School Board Candidate on Ballot but Likely Out of Race

By Jorge Casuso

Sept. 23 -- School Board hopeful Oscar de la Torre's name will likely appear on the November ballot even if his candidacy is rendered invalid because he was not registered in the district when he pulled his nomination papers. Votes for de la Torre, however, may not count.

In a series of developments Monday, the County Registrar's office said it is too late to stop the presses printing the ballots, a "formal request" to check de la Torre's registration was filed with the City Clerk and, at day's end, de la Torre was reportedly offering evidence that he is a legitimate candidate.

According to the City Clerk Maria Stewart, the Los Angeles County Registrar's rolls show that de la Torre registered on August 5, 2002 as an Independent in the City of Santa Monica, then registered on August 26 as a Democrat.

The California State Elections Code stipulates that "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."

"He was supposed to have been registered to vote (in the school district) on the day we issued him the nomination papers on July 17," Stewart said early Monday afternoon. "We've been in communication with him inviting him to provide any information. We're scheduled to meet at the end of the day."

Stewart said she "started to do the review myself" after receiving several calls last week about de la Torre's registration's status.

County spokeswoman Marcia Ventura said she "received a letter from Stewart dated Sept. 19 asking us to remove de la Torre from the ballot."

"We advised them verbally and in writing that we had printed the sample ballots," Ventura said. "It was too late. The ballots had been printed. These are actual first copies. His name would appear on the ballot unless they take it to court."

Ventura said she did not recall a similar situation having taken place during her 15 years with the Registrar's office, but speculated that "since he's not a qualified candidate, he would receive votes but they wouldn't count."

Ventura said it is the City Clerk's responsibility to qualify a candidate and that many cities have computer access to the Registrar's files and can readily check a candidate's status.

"It's their responsibility to qualify a candidate and provide us with a list" of candidates to place o the ballot, she said.

Stewart has 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.

Although inquires had been made into de la Torre's status, Stewart has said that she had not acted on them because they were not formal complaints.

Democratic Club President Julie Lopez Dad -- who asked the city clerk's office to look into de la Torre's registration status two weeks ago -- filed a "formal request" Monday "to check as to whether Oscar de la Torre is a legitimate candidate."

Dad had looked into de la Torre's registration status after he informed the group at its endorsement meeting August 28 that he had recently registered as a Democrat. Dad checked with the Registrar's office and found that the records showed he was not registered in Santa Monica when he pulled papers.

"Since then," Dad wrote in her letter, "there has been some talk and concern in the community about the possible violation… and wondering about what is being done to either prove that he was registered at the time he took out papers (perhaps some dates we don't know) or at least checking the Registrar's records. Surely there is an historic record which can be accessed…

"If you require a formal complaint in order to proceed, please consider this a formal complaint," Dad wrote. "If you feel all other candidates should also be checked, I would certainly agree that they should.

"In no way do I feel Mr. De la Torre should be singled out. He is, simple, the only candidate about whom there is any reason to feel there might be a registration gap."