IV
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. 294
Relating to a question of the privileges of the House.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 30, 1997
Mr. BECERRA submitted the following resolution; which failed of adoption
RESOLUTION
Relating to a question of the privileges of the House.
Whereas Loretta Sanchez was issued a certificate of election
as the duly elected Member of Congress from the 46th
District of California by the Secretary of State of Califor-
nia and was seated by the U.S. House of Representatives
on January 7, 1997;
Whereas a Notice of Contest of Election was filed with the
Clerk of the House by Mr. Robert Dornan on December
26, 1996;
Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the
46th District of California met on February 26, 1997, in
Washington, D.C., on April 19, 1997, in Orange County,
California, and October 24, 1997, in Washington, D.C.;
Whereas the allegations made by Mr. Robert Dornan have
been largely found to be without merit: Charges of im-
proper voting from a business, rather than a resident ad-
HRES 294 IH
dress; underage voting; double voting; and charges of un-
usually large numbers of individuals voting from the
same address;
Whereas it was found that voting from the same address in-
cluded a Marines barracks and the domicile of nuns, that
business addresses were legal residences for the individ-
uals, including the zookeeper of the Santa Ana Zoo, that
duplicate voting was by different individuals and those
accused of underage voting were of age;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has issued un-
precedented subpoenas to the Immigration and Natu-
ralization Service to compare their records with Orange
County voter registration records, the first time in any
election in the history of the United States that the Im-
migration and Naturalization Service has been asked by
Congress to verify the citizenship of voters;
Whereas the Immigration and Naturalization Service has
complied with the committee’s request and, at the com-
mittee’s request, has been doing a manual check of its
paper files and providing worksheets containing supple-
mental information on that manual check to the Commit-
tee on House Oversight for over five months;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight subpoenaed the
records seized by the District Attorney of Orange County
on February 13, 1997, and has received and reviewed all
records pertaining to registration efforts of that group;
Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the
46th District of California and the committee have been
reviewing these materials and has all the information it
needs regarding who voted in the 46th District and all
HRES 294 IH
the information it needs to make judgment concerning
those votes;
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has after over
nine months of review and investigation failed to present
credible evidence to change the outcome of the election of
Congresswoman Sanchez and is pursuing never-ending
and unsubstantiated areas of review;
Whereas contestant Robert Dornan has not shown or pro-
vided credible evidence that the outcome of the election
is other than Congresswoman Sanchez’ election to the
Congress; and
Whereas the Committee on House Oversight should complete
its review of this matter and bring this contest to an end:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That unless the Committee on House Over-
sight has sooner reported a recommendation for its final
disposition, the contest in the 46th District of California
is dismissed upon the expiration of October 31, 1997.
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