Jones Asks INS to Probe Juror Pool

SANTA ANA — Secretary of State Bill Jones has asked the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to check the citizenship status of nearly 450 people throughout Orange County who have claimed exemption from jury service by saying they are not citizens, even though they are registered to vote.

While many of these people may simply be seeking to avoid jury duty, Jones said, it is possible “the problem [of noncitizen voting] may be more extensive than we know.”

The citizenship review is the third sought by Jones from the INS since December. The first found more than 700 people had been registered to vote before becoming citizens with the aid of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino rights organization.

The INS has not responded to the second request, made in March, that it complete a computer check of the county’s entire 1.3-million-person voter file for noncitizens. The INS has said the request has raised serious concerns about privacy and discrimination issues.

INS District Director Richard Rogers in Los Angeles said the request to check the juror list for noncitizens “is backed up behind” the larger review.

“We are not working on [the latest request] until a determination is made [in Washington] on the 1.3 million,” he said.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is separately examining the same list of 448 people who sought the exemption from jury service, but has yet to determine the next step in its investigation.

“It is part of our continuing voter fraud investigation,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes.

The latest request for INS information drew similar criticism to previous attempts to check the citizenship status of voters.

Arturo Montez, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, questioned the accuracy of INS documents.

“You have to remember there were a lot of people whose citizenship was delayed because of the Republicans and they may wrongfully be included on this list,” said Montez. “I also think it is an invasion of privacy and it deters people from wanting to take jury duty or participate in the system.”

While juror rolls are filled from both Department of Motor Vehicle records and voter files, all of the 448 people were summoned to jury duty from voter registration records from Sept. 1, 1996, to Feb. 1, officials said.

The Orange County jury commissioner’s office compiled the list by using a computer to pinpoint those who claimed the noncitizen exemption and who appear on the voter rolls. The program was initiated last summer by Registrar Rosalyn Lever at the behest of Jones’ office.

“It is just another resource to use to clean up the voter file,” said Don Taylor, Lever’s assistant. Similar programs were started last year in some other counties in the state, Jones said.

The juror inquiry is separate from the one being conducted by Congress into Robert K. Dornan’s challenge to the election victory of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in the 46th Congressional District.

In fact, Taylor said just 21 of the people on the juror list voted in the 46th Congressional District in November, which would make little difference in the outcome.

In late March, Lever sent letters to all 448 people, notifying them that their registrations were canceled based on their having claimed the noncitizen exemption on the jury summons. Both voter registration documents and jury response forms are filled out under penalty of perjury.

About 65 people who received the March 26 letter responded and returned a form that states the registrar’s “information is incorrect” and asked that they be reinstated as voters.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ormes said prosecutors are reviewing the answers, as well as the original forms before going forward. They received the information from Lever this week.

“There are some people who may well be citizens who were trying to get out of jury duty and made a response with that in mind,” he said. “There could be other factors at work here as well, such as key punch error, lies, misunderstandings, accidental marking on the jury summons card, or other reasons.”

According to data supplied by Taylor, 296 of the 448 have never voted, 152 have “some voting history.” Of the total, 200 have indicated on voter registration forms that they were born in the United States.