[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 111 (Thursday, July 31, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H6684-H6685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONTESTED ELECTION IN CALIFORNIA 46TH DISTRICT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, a contested election is a very difficult 
thing. It strains friendships, often friendships between Republicans 
and Democrats because we all have our political alliances and those are 
legitimate alliances, and we have our friends and we have our party 
loyalties and it makes sometimes for a difficult time when we have to 
decide who won a particular election. Sometimes these things become 
bitter and sometimes things are said that Members wish later they could 
have been left unsaid or have been retracted.
  The contest between former Congressman, my friend, Bob Dornan and our 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez] is not about those two 
individuals. It is not about Bob Dornan. It is not about Loretta 
Sanchez. It is about something that is very near and dear to our 
Nation, to the basis for our democracy, and that is the principle of 
free and fair elections. Unfortunately in this election, as newspaper 
reporters uncovered, one organization registered to vote over 300 
people. That one organization registered to vote over 300 people who 
did not have the legal right to vote. Those people who voted did not 
realize they were committing a felony when they voted. They were urged 
by political activists to do that, to vote.
  I would submit to my friends on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and 
Republican, including our leadership, Hispanic American leadership in 
this country, that the real victims of this fraud in that particular 
part of Orange County were the people who were urged to vote, who were 
not yet citizens of the United States and who believed these proctors 
who came around and handed out ballot registration forms to them and 
said, it is your duty if you want to become an American citizen.
  I am citing, I am paraphrasing what they gave back to investigators 
when asked why they registered to vote when it was illegal to vote. I 
would offer to my colleagues that they were the victims of this. They 
were exploited. They were demeaned. Everybody, every community in 
America should have an interest in having free and fair elections where 
fraud does not occur.
  What happened following that was that a criminal investigation was 
started, is under way by criminal, by law enforcement authorities in 
California. A challenge was filed by Mr. Dornan. I want to go over very 
briefly what the litany of the chronology of actions by this House has 
been.
  On May 14, the Committee on House Oversight subpoenaed the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service after months of failed attempts 
to receive information. House oversight asked the INS to perform a 
match between INS databases and the Orange County voter list. May 21, 
the Committee on House Oversight receives the INS computer matches. 
This constitutes a partial compliance with the committee subpoena.
  June 13, the Committee on House Oversight receives a list of 4,119 
potential matches identified by a computer review by the INS. June 23, 
the Committee on House Oversight requests that INS check an additional 
1,349 persons identified by a manual review by House Oversight staff of 
INS documents.
  June 24, the INS delivers to the committee 3,257 of 4,119 worksheets, 
summarizing their files. July 3, the INS delivers to the committee 503 
more worksheets. July 9, House Oversight receives a list of over 3,000 
potential matches between individuals who voted in the 46th 
Congressional District and individuals that declared that they were not 
citizens when summoned for jury duty. That means these people said, 
made written statements saying I am not a U.S. citizen and it appears 
that they voted. It appears that they voted in the election, and we are 
checking on that. I think that is a legitimate question.
  July 18, INS delivers 500 more of the 4,119 worksheets; 100 remain 
outstanding.
  July 30, INS produces 300 of the 1,349 worksheets. This investigation 
is ongoing. It is going to be completed hopefully over the break.
  Everybody wants to see it end so we can figure out what happened in 
that


[[Page H6685]]

congressional district. But one thing is very clear, enough of a 
criminal investigation has been done and enough good reporting has been 
done to show us that there has been some fraud in that district and at 
least enough to warrant an analysis of who won that election.
  Only one thing should dominate our thoughts in this Chamber: That the 
person who got the most votes in this election from legal voters should 
win the election and should be seated in the House of Representatives.
  The gentlewoman from California [Ms. Sanchez] wants to see this thing 
over and done with. I talked with Mr. Dornan a few days ago. He is 
tired of seeing himself smeared in the newspapers regularly by people 
who have brought the race card into this. He wants to see it over with. 
I think we can handle this in an evenhanded manner and make a term 
determination within a few weeks. Let us calm down this rhetoric. Let 
us do the analysis. Let us see who won the election.

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