Yesterday Truong Nguyen filed an application for an emergency writ to the Court of Appeals regarding his election contest with Janet Nguyen, who has been seated as an Orange County Supervisor. Trung Nguyen won the election day vote by seven votes and after the recount Janet was declared the winner by 3 votes. Truong then filed an election contest to the issue as to whether or not, in a recount, the paper trail that is produced by electronic voting machines must be recounted. The trial judge ruled that they did not have to be recounted, and Truong appealed this on this ground and on the ground that someone requesting a recount cannot shift counting methods back and forth between machine counts and hand counts based on what beneifts them the most.
The Court of Appeals summarily denies 98.5% of writs filed before them, either on the grounds that it is not an emergency, or on the grounds that the writ has no merit.
Today the Court of Appeals issued and order in this case taking up the matter and ordering that briefing be completed by May 7, 2007.
The decision in this matter will be groundbreaking because it will be the first Court of Appeals decision in California as to whether candidates can change methods of counting mid-count and whether or not voter-varified paper ballots that are created by machines have to be counted in a recount.
The mere fact that this matter is being heard, given the long odds, is a testament to the legal work of Mike Schroeder and Steve Baric, the attorneys for Truong Nguyen.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Can Troung Nguyen let it go? Now it makes him look like Al Gore, only Republican version.