[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 341 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 341

         Relating to a question of the privileges of the House.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 28, 1998

   Mr. Gephardt submitted the following resolution; which failed of 
                                adoption

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
         Relating to a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas Loretta Sanchez was issued a certificate of election as the duly elected 
        Member of Congress from the 46th District of California by the Secretary 
        of State of California and was seated by the U.S. House of 
        Representatives on January 7, 1997;
Whereas a Notice of Contest of Election was filed with the Clerk of the House by 
        Mr. Robert Dornan on December 26, 1996;
Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the 46th District of 
        California met on February 26, 1997, in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 
        1997, in Orange County, California, and on October 24, 1997, in 
        Washington, D.C.;
Whereas Mr. Robert Dornan made unsubstantiated charges of improper voting from a 
        business, rather than a resident address; underage voting; double 
        voting; and large numbers of individuals voting from the same address;
Whereas these charges are without merit, as it was found that those voting from 
        the same address included United States Marines residing at a Marine 
        barracks and nuns residing at a domicile of nuns; that business 
        addresses were legal residences for the individuals, including the zoo 
        keeper of the Santa Ana zoo; that duplicate voting was by different 
        individuals and those accused of underage voting were of age;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has issued unprecedented subpoenas 
        directing the Immigration and Naturalization Service to compare its 
        records with Orange County voter registration records, the first time in 
        any election in the history of the United States that the INS has been 
        asked by Congress to verify the citizenship of voters;
Whereas the INS has complied with the committee's request and, at the 
        committee's request, for over eight months, has engaged in a manual 
        check of its paper files and has provided worksheets containing 
        supplemental information on that manual check to the Committee on House 
        Oversight;
Whereas the committee's investigation has extended far beyond a review of those 
        who actually voted in this contested election;
Whereas the District Attorney of Orange County has ended his investigation and 
        an Orange County Grand Jury has refused to return any indictments and 
        allegations of a conspiracy to engage in voter fraud have been proven 
        groundless;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has received a report from the 
        Secretary of State of California, in response to the committee's 
        request, which yielded no new information;
Whereas the committee's requests have caused this contest to be needlessly 
        extended for four additional months while the Secretary of State of 
        California provided no new information regarding the citizenship status 
        of registrants or voters;
Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the 46th District of 
        California and the committee have been reviewing these materials and 
        have all the information they need regarding who voted in the 46th 
        District and all the information required to make judgments concerning 
        those votes;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has after thirteen months of review and 
        investigation failed to present any credible evidence demonstrating that 
        Congresswoman Sanchez did not win this election and continues to pursue 
        never ending and groundless areas of investigation;
Whereas contestant Robert Dornan has not shown or provided credible evidence 
        that the outcome of the election is other than Congresswoman Sanchez's 
        election to the Congress; and
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight should complete its review of this 
        matter and bring this contest to an end: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the election contest concerning the 46th District of 
California is dismissed.
                                 <all>