Immigrant Voter Intimidation in Orange County- Legal or Illegal ?

Mailer targets immigrants - State Attorney General promises aggressive investigation into voter intimidation.
BY NORBERTO SANTANA Jr.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has launched what he calls an "aggressive" investigation into a mysterious mailer sent to Latino voters in Orange County warning them it's illegal for immigrants to vote.

The mailer – sent on letterhead from the California Coalition for Immigration Reform – warns voters in Spanish that those who do vote could end up in jail. It also says federal officials are keeping a searchable database – available to anti-illegal immigration groups – that tracks people casting votes.

"It's clear intimidation," said John Trasvina, interim president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It's targeted to foreign-born voters, as opposed to newly registered."

Trasvina's group is also calling for an immediate probe, saying such mailers violate a host of federal and state election laws aimed at preventing intimidation tactics.

Yet it's not clear who actually sent the mailer.

Barbara Coe, founder and chairperson of the Huntington Beach based anti-illegal immigration coalition, says her group had nothing to do with the mailer.

"We would never send a letter like this to an individual, because we don't know their status," she said.

Coe said she was "broadsided" on Monday with accusations that her group sent the mailer. Yet she insists CAIR is "clean" and she invited an investigation.

"Who really knows what the story is?" Coe said.

That's exactly what Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin says his office is going to find out.

"We're not focused on whether a particular group did it, we're interested in who did it, who it was sent to and for what purpose," he said. "It raises very serious legal issues and it's what we're going to aggressively investigate over the next few days."

So far, it seems that most of the mailers are being received in Garden Grove, which is center stage in the hotly contested race for the 34th State Senate District. That race – long a Democratic stronghold in central Orange County – recently saw Republicans narrow registration margins making the district a virtual tie between registered Republicans and Democrats.

Democrat Lou Correa – a sitting county supervisor -- is vying against State Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea, for the seat.

Barankin noted the state also has enacted a series of new laws aimed at such tactics based on a widely publicized instance in Orange County in the late 1980s where the Republican party hired uniformed security guards to stand outside polling stations. Democrats protested their actions, which included informing voters that noncitizens were not eligible to vote.

For Democratic State Sen. Gloria Romero, the history of such tactics in Orange County require that the immigration mailer be immediately investigated given the implications and the stakes.

"It's critical," Romero said. "We're three weeks away from an election. It's one of the few competitive seats in the state. Every vote matters. It's got to be immediate. Every day matters. Every hours matters."

CONTACT US: For more on this and other races go to www.ocregister.com/voterguide. 714-796-2221 or nsantana@ocregister.com