If You’re Eligible to Vote, You’re Eligible for Jury Duty

There can be little argument that jury duty is an important obligation. It’s when the actual summons to be a juror arrives in the mail that the trouble begins.

An investigation of possible voter fraud found nearly 500 people in Orange County who claimed to be ineligible for jury duty because they were not citizens but who were also listed on the rolls of registered voters. And to be a registered voter, one must be a citizen.

It is possible that some people checked the wrong box on the juror’s form, or a clerk entered the wrong information. So far more than 60 people who were asked about the discrepancy told the registrar of voters that they are citizens and belong on the voters’ rolls. That means they also belong on the jury roll.

The Orange County district attorney’s office rightly is looking into the cases of registered voters claiming to be noncitizens. The jury forms, like voter registration documents, are filled out under penalty of perjury. Those wrongly claiming not to be citizens in an attempt to evade the jurors’ box warrant scrutiny from prosecutors and, at the least, a reminder that they risk perjury charges.

Citizenship does have a price. One component is jury duty. There are numerous valid excuses to avoid the task temporarily, such as financial hardship or a sick child. Judges are generally understanding of such excuses. But they also are good at sniffing out false hardship claims.

Far too many people in Orange County do not even bother to show up at court when they receive the jury duty notice. Court officials say the tally of no-shows runs at about 22%. That means those who do perform their civic responsibility are likely to get called more often than would be necessary if the burden were shared.

Those eligible for jury duty in Orange County number nearly 2 million. Fewer than one-third will be called to jury dury in an average year. Names of prospective jurors are taken from voters’ rolls and Department of Motor Vehicles lists. Some immigrants who are not citizens possess driver’s licenses and wind up being summoned. But registrar of voters officials said the names of the nearly 500 claiming to be noncitizens came from their voters’ rolls, so the noncitizen claim will not wash.

The inquiry into those trying to avoid jury duty should be kept separate from the congressional investigation of Rep. Loretta Sanchez’ victory over Robert K. Dornan last November. Dornan has charged voter fraud in the contest, but has not produced evidence that enough improper ballots were cast to overturn Sanchez’ 984-vote victory. Nor has Sanchez been tied to any wrongdoing.

Months before the election, California Secretary of State Bill Jones asked Orange County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever to help clean up the file of registered voters. In many cases, people who move wind up registered to vote at both their old and new addresses, rather than having the old listing erased.

Lever received help from the county jury commissioner’s office, which checked its files of people claiming exemptions due to lack of citizenship with the list of voters from the registrar. County officials said similar programs were started last year in other California counties. Lever’s assistant, Don Taylor, said 21 of the people on the juror list voted in Sanchez’ 46th Congressional District last November. There is no way to know whom they voted for, but even if all 21 voted for Sanchez and all 21 were noncitizens, it would not affect the outcome of the race.

But voting fraud aside, the district attorney does need to remind anyone trying to duck jury duty by wrongly filling out the jurors’ form that providing erroneous information is a crime. Orange County has gone to great lengths to make jury duty as painless as possible. Residents must cooperate by performing their civic duty.