A hole is punched in voter registration system
SUNSET PARK — After just a month in the United States, Mayumi Nagaoka, 26, a foreign exchange student from Japan, became a registered voter.
Her host mother, Flo Heckenbach, said she received official voter information and polling documents on Feb. 16 for a “Miss Mayumi Nagaoka.” She then took the documents to her local polling place Tuesday, where she pretended to be Nagaoka and was issued a ballot.
Asked how Nagaoka got into the system, Heckenbach said, “She just got here from Japan in December. She doesn’t know... She went to bed in tears because I kept asking her about it. She has no idea. She just came here to learn English.”
According to records, Nagaoka registered in January. She may have been approached by petitioners in front of a grocery store or some other merchant, and filled out the paperwork without knowing what it said, Heckenbach added. But the really scary part, she said, is that voting officials did-n’t catch the error.
“What concerns me is how many others did they do this on? I’m afraid people are doing this to get measures through and paying them. This was strictly — I know — ignorance on the girl’s part, but I’m sure there are a lot of people that do this for a reason,” said Heckenbach, who lives at 18th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.
Officials from the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office said the occurrence is not as bizarre as it may sound, but added they are beginning to enforce a new law that checks voter identities.
“It is an honor system here, that’s the system that we have,” said Grace Chavez, a spokeswoman. Chavez added the registrar’s office does not investigate voters, but said each voter must sign under penalty of perjury that they are a resident of the U.S.
Chavez added the single vote should be viewed in context — pointing out that her office deals with an estimated 4 million registered voters in Los Angeles County. Asked later if there isn’t the potential for wider abuse, she said, “I’m not making light that it’s one person versus 4 million, I’m just saying that mistakes occur... be it on the voter’s side or the county’s.”
“I’m not making light that it’s one person versus four million, I’m just saying that mistakes occur.” — — GRACE CHAVEZ Spokeswoman, LA County Registrar
Nagaoka’s case is under review. Chavez said preliminary research shows she may have gotten an outdated form, which could have caused confusion. Heckenbach, on the other hand, said county officials told her Nagaoka left blank the box indicating if she was a resident. She registered as nonpartisan.
According to procedure, officials from the registrar’s office must review the voter forms to make sure they are complete and follow up with potential voters until all the information is in place. Beginning with Tuesday’s election, Chavez said officials also enforced the “Help American Vote” act, a federal law designed to assist in poll worker training, among other things. Under the new law, first-time voters must prove their identity before they can vote, she said.
“This is something new — and we will continue to educate our poll workers and continue to get the information out to all the voters in LA County,” Chavez said.
Meanwhile, Heckenbach said she did-n’t actually cast a vote with Nagaoka’s ballot. Instead, she wrote a message on it explaining Nagaoka is not a U.S. citizen and handed it over to poll workers.
“Then I said, ‘I’d like to vote in my name now, please,’” she said. But Heckenbach had to do some explaining before poll workers finally issued her rightful ballot, she added.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 4, 2004. Read the original PDF.