Sanchez Urges House Panel to Dismiss Dornan’s Appeal

WASHINGTON —  Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) asked the House Oversight Committee on Thursday to dismiss former Rep. Robert K. Dornan’s challenge to her November victory, saying he had failed to “comply with a series of fundamental requirements” for overturning elections.

Sanchez said Dornan’s appeal should be thrown out because he did not exhaust remedies at the state and local level, failed to provide any specific evidence of voting irregularities, made no claim as required by law that he was the actual winner and did not file the appeal in a timely manner with the House.

“I believe he does not have a case,” she said in her 27-page motion, “and I believe it is foolish for the House to spend any more time on this because it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

The motion ridicules Dornan’s challenge for its vague references to voter fraud and its brevity. Dornan’s original filing, filed Dec. 26, was three pages long.

“The notice’s fatal indefiniteness” also extends to Dornan failing to ask that he be declared the winner if voter fraud is ultimately proved, leaving “it up to the committee to divine the relief he seeks,” the Sanchez motion says.

Dornan could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Bill Hart, defended the general nature of the original claim by the nine-term congressman, who lost to Sanchez in November by 984 votes. Hart said the deadline set by House rules forced Dornan to file it before evidence of alleged voter fraud could be developed and quantified.

Both the Orange County district attorney’s office and the California secretary of state’s office began an inquiry in November into allegations by Dornan of widespread voter fraud in the 46th Congressional District. The two agencies last week searched the offices of a Santa Ana-based Latino civil rights group as part of an expanded investigation into voting and registration by noncitizens in Orange County.

A spokesman for the House Oversight Committee declined to discuss specifics of the case. The committee “has four options” with regard to the Sanchez motion: grant it, deny it, defer it and say it needs time to study it, or ask for a more definitive statement from Dornan, spokesman Bill Pierce said.