Registrar of Voters Defies Court Order, Continues to Stonewall Review of Wrongly Disqualified Signatures

Los Angeles, CA – In an effort to cover-up the massive amount of wrongly disqualified signatures submitted for the recall of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters continues to stonewall the Recall Committee's right to conduct a meaningful and timely review in direct defiance of a recently granted preliminary injunction ordering greater access and transparency.

In furtherance of a "run out the clock" strategy, the Registrar is now seeking to improperly appeal basic public records requests, which would effectively drag on the review for years and nullify its purpose entirely. The Recall Committee recently filed a Motion for Calendar Preference in relation to this matter, which outlines in detail the Registrar's blatant obstruction of the review over the last seven months. The Committee will also file a motion to dismiss the Registrar's appeal next week.

Despite the Registrar's utter lack of interest in transparency and oversight as it pertains to their own gross misconduct and mismanagement, yesterday they announced the referral of 367 signatures – or what amounts to .0512689412% of the entire submission of 715,833 signatures – to the California Attorney General for review due to irregularities. This referral involves allegations of fraud perpetrated by paid circulators. Ironically, the committee had already identified and collected data on the signature irregularities highlighted in Logan's press release through its own review, and openly shared this information with Registrar staff.

To be clear, if paid circulator fraud did occur to any extent, the Recall Committee, survivors of crime, and residents of Los Angeles are the victims, and the paid circulators should be held fully accountable. But, for every one signature irregularity the Registrar has identified, which were never counted as valid in the first place, the Committee has identified hundreds, if not thousands of others, that clearly should have been counted but for the Registrar's own gross misconduct and mismanagement.

"This is nothing more than a last-ditch effort by Dean Logan to cover up the improper disqualification of thousands of valid signatures, which we ultimately intend to expose and challenge in court once the review is complete," said the Recall DA George Gascon Committee.

"Despite continued stonewalling by Logan, recall volunteers have spent nearly every day of the last seven months poring over disqualified petition signatures," the Committee continued. "Through those efforts, we have identified what amounts to, at best, gross misconduct and mismanagement in the Registrar's examination process. At worst, we have uncovered evidence of intentional misconduct meant to prevent the recall petition from being certified."

"If anything warrants investigation by authorities, it is the Registrar's own egregious misconduct and disenfranchisement of Los Angeles County voters who are suffering under George Gascon." the Committee concluded.

"The integrity of these processes is fundamental to our representative form of government and influences the confidence and participation of our electorate. Attempts to compromise the integrity of this process ought to be scrutinized." – Dean Logan, LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk

The Recall Committee could not agree more with Dean Logan in this regard. It is imperative that his office be subject to scrutiny and investigation by authorities.