Before the Santa Ana City Council called a special meeting Monday night, Oct. 30, to discuss the recall election underway, there was a flurry of correspondence between city and county officials questioning how to proceed.
Councilmember Jessie Lopez is the focus of a recall effort that is now asking voters whether she should be removed from the Ward 3 seat she was elected to in 2020, which covers the north and northeastern parts of the city. The boundaries of that district were changed in 2022 based on the latest U.S. Census.
Monday night, the City Council deadlocked on whether voting should be canceled based on questions raised by county Registrar of Voters Bob Page about which map of the ward, 2020 or 2022, should have been applied to the recall. The 2022 map had been used in verification of the signatures and in mailing out ballots last month in the special election called for Nov. 14.
“The determination as to whether that means the petition was sufficient or insufficient, must be made by the city clerk. And, to call off the election, the City Council would have to rescind its resolution ordering the election,” Page said in an email Thursday. “As the city has done neither of those steps, the registrar of voters is continuing to conduct the election with vote centers opening this Saturday.”
On Oct. 26, Page sent a letter to City Clerk Jennifer Hall questioning which map should have been used, the one Lopez was elected under or the current configuration. He said a similar question raised in another county in the state prompted his question.
Page said the 2020 map of Ward 3 has more registered voters in its boundaries and would have required recall petitioners to collect more signatures to force the election; if the map was applied to verifying the signatures that were collected, the recall effort would have failed. It would also affect whether some voters got ballots, he said in his letter, asking the city to give him direction.
In response, City…
Read the full article here
