Voter Registration Orange County

A quarter of a million voters--about one in every five registered here--were dropped from Orange County's voter rolls between 1996 and this month's primary, according to newly released data from the registrar of voters. The purged voters were more likely to be Republicans and those with surnames that are not Latino or Vietnamese, according to a computer analysis done for The Times Orange County by Dick Lewis of Newport Beach.

The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to dismiss the election challenge filed against Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), then rejected a Republican attempt to tighten voter registration procedures to prevent voting by noncitizens. Rejection of the election challenge, approved 378-33, was expected after the House Oversight Committee wrapped up a lengthy investigation last week by finding insufficient evidence to void Sanchez's 1996 victory over Republican Robert K. Dornan.

The Republican-led task force looking into the 1996 election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez will recommend today that the House dismiss former Rep. Robert K. Dornan's challenge, the panel chairman said Tuesday. Despite finding "substantial voter fraud" in the election, which Republican Dornan lost by 984 votes, the task force said it "could not prove" that there were enough illegal votes to overturn the election. Task force chairman Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.

Finally, more than a year after allegations of vote fraud first surfaced, the ordeal seemed to be over. But at the offices of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional--the Latino rights organization accused by former Rep. Robert K. Dornan of conspiring to push him out of office--there were no cheers or champagne. "Our reaction around here is pretty sober, mainly because this decision was something we completely expected," said Hermandad spokesman Jay Lindsay. "We're not jumping for joy.

The Republican-led task force looking into the 1996 election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez will recommend today that the House dismiss a challenge by former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, the panel chairman said Tuesday. Despite finding "substantial voter fraud" in the election, which Republican Dornan lost by 984 votes, the task force said it "could not prove" that there were enough illegal votes to overturn the election. Task force Chairman Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.

Democrats and independents accounted for more new Orange County voters in November than Republicans, which helped build a winning cushion for Democrats in several key races, according to a Times Orange County analysis. Republicans claimed 44% of the new voters, well below their 51% share of all registered voters, a computer analysis of the election by political analyst Dick Lewis of Newport Beach showed. Democrats drew 33% of first-timers, slightly above their overall registration.

Treading on swampy political turf, Secretary of State Bill Jones on Thursday called on Washington officials to seek help in removing noncitizens from Orange County's voter rolls while not inflaming immigrant rights groups and Democrats. Jones, a Republican, had limited success in brokering a "bipartisan" deal over a list of 1,499 possible noncitizens who are registered to vote.

California Secretary of State Bill Jones will meet Thursday with federal immigration officials to seek their help in checking the citizenship of 1,499 registered Orange County voters. The voters were identified by the House Oversight Committee as "possibly" being noncitizens when they registered, according to a letter sent to Jones from the committee chairman, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield).

The number of registered voters in Orange County has dropped almost 9% since the 1996 election due in part to a new program for purging nonvoters from the active voting list. The program is part of the first systematic effort by the county to remove "deadwood" from voter rolls since the National Voter Registration Act went into effect in California in 1995.

County officials are preparing to remove from the voter rolls 743 people who registered in Orange County before becoming citizens, Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever announced Thursday. If the process survives expected legal challenges from voting rights advocates, it would create for the first time in California a procedure for removing noncitizens from voter rolls.