Arlo Smith Lawyers Request Justices to Intercede in Race

SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys for Democrat Arlo Smith made an 11th-hour bid to the state Supreme Court Monday to invalidate more than 1 million absentee ballots and prevent Republican Dan Lungren from taking office as state attorney general.

In one of the closest races in California history, Lungren edged Smith by just 28,906 votes--a bare 0.2% margin--in the Nov. 6 election. Smith led Lungren in votes cast at the polls on election day but Lungren pulled ahead on the strength of absentee balloting.

Secretary of State March Fong Eu on Friday certified the results of all statewide races, including the narrow victory of the former GOP congressman from Long Beach over his Democratic opponent, the district attorney of San Francisco.

But in a petition filed in the high court’s Los Angeles office, Smith’s lawyers urged the justices to throw out the hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots cast in 37 counties--including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego--on grounds that officials did not properly verify the signatures on ballot applications.

The attorneys asked the high court to act on their appeal before Jan. 7, when Lungren is scheduled to be sworn into office.

“If the absentee ballots from those 37 counties are annulled, Arlo Smith would be the next attorney general,” Marc Dann, Smith’s campaign manager, said in an interview.

The suit was filed by Merrick S. Rayle and other attorneys on behalf of David M. Clement, a Los Angeles resident and Smith supporter who voted at the polls and contends the casting of unverified absentee ballots improperly diluted the worth of his valid vote.

The legal action names Eu as defendant and contends the secretary of state’s staff erroneously advised local officials that they could--but did not need to--validate the signatures on absentee ballot applications by comparing them with signatures on voter registration files.

Such failure, Smith’s supporters contend, opened the possibility that absentee ballots were delivered to voters in response to fraudulent signatures on the applications.

Smith’s lawyers earlier filed a similar action in Orange County, but it was rejected last week by Superior Court Judge Francisco J. Firmat.