An OC Superior Court judge has ordered Santa Ana to update the ballot language for a measure about extending voting to noncitizens following a lawsuit filed last month that alleged the wording would be misleading to voters.
Last fall, a majority of the Santa Ana City Council approved of asking local voters in the Nov. 5 election whether or not noncitizens should be allowed to vote in city elections.
The ballot language the council approve is: “Shall the city of Santa Ana city charter be amended to allow, by the November 2028 general municipal election, noncitizen city residents, including those who are taxpayers and parents, to vote in all city of Santa Ana municipal elections?”
In a lawsuit filed with the county’s Superior Court, James V. Lacy, a local attorney, along with the United States Justice Foundation, the California Public Policy Foundation and Pasquale Talarico, a Santa Ana resident, argue that adding the wording “including those who are taxpayers and parents” could influence the outcome of the election.
Lacy said although he does not agree with allowing noncitizen residents to vote in local elections, the intention of the suit is not to take away that decision from Santa Ana voters but to ensure the wording on the ballot is neutral. Those who filed the suit, he said, are asking that the court order the city to modify the ballot question and refrain from printing the original ballot question approved by the council.
“Under the election code, it specifically states that you can’t put language into the ballot measure that would prejudice a person to vote either for or against it. We went ahead and looked at the language, and it really seemed that this was the Santa Ana City Council trying to rig the election in favor of a vote for noncitizen voting,” Lacy said. “Our view is that there’s no real reason to put (parents and taxpayers) in there. If you take those words out, the measure language then would fairly and neutrally present what the issue is.”
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly A. Knill agreed and ordered Santa Ana City Clerk Jennifer Hall and OC Registrar or Voters Bob Page to grant the relief sought by petitioners or appear before court on June 16 to make the case for not doing so.
A city spokesperson declined to comment on the court order.
Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez had proposed the change to the ballot language, saying at the Nov. 7 meeting when the council decided to put the question to voters that the updated wording was intended to make it more clear, concise and “makes it easy for voters to understand what they will be voting on.”
Hernandez said Tuesday he could not comment on the judge’s decision because he had not received a briefing on it yet, but added that challenges to noncitizen voting were anticipated.
“While I am opposed to noncitizen voting,” Lacy said, “I’m not opposed to there being a fair election in Santa Ana this November about whether noncitizens should be able to vote in city elections.”
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