Candidate, city looking into disqualification issue
A front-runner in the school board race may be removed from the November ballot for not being a registered Santa Monica voter at the time he decided to run.
Oscar de la Torre’s candidacy has been challenged by Santa Monica City Clerk Maria Stewart for not being a registered Santa Monica voter when he filed his papers to run for public office.
It would be the first time in Santa Monica history that a candidate has been disqualified in such a way, Stewart said.
State election code requires candidates to be able to vote for the office they intend to become a candidate for.
The law could potentially disqualify de la Torre because he was registered to vote at a Los Angeles address when he first “pulled papers” to run for the school board seat on July 15.
“Based upon that information, he is not eligible to run for office,” Stewart said. “We have also asked him to share with us any information that he may have to the contrary.” de la Torre, who moved back to Santa Monica from Mar Vista a year ago, said he and his attorney are looking into the issue.
“We are researching the legalities surrounding the question that was raised,” he said. “Our campaign is moving forward. On or off the ballot, I will continue to advocate for a quality education for all Santa Monica students.”
Stewart would only say that de la Torre had been notified that he is ineligible to appear on the November ballot, but she would not say if any final decision had been made by the city to remove him from the ballot.
“This is the first time something like this has happened,” she said. “There is no formal process we can follow for something like this.”
“This is the first time something like this has happened. There is no formal process we can follow for something like this.” — — MARIA STEWART Santa Monica City Clerk
Stewart said the city requires every candidate to attend a seminar explaining the rules and regulations of running for office. The first thing candidates are told during the seminars is they must be registered Santa Monica voters when they first announce that they may run for an elective office, Stewart said.
During the time candidates file their candidacy papers, city clerks are deputized by the county clerk, who regulates elections, to register any potential candidate on the spot, Stewart said.
“When people request nomination papers they indicate they are eligible,” she said. “We cannot doubt what they are telling us.”
Stewart said de la Torre attended a July 15 seminar and then afterward “pulled papers” to run for office. He submitted his petition with 100 signatures on the Aug. 9 filing deadline. By that time, de la Torre had registered in Santa Monica, he said.
The signatures were sent to the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office which verified all of de la Torre’s information. Stewart said the county should have spotted the alleged problem and denied his application.
“They made a mistake,” Stewart said. “We had no reason not to believe them because that is what they do.”
But Grace Chavez, a county registrar spokeswoman, said only the city clerk can certify that a candidate is ineligible under state law to run for office. Under the circumstances, the fault for verifying de la Torre’s candidacy falls on Stewart’s shoulders, she said.
“The county is not an investigative agency,” Chavez said. “The candidate specifies they are running for a particular office. The county verifies the signatures. That’s it.”
Chavez also said Santa Monica has access to an electronic data base that’s regularly updated which contains the names of all those registered to vote within the city’s jurisdiction. All the city clerk’s office would have needed to do in order to verify de la Torre’s eligibility is enter his name into the database, Chavez said.
But Stewart said that’s not something her office regularly looks at unless someone comes forward with credible information that a person’s candidacy is questionable. Last week, Stewart said she had received repeated calls asking her to check into the validity of de la Torre’s candidacy.
“I made the decision then that I had received one phone call too many and that I would personally look into it,” she said.
Compounding the problem, the county already has sent out its ballots to be printed for the November elections. Those ballots still list de la Torre as a candidate. And the city’s ballot printing deadline is tonight.
Stewart said she doesn’t know what will happen if de la Torre is deemed ineligible but still appears on the November ballot. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie is looking into the issue, she said.
“But once you get too far,” she said, “you can’t turn back.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2002. Read the original PDF.