable.”

Thierbach’s lawyer, Frank P. Barbaro, said he is reviewing the state Elections Code to determine whether any laws might have been violated. He said he is looking specifically at a statute that makes it a felony for anyone to pay someone to induce a voter to refrain from voting or stay away from the polls.

Barbaro said the Democratic Party will challenge Pringle’s victory if the final tally after all absentee ballots have been counted gives him a 500-vote margin or less.

“It’s possible Rick could win this election and then the ball is in the other court,” Barbaro said.