This is certainly good news:
"Overall, this election was handled in such a way that we have no reason for confidence in the results," famed election attorney Paul Lehto said of California's 50th Congressional District special election between Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray.
In an exclusive interview with RAW STORY on Sunday, July 30, Lehto revealed plans to file a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court on Monday, July 31 against the County of San Diego, Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas, and Brian Bilbray. Bilbray, a Republican, was sworn into office with thousands of ballots still uncounted before the election was officially certified. According to the official machine count (tallied on Diebold optical scanners and touchscreens), Bilbray nosed out Busby by a 78,341 to 71,146 margin. Bilbray replaced Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned after pleading guilty to bribery and is now serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Serious questions were raised by citizens, election reform advocates and blogger Brad Friedman regarding irregularities and apparent security breaches. San Diego's now notorious "voting machine sleepovers" with pollworkers weeks before the June 6th election were covered by national media, including CNN's Lou Dobbs. That discovery and other irregularities led Gail Jacobsen, a voter, to request a full hand count of all 150,000 votes, as RAW STORY has previously reported. High costs and alleged stonewalling by the Registrar's office led the clock to run out on the hand count request, sparking the lawsuit.
"We are filing this lawsuit to seek the truth regarding the election," said Lehto, who added that the lawsuit alone is not intended to install Busby in Congress, since only Congress has the power to oust a member who has been sworn into office. But he noted, "If we can get something changed here, it could not only improve things in the 50th Congressional District, but in the 434 other Congressional races across the country in November."
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