CA-50: A Troubling Precedent

Submitted by Ofer Inbar on Sat, 09/09/2006 - 1:15am.
del.icio.us
post to reddit

In the excitement of the past few weeks, we've fallen behind on bringing you news of the state of election integrity and voting rights around the country. Let's catch up on the developments in California's 50th district. You may recall I last posted about it here on July 15th, when the Democratic National Committee called for a hand count of all the votes in that questionable election - echoing John Bonifaz's earlier call to count every vote.

Three days earlier, on July 13th, Brian Bilbray had been sworn in as a new member of the US House of Representatives. He was the Republican candidate who, according to initial results, had won by a small margin - even though the election results had not yet been officially certified. The Kafkaesque result: According to a court, the actual results of the election no longer mattered.

The election was held on June 6, 2006. From there, Scoop has the timeline...

On June 13, 2006, Bilbray flew to Washington, DC and was sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives by House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

On or about June 30, 2006, 17 days after Bilbray was sworn in as a member of the House, Mikel Haas, Registrar of San Diego County, officially completed the audit of election results required for certification, and officially certified the election of Bilbray over Busby based on 163,931 votes cast, of which 2,053 votes were said to be cast on Diebold TSX touchscreens, and the remainder scanned via Diebold Accuvote OS computers.

On July 31, 2006, the Contestants filed an election contest, seeking a hand recount and to invalidate the election on several grounds [...]

... and one month later, a judge dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Bilbray had already been sworn in, so the court had no jurisdiction. How's that? Because the House Republican leadership decided to swear in a new member before his election results were even certified, that means the normal process for handling election disputes has no legal force? Apparently so. San Diego's 10News explains:
Superior Court Judge Yuri Hoffman said that once the House of Representatives asserted its exclusive right to swear Bilbray into office, it left the court without jurisdiction in the election contest.

Two voters in the 50th Congressional District, Gail Jacobson and Lillian Ritt, filed suit July 31, seeking a recount and alleging that County Registrar Mikel Haas violated procedures before the election and during an official voter request for a hand-count of ballots.
The lawsuit alleged that Haas sent Diebold electronic voting machines on "sleepovers" in the unsecured homes and cars of volunteer poll workers for weeks prior to the election, in violation of state and federal law.

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Paul Lehto, argued last week that the oath of office was administered to Bilbray even before Haas certified the election results in late July, and that the specific intent of the GOP-controlled House of Representatives was to render the state court powerless.

According to this new precedent, the US House can swear in members whose elections results are in dispute, and by swearing them in, prevent recounts or legal contests from having any force. Certification of the election no longer matters, only the opinion of the House leadership as to who they'd like to swear in. BradBlog has more.