On Thursday, March 18, 2010, Tom Daly filed a legal challenge to Clerk-Recorder candidate Hugh Nguyen’s ballot designation for the County Clerk-Recorder’s race (Case No. 30-2010-00354431-CU-WM-CJC). H/T to Matt Cunningham whose post tipped me off to this information.
The challenge was filed in Orange County Superior Court. Daly’s Attorney is former Garden Grove City Council Member Mark S. Rosen. Rosen is probably the best election law attorney based in Orange County. The case is set for hearing at 1:30 pm on March 23, 2010 before Judge Miller.
As I reported previously, Nguyen has claimed the ballot designation of Assistant Orange County Clerk. There is no such position in the county and specifically; “the Secretary of State (SOS),” County Registrar of Voters (ROV) for County elections, “shall reject as unacceptable any proposed ballot designation which would mislead voters. In making this determination, the SOS/ROV shall determine whether there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonably prudent voter would be misled as to the candidate’s principle profession, vocation or occupation by the candidate’s proposed ballot designation.” Among the elections code violations that are expected to be cited are §13107. I will post a copy of the complaint as soon as I have one.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mr. Nguyen’s actual title is Assistant Clerk, Files Management/Administration Division in the office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors. Nguyen is an administrative manager and the Clerk of the Board’s office. The ballot designation Assistant Orange County Clerk would lead a reasonably prudent voter to conclude that the Orange County Clerk, and the Orange County Clerk-Recorder are related. Absent any further explanation, the designation infers that Mr. Nguyen is an assistant to the Clerk-Recorder. In 1978 the Orange County Board of Supervisor’s adopted an ordinance making the “Clerk of the Board” appointed by them. The office of Clerk-Recorder and County Clerk are two separate offices.
We’ll see what happens on Tuesday the 23rd. These things wrap up quickly because of the time constraints related to the preparation of sample ballots.
I guess Art will start hating Mark Rosen again.