Well, here we are, nearly a year after the Feb. 6 special election for First District Supervisor, and all that recount business is still with us — and may affect Tuesday’s presidential primary.
The lawyers in the Nguyen vs. Nguyen case were back in court today and, well, Team Trung lost again. But, as usual, they haven’t given up.
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled today that Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley may once again use 172 voting machines that had been sealed under a court order last June. Team Trung, in his continuing effort to challenge (she said, offering a diplomatic verb choice) Supervisor Janet Nguyen, didn’t want Kelley to use the machines because he wanted the ballot record to be preserved.
But Kelley is preparing for an election this Tuesday — a large turnout is expected and he needs the machines back. Team Trung said no, you may not remove the seal on those machines, that’s why everybody was back in court today.
But it gets better.
– Peggy Lowe
So, after Team Trung struck out in court today, his attorney, Steve Baric, and the guy in the driver’s seat, Consigliere Mike Schroeder, decided that they still didn’t want Kelley to have the machines. So late today, they filed a motion in the state Court of Appeals — the same place where they lost just last month. That’s when the Court of Appeals denied Trung Nguyen a win in the supes race, saying he failed to produce any evidence that he had more votes than Janet Nguyen.
Meanwhile, Kelley got to work after Judge Franz Miller’s decision this morning and began maintenance on the machines about noon, said Leon Page, the deputy county counsel who represented Kelley.
Will this new motion affect Kelley’s preparations? Hard to say.
“It would be really tragic if folks were delayed in casting their vote if we couldn’t deploy172 voting machines on Election Day,” Page said.
That sentiment was echoed by Dave Gilliard, a spokesman for Janet Nguyen.
“The incessant legal game-playing by Trung’s lawyers now threatens to jeopardize the ability of the county to conduct the presidential primary,” Gilliard said.
What do Baric and Schroeder say? I put in calls to them a few hours ago and haven’t heard back yet.
But this is important to remember: it’s not like any evidence will be destroyed here. The ballots in this very tight race (Janet ultimately won by just three votes) will be preserved forever, according to Page. Kelley only needs to take back the machines and the print outs will be kept in a sealed container and stored along with all the other ballots, Page said.
– Peggy Lowe
