A judge has overturned the election results of a California city council race after the Democrat candidate who won the seat was charged with voter fraud.
The court has declared a new winner in the Compton city council election after the winning candidate, Isaac Galvin, was charged with election fraud and bribery in a vote-rigging scheme.
Compton City Council member Galvin initially beat his challenger Andre Spicer by one vote, 855 to 854.
However, Galvin was arrested last year along with five other people on charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud.
But after an investigation, it was determined that four votes were cast by people who did not live in the district.
In a 10-page ruling issued Friday by Superior Court Judge Michelle Williams Court, the judge disqualified the four illegal ballots and said Spicer was the rightful winner of the election by a tally of 854 to 851.
“I am excited, thrilled, and relieved that Judge Michelle Williams ruled in my favor,” Spicer said in a statement to ABC7.
“We have worked so hard and tirelessly to prove our case and represent for a community who needed it the most.
“Today is a new beginning for not only myself but 25,000 residents that have been pleading for change.”
On Friday, an L.A. County judge overturned the results of a 2021 Compton City Council race, effectively booting Isaac Galvan from office a year after he was charged with trying to rig the outcome. My latest:
https://t.co/STWa8fbsmV— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) May 30, 2022
If you need to catch up on the original charges against Galvan — who won re-election by one vote in 2021 — you can find the original story from me & @LATvives here: https://t.co/zKPIusSCWA
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) May 30, 2022
From The LA Times:
Prosecutors alleged that Galvan conspired with primary opponent Jace Dawson to direct voters from outside the council district to cast ballots for Galvan in the June runoff against Spicer.
Galvan was also accused of trying to bribe an elections official with concert tickets, according to the criminal complaint.
The official immediately reported the attempt, according to Dean Logan, the county’s top elections official.
Dawson, Kimberly Chaouch, Toni Sanae Morris, Barry Kirk Reed, and Reginald Orlando Streeter were charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit election fraud last summer.
When she ruled on Spicer’s election challenge Friday, Court found that Chaouch, Morris, Streeter, and a man named Jordan Farr Jefferson all voted in the runoff between Spicer and Galvan despite not living in the Compton City Council’s second district.
Chaouch, Morris, Streeter, and Jefferson all listed Dawson’s address in Compton as their home when registering to vote in the race, according to the 10-page ruling.
Six days after the race, Chaouch admitted on a recorded line that she actually lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and that Dawson had her register to vote from his address, court records show.
“There’s a couple more that are using his personal address as well,” she said, according to the judge’s ruling.
“Jace is the only person that lives there.”
Spicer had previously told The Times that Chaouch reached out to his campaign to expose the alleged election fraud.
Chaouch also said she was later hired as part of Galvan’s campaign after Dawson told her “they were doing this to stop the long-standing corruption that would only continue if Andre Spicer were to be elected,” according to the judge’s ruling.
