Vietnamese Cast Ballots for Community Leader

Enduring rain and hourlong lines, thousands of Vietnamese in Los Angeles and Orange counties crowded into polling places Sunday to elect a president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California.

Organizers estimated that voter turnout neared 10,000, doubling the number of voters for a similar election two years ago. But Vietnamese journalists covering the election at five polling sites--two in Orange County and three in Los Angeles County--put the turnout at closer to 7,000.

“It was very difficult to vote because it’s so crowded,” said Trieu Le, 65, of Garden Grove, who stood under an umbrella in the rain at Valley High School in Santa Ana, waiting to vote.

“I went to the poll in Garden Grove several times and left each time because it was so crowded,” Le said. “I gave up and drove to Santa Ana to vote. It was still crowded but not as bad.”

Le was among thousands who stood in lines that snaked through the courtyards of Valley High and Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove on Sunday.

In the San Gabriel Valley, meanwhile, about 800 voters had braved the downpour to cast ballots by 2 p.m. at the Rosemead Community Recreation Center, election officials said.

“Everybody likes to vote to be a good citizen,” said Long Nguyen of Santa Ana, who was helping to oversee the voting there.

In the San Fernando Valley, by contrast, voters trickled into the Vietnamese Seniors Assn. in Canoga Park.

Fewer than 500 people had cast ballots by late afternoon, well below the 1,000-voter goal organizers had hoped for in the first Valley voting for the community post.

“It’s much better than the last time,” said Phan Nhu Diep, 53, of Garden Grove, a candidate for the group’s board of directors who visited Canoga Park on Sunday. “Last time we didn’t have the voting here.”

Dung Le, 32, of Van Nuys said the election was a step to help the growing Vietnamese community gain mainstream political power.

“We’ve been trying to unite all of the small groups,” she said. “We’d like to have everyone come together and have a common vision.”

The race pitted the incumbent, Irvine businessman Ban Bui, 56, against Ngoc Van Tran, 49, an electronics technician. The winner, expected to be announced Tuesday, will lead the nonprofit community organization, which strives to represent the political and social interests of the 300,000 Vietnamese expatriates in Southern California.

“We are already beginning to see instabilities, or cracks, in the foundation of the Communist government [in Vietnam]. In the next two years, that regime will be even more shaky,” said Luan Nguyen a candidate for vice president.

“We need a strong person to make use of that weakness to fight for democracy in Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “This is especially important right now.”

Hien Tran, spokeswoman for the Ngoc Tran campaign, said that while anti-Communist sentiment is important in uniting the community, another goal is to rally emigres to become active in the political process in this country.

“We must have a stronger voice in issues like Social Security, health care and other social benefits for our people here,” Hien Tran said. “Only in our strength as a community here can we have a big impact on Vietnam itself.”

Polls in both counties opened at 9 a.m., but eager voters began lining up as early as 7:30 a.m., organizers said.

By the time the polls opened at Bolsa Grande High, a line of about 20 people waited to drop their sealed envelopes in one of four cardboard ballot boxes inside a classroom.

Hundreds of volunteers, including teenagers from area pagodas and churches, gathered the ballots from polling places and took them to the Vietnamese Community’s headquarters in Westminster, where they were being counted.

Cong Nguyen, programming director at Little Saigon Radio, said that if Bui wins it would mean that voters preferred experience, and that if Ngoc Tran wins voters are saying they want change.

One difference between the candidates is that Bui prefers to work independently of other government agencies while Ngoc Tran calls for cooperating with outside parties.

Both were active in the South Vietnamese government and, before qualifying as candidates, they signed statements vowing to oppose the Communist government and not to return to their homeland as long as there is a Communist regime.

Duyen Nguyen, a 19-year-old college student who traveled from Norwalk to Santa Ana to cast her ballot, said she voted for Bui. With the majority of voters being in their 30s or older, Nguyen was among a small number of young voters.

“I think most young people do not understand how important it is to voice your opinion in the form of a ballot,” she said. “I’ve lived in Vietnam under the Communist regime, where it’s not so easy to have a voice. And I’m just thrilled right now to be able to express that voice. . . . I’m going to be an American citizen in June. And I can’t wait to be able to vote for a president.”

In Rosemead, Khanh Pham, 20, of Glendale, said he hoped the incumbent Bui would be thrown out.

But the voting itself, he said, “is just one way to show that we live in a democratic society.”

Times staff writer Emi Endo contributed to this story.