School Board Candidate Could Be Removed from Ballot

By Elizabeth Schneider

Sept. 20 -- Oscar de la Torre's candidacy for the School Board is in jeopardy because he was not registered in Santa Monica or Malibu when he pulled papers to run for office.

According to City Clerk Maria Stewart, de la Torre registered on August 5, 2002 as an Independent in the City of Santa Monica. He then registered later that same month on the 26th as a Democrat.

De la Torre pulled papers to run for school board on July 17, nearly three weeks before registering in Santa Monica, and submitted his qualifying petitions on August 14, according to the city clerk's records.

That would disqualify de la Torre under the California State Elections Code, which states, "Unless otherwise specifically provided, no person is eligible to be elected or appointed to an elective office unless that person is a registered voter and otherwise qualified to vote for that office at the time that nomination papers are issued to the person or at the time of the person's appointment."

"There is nothing in the case law which changes what the statute says," said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie.

Whether De la Torre, who received the endorsement of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights, makes the November 5 ballot will depend on whether a formal complaint is filed with the city clerk's office, Stewart said.

As of Wednesday afternoon no such complaint had been filed, Stewart said.

However, Stewart said she has received several inquiries into the matter. "No one has challenged this," Stewart said, "I'm not going to start something. I remain neutral on the matter."

Stewart said she called de la Torre and informed him that the city clerk's office had received three inquiries into his registration, one of them from The Lookout. Stewart said she did not know the names of the other callers because she did not field the phone calls.

Julie Lopez Dad, the president of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, said she asked the city clerk's office to look into de la Torre's registration status after club members routinely checked with the registrars office to see if he was a registered Democrat. Red flags were raised when they were informed that he had registered on August 9.

"I asked about it a couple of weeks ago and the clerk did nothing," Dad said. "It was clear to me at the end of the conversation that they were dropping it."

Dad said she plans to file a complaint on Monday.

De la Torre declined to comment.

Stewart said that there was no indication that de la Torre was not registered in Santa Monica when she got the nomination papers back from the County Registrar's office after verification.

The County Registrar is in charge of verifying a candidate's signatures and registration status, but it is not an "investigative agency," said a spokesperson for the office.

"The registrar's office verifies if the candidate is registered as it applies to the office being sought," said spokeswoman Grace Chavez.

As described by the City Charter, the city clerk is charged with conducting all municipal elections under the California Elections Code, as well as acting as the filing officer.

Word of de la Torre's questionable registration status had been circulating for several weeks among Santa Monica political circles after the issue was raised at the Democratic Club endorsement meeting August 28.

Jorge Casuso contributed to this report.