Los Angeles Times - 24.02.2020

Political observers say
the sheer amount of money
flowing into the race is un-
usual for a law enforcement
election, and the heavy-han-
ded contributions illumi-
nate the high stakes: The
winner will lead the largest
prosecutor’s office in the na-
tion with an outsize ability to
influence policy agendas
across California and the
United States.
Though Lacey has cham-
pioned a diversion program
for defendants with mental
illnesses, she is still seen as a
typical “tough on crime”
prosecutor compared with
Gascón and Rossi, who both
espouse platforms focused
on restorative justice and
maintaining public safety
while lowering the prison
population.
“You got the progressive
against the more traditional
— I don’t want to say conser-
vative, but that’s really what
it is, conservative — pro-law
enforcement Jackie Lacey,”
said Dermot Givens, a Los
Angeles attorney and politi-
cal consultant. “Society has
moved past that, and now
we’ll see if Los Angeles has
moved past that.”
Lacey, whose reelection
committee was formed in
2018, leads the way in direct
fundraising, having col-
lected $810,000, records

show. Gascón has tallied

$137,000, though he entered

the race only in December

and has raised nearly all of

that in the last month. Rossi

has received $67,000 in direct

donations but failed to at-

tract any money from out-

side committees.

Donors can contribute

an unlimited amount of

money to outside commit-

tees, which cannot coordi-

nate with a candidate’s

campaign.

That has played well for

Gascón. The outside com-

mittee Run, George, Run re-

ceived $1 million last month

from Patty Quillin, the wife

of Netflix Chief Executive

Reed Hastings.

Quillin has donated to

progressive candidates in

Alameda County in the past,

records show. Her husband

had previously dumped

more than $2 million into ef-

forts such as Proposition 47

— the measure co-written by

Gascón that turned low-lev-

el drug use and other of-

fenses from felonies to mis-

demeanors — as well as ef-

forts to repeal the death

penalty in California, ac-

cording to filings with the

secretary of state.

Attempts to contact both

Hastings and Quillin were

unsuccessful.

Outside groups support-

ing Gascón also took in a

combined $585,000 from

Elizabeth Simons, who has

donated tens of thousands

to anti-death-penalty efforts

and other criminal justice

reform measures in recent

years, records show. An

email to Simons’ Bay Area-

based clean energy founda-

tion was not returned.

The outside group

Gomez is volunteering for,

Imagine Justice, has also

said it will spend $1 million to

help turn out voters for

Gascón in South L.A.

The truckload of money

from outside L.A. County

would seem to bolster critics

of Gascón who have tried to

brand him as a carpet-

bagger, even though he grew

up in Southern California

and rose to the rank of as-

sistant chief in the Los Ange-

les Police Department. Max

Szabo, Gascón’s campaign

spokesman, said the heavy

dose of money from North-

ern California only serves to

solidify his record on crimi-

nal justice reform.

“Those who care about

injustice are going to get in-

volved where they can make

the biggest difference, and

the biggest difference can be

made in Los Angeles be-

cause it’s the mass-incar-

ceration capital of the

world,” he said.

Groups boosting Lacey

have almost entirely re-

ceived funding from law en-

forcement unions. In addi-

tion to the $1 million poured

in by the LAPPL, the union

representing L.A. County

sheriff ’s deputies contrib-

uted $800,000 to a pro-Lacey

committee that consists

mostly of law enforcement

groups. The Peace Officers

Research Assn. of California

has also contributed $107,

to pro-Lacey efforts, while

the union representing L.A.

County prosecutors fun-

neled $50,000 into the race.

Critics of Lacey have

been quick to link her broad

support among law enforce-

ment unions to her record of

rarely prosecuting use-of-

force cases. Robert Harris, a

director on the board of the

Los Angeles Police Protec-

tive League, scoffed at that

notion and argued that the

blitz of support is aimed at

stopping Gascón, who many

in law enforcement believe

represents a brand of crimi-

nal justice policy that en-

dangers public safety.

“We knew we were going

to have to ward off some of

that influence from outside

our area who were going to

try and sell this fake image of

Gascón. We know who he

really is,” Harris said. “We

don’t need a D.A. to have an

extreme makeover. We really

want to support Jackie Lac-

ey because she has that

proven record of addressing

some of the issues public

safety-wise that we know are

important to the communi-

ties that we serve.”

The committee dona-

tions have also raised ques-

tions about potential con-

flicts of interest in connec-

tion with one of the highest-

profile individuals facing

charges in Los Angeles:

Harvey Weinstein.

Jury deliberations are

ongoing in Weinstein’s New

York trial on rape allega-

tions. In Los Angeles, Lacey

filed multiple counts of sexu-

al assault against Weinstein

last month.

Records show that Blair

Berk, Weinstein’s lead de-

fense counsel in Los Ange-

les, donated $1,000 to Lac-

ey’s campaign in 2018.

Gascón’s campaign has at-

tacked Lacey over the con-

tribution in the past. Berk

declined to comment, and

Lacey’s campaign said the

appearance of a conflict was

overblown.

“Virtually every D.A., in-

cluding both George Gascón

and D.A. Lacey, takes cam-

paign contributions from

defense attorneys, because

these contributions do not

represent a conflict of inter-

est,” said Mac Zilber, a con-

sultant for Lacey’s cam-

paign. “Blair Berk first gave

to D.A. Lacey eight years

ago, years before the Wein-

stein case.”

Gascón’s campaign re-

ceived a donation from Holly

Baird, a public relations pro-

fessional who has acted as a

spokeswoman for Weinstein

since the beginning of his

New York criminal trial.

Szabo said the campaign

would return her $250 dona-

tion “to avoid even the

slightest appearance of a

conflict.”

In an email, Baird said

she was “offended” by the

Gascón campaign’s decision

to return her contribution

and said her personal views

do not always align with

those of people she works

for.

“It’s antithetical to the

#MeToo movement for the

Los Angeles Times or any-

one to misconstrue or ques-

tion my intentions of donat-

ing $250 to attend a fundrais-

er for someone who is com-

mitted to criminal and social

justice reform,” Baird wrote.

Though the dollar figures

being thrown around in the

race may have surprised

some observers, Harris said

bills add up quickly when an

election affects voters from

Palmdale to the South Bay.

“L.A. County is huge,” he

said. “There are a lot of vot-

ers we have to communicate

with in a short amount of

time.”

Millions in outside money pour into race for D.A.

[Donations,from A1]

A8 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020 LATIMES.COM

away from odd-year elec-

tions to hold contests in tan-

dem with California’s state-

wide primary.

“With the consolidation

of the cities and the districts

onto the ballot, the Ink-a-

Vote system literally did not

have the physical capacity

for the length of the ballot

and the number of contests

and measures,” Logan said.

Designed through years

of community input, the

county’s VSAP system uses

a touch-screen for in-person

voting that marks choices on

paper ballots for voters to re-

view before they’re cast. Vot-

ers who want a faster experi-

ence can make selections

ahead of time online and

transfer them with a smart-

phone and a QR code to the

machine that prints them on

a completed paper ballot.

The system also required

a redesign of absentee bal-

lots, which will be counted

using the same new devices

that count the ones cast in

person.

“I think the VSAP system

does a good job at address-

ing a lot of problems we’ve

seen in L.A.,” said Kim Al-

exander, president of the

nonpartisan California Vot-

er Foundation.

Those changes alone

would be a lot for Los Ange-

les County voters to absorb.

But the use of the new mach-

ines and ballots will take

place under provisions of a

2016 state law that radically

retools the election

experience. It allows coun-

ties to swap traditional

polling places for multipur-

pose “vote centers” and re-

quires those facilities to

open starting 11 days before

election day.

Five counties used the

new procedures in 2018 and

10 more will adopt the

changes for the March elec-

tion. Fourteen of those coun-

ties are required to mail ev-

ery registered voter a ballot

in exchange for closing

neighborhood polling

places. But L.A. County re-

ceived a special — and con-

troversial — exemption from

that rule.

The result is that as many

as 2 million voters will have

neither a local polling place

nor a ballot mailed to them

— unless they request an ab-

sentee ballot by the state-

wide deadline on Tuesday.

It’s why some voting

rights advocates will be

watching the county’s elec-

tion operations closely.

“I think L.A. County is the

real hot spot,” said Jonathan

Stein, voting rights manager

for Asian Americans Ad-

vancing Justice-Asian Law

Caucus. He said it’s not far-

fetched to envision “signifi-

cant challenges” for local

voters on election day.

Marilú Guevara, execu-

tive director of the League of

Women Voters of Los Ange-

les, said she’s heartened by

places are gone, replaced by
fewer regional voting cen-
ters; and once there, millions
of Angelenos will use new
touch-screen devices ap-
proved by state officials just
weeks ago.
Voters across the county
had their first experiences
with the new process over
the weekend. In some cases,
it was not what they had
hoped for — sporadic re-
ports about miscues that
election officials promised
would be resolved as elec-
tion day approaches.
Dean Logan, the regis-
trar of voters in Los Angeles
County and architect of the
new $300-million voting sys-
tem, said in an interview ear-
lier this month that his staff
is prepared to address any
problems as they arise. “I
don’t ever go into an election
anticipating that everything
is going to go picture-per-
fect,” he said. “I think doing
that would be naive.”
Few counties have mod-
ernized their elections less
frequently — the new system
marks just the third major
modernization of voting in
Los Angeles since 1968. Local
officials stubbornly held on
to the “Votomatic” punch-
card system for 35 years,
scrapping it three years after
similar hole-punching
machines in Florida sparked
the “hanging chads” furor of
the 2000 presidential elec-
tion.
L.A. then switched to the
“Ink-a-Vote” system, in
which voters marked ballots
with a pen, intended to be
only a short-term fix while
the county prepared to
switch to electronic voting
machines. But after a storm
of criticism over security
concerns scuttled that ef-
fort, Los Angeles County de-
cided to build its own system
from the ground up.
The end result — known
as “Voting Solutions for All
People,” or VSAP — has
been in limited use ahead of
the March 3 primary.
Though Logan has said
those who have used it so far
reported a positive experi-
ence, a statewide primary in
which most of the county’s
5.5 million voters cast ballots
could reveal issues not found
during earlier tests.
“There’s a learning curve
associated with all changes
in voting rules,” Hasen said.
“I always say, you don’t pre-
miere your brand-new play
straight to Broadway.”
Logan, who has led the
county’s election team since
2008, said there was no other
choice. He noted the Ink-a-
Vote marked-ballot system
was a poor fit for voters with
physical disabilities or those
who use any of Los Angeles
County’s 12 official lan-
guages other than English.
But the final blow, he
said, came when a number of
L.A. communities switched

the recent mailings to all

households that explain the

new system and vote cen-

ters. Yet she still worries that

longtime voters won’t be

aware of the change and will

go to their former polling

place out of habit — causing

them to dash through rush-

hour traffic to find one of the

new vote centers.

“I hope that now more

people who didn’t know

about the changes coming to

voting will start asking ques-

tions,” Guevara said. “I just

hope it’s not too late for a

large part of our electorate.”

Guevara’s worries could

be justified. Only 38% of Los

Angeles County voters sur-

veyed in a USC poll released

last week knew there had

been changes made to the

way in which they’ll vote in

the upcoming election.

When state lawmakers in

Sacramento were drafting

the new election law, known

as the Voter’s Choice Act,

Los Angeles County lobby-

ists argued that the exemp-

tion was needed to “mitigate

the bill’s operational and fis-

cal impact on the county.”

In an interview with The

Times, Logan said that

some voters want to cast a

ballot in person and that the

new system makes that eas-

ier. “I don’t think they’ve lost

access to a polling place,” he

said of those voters. “I think

they’ve gained access to a

place to vote over the course

of 11 days.”

For those in-person vot-

ers, L.A. election officials will

use 22,000 ballot-marking

devices, to be set up in vote

centers of various sizes be-

ginning this weekend and

lasting through election

night. An additional 6,

machines will be available as

backups if needed.

Though the machines

have been tested by state of-

ficials and by voters — a

mock election was held in

September and the new de-

vices were offered as an op-

tion in roughly 40 polling

places during municipal

elections last fall — there

have been errors, many of

them over the last two days

as the first vote centers

opened across the county.

Complaints were lodged

on social media that some of

the ballot-marking devices

and electronic “poll books,”

which verify a voter’s regis-

tration, had failed to work.

Some of the problems

seemed to mirror acknowl-

edgments by Logan in De-

cember, including that vote

center staffers had been late

in getting the machines

working.

On Sunday, Logan said

on Twitter that the rollout

was “not without hiccups,”

but noted that the “equip-

ment performed well and

voter feedback on usability

was positive.”

In the soft debut of the

machines last year, some of

the ballot-marking devices

experienced paper jams. In

December, experts hired by

the state raised concerns

that inadequate security

seals might not reveal if the

ballot box attached to a de-

vice had been tampered

with.

The November mock

election also exposed prob-

lems with the printing of bal-

lots, causing delays in tally-

ing about 1% of the votes. A

similar delay in a major elec-

tion could affect tens of

thousands of ballots, adding

more time pressures to a

process already closely scru-

tinized for how long it takes.

In a December report to Los

Angeles County supervi-

sors, Logan said his staff has

recalibrated printers.

Problems with the touch-

screen machines — which

electronically mark paper

ballots — were also discov-

ered during the mock elec-

tions, including what Logan

informed supervisors was a

“small number” of paper

jams and incomplete error

code messages that con-

fused poll workers.

In addition, the highly

touted smartphone feature

“did not operate properly”

during the mock election,

according to the December

report to county supervi-

sors. Election officials say

the software has since been

updated.

On Jan. 24, Secretary of

State Alex Padilla laid out a

series of needed changes.

“I am insisting on some

essential modifications to

the system and requiring on-

going reports from Los An-

geles County so that we can

continue to improve the vot-

ing experience for Ange-

lenos,” Padilla wrote in his

letter certifying the various

VSAP components.

Logan told county super-

visors that he would address

Padilla’s conditions.

“Based on the mock elec-

tion and the pilot election,

we did make improvements

and refinements,” Logan

said during a board meeting

on Jan. 28. “Every voting sys-

tem certified in California

has conditions.... We are con-

fident that we can meet

those conditions.”

One of those conditions is

that every Los Angeles vote

center must ensure there’s

some way to cast a ballot if

the new machines should

fail.

In the other California

counties implementing the

Voter’s Choice Act, there are

on-demand printers that

can generate the correct bal-

lot. But in sprawling L.A.,

where Logan points out

there are some 62,000 differ-

ent ballot configurations

with municipal candidates

and measures, there is no

backup method to print bal-

lots.

Instead, the state’s larg-

est county will rely on the

most rudimentary of

backup plans: blank write-in

ballots, forcing voters to

write out a candidate’s name

in every race in which they

want to participate.

“That’s a fail-safe in the

event that the entire system

was down, a stopgap to

make sure voting never

stops,” Logan said.

Logan expects as many

as 16,000 people will staff the

vote centers, each person re-

ceiving an eight-hour in-

struction course. As in all

elections, training is key: A

social media posting that

went viral this month

wrongly said that all newly

registered L.A. voters would

have to show ID at vote cen-

ters — in fact, it only applies

to a very small subset of vot-

ers whose initial registration

material doesn’t comply

with an 18-year-old federal

law. California has no broad-

based ID requirements for

voters who show up to cast

ballots in person.

Hasen, who has written

extensively on how voting

systems can be compro-

mised by simple mistakes,

said the early voting period

— beginning this weekend

and running through Mon-

day, March 2 — will be a cru-

cial test.

“There’s so much angst

right now about voting sys-

tems,” he said. “And a lot of

people are going to be sur-

prised by all of this.”

Alexander’s nonpartisan

group is urging L.A. voters to

review voting information

now and not be put off.

“A lot of time, voters wait

until the night before the

election to open that mailed

packet,” she said. “I think

elections officials should be

making contingency plans if

there are really long lines.”

DANIEL STEPHENSON, center, of Sierra Foothills Young Democrats meets volunteers before canvassing.

Myung J. ChunLos Angeles Times

‘A lot riding’

on new L.A.

voting system

[Voting,from A1]

LOS ANGELES COUNTYrecently unveiled a proto-

type of its new touch-screen voting machines.

Barbara DavidsonLos Angeles Times