An effort to remove two Westminster City Council members from office has failed, with recall proponents falling short by more than 200 signatures in both attempts.
The Orange County Registrar of Voters announced on Monday, March 21, that only 1,907 of the 2,878 signatures submitted to recall Councilman Carlos Manzo could be authenticated. Advocates needed another 234 valid signatures to reach the required number of 2,141 – equal to 20% of the registered voters in Manzo’s District 2 – that would force a stand-alone recall election.
The news came three weeks after the same group learned it hadn’t gathered enough signatures to force a recall vote for District 3 Councilwoman Kimberly Ho. That effort failed by 285 valid signatures.
“I’m somewhat surprised that they weren’t able to accomplish getting enough signatures for an election, given that they didn’t need that many to begin with,” Manzo said.
Manzo and Ho raised the ire of some residents last summer after voting with another Westminster council member, Tai Do, to postpone and re-situate a memorial. Originally headed for Freedom Park, the Quang Tri monument would honor a 1972 battle in which South Vietnamese soldiers reclaimed a province taken by North Vietnam.
The three council members have continued to disagree with monument supporters, Mayor Tri Ta and Councilman Charlie Nguyen, over several other issues, including the location of the mayor’s office and past public land sales.
Backers of recalling Manzo turned in signatures on the legal deadline of Feb. 5, which happened to coincide with the Westminster Tet Parade.
The Registrar’s office found 971 signatures to be invalid. Within that group, the Registrar said 110 signatures were duplicates, 157 did not match signatures on file with the county, 193 were not registered to vote, 47 live out of Manzo’s district and 393 did not provide complete information.
“We understand that the rules for recall are a little complicated,” said organizer Dao Tran. “Recall efforts are very difficult. There can be technical mistakes. But a lot of people supported us, and we are glad for that.”
The Registrar’s office billed Westminster $9,785 for conducting the signature verification. That invoice is on top of the $16,635 tab for authentication of signatures for Ho’s recall.
Manzo said he is relieved to put the recall behind him.
“It was very upsetting how they ran what was basically a hate campaign against me,” Manzo said.
That has included a politically charged campaign in some Vietnamese-language media, in which some of Manzo’s opponents have described him as racist and said he does not respect the Little Saigon community or Buddhism — allegations that Manzo and others deny.
Tran said recall organizers are not looking at a redo.
“Nobody is thinking about trying again.”