A rep for the group suing to recall District Attorney George Gascón is hopeful they’ll have a key ruling in the coming weeks, amid delays that recall proponents contend are part of an ongoing “run-out-the-clock” strategy by Dean Logan, L.A. County’s registrar-recorder.
A spokesman for Logan said the office was following the law regarding how the signatures and subsequent lawsuits are being handled.
“As with the other claims made by the recall proponents,” said Mike Sanchez, senior public information specialist for the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, “we will respond in accordance with the legal framework without regard to the political narrative.”
Tim Lineberger, a spokesman for the Committee to Recall George Gascón, said the group has two separate “litigation tracks” that it hopes will validate the recall efforts.
One appeal that was just argued earlier this month was over the access that was granted to the recall group — access that Logan’s office has fought “tooth and nail,” according to Lineberger.
The recall group alleged the office hasn’t been in compliance with the ruling that granted them access, which the county is disputing. The recall group has said the registrar-recorder has incorrectly disqualified tens of thousands of signatures, and sued for access to the signatures for its own recall, which was granted — but not fully, according to Lineberger, who has said they don’t have everything needed to conduct the review in a timely manner.
“The court’s oral tentative ruling at the outset of that was favorable, but a final opinion or order has not been issued yet,” Lineberger said, referring to arguments made in court July 13. “And that will probably come down in the next few weeks.”
It’s also one of two claims the county’s Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss in closed session Tuesday. A pair of cases in the appellate court are listed for discussion on the July 25 agenda.
The second litigation track Lineberger referred to, which is also on the closed session agenda for supervisors to discuss, is a separate lawsuit that’s seeking certification of the recall election due to a claim that the registrar-recorder’s office illegally disqualified thousands of signatures.
Lineberger is hopeful there could be a status update on the cases as early as this week.
“There is a status conference that’s going to be held (this) week, I believe on (Thursday) both on the pending case, which is the access case, as well as the new case, which is the filing asking to certify (the recall effort due to the claim of improper signature disqualification),” Lineberger said, “at which point, our attorneys indicated we would know a lot more about the direction of everything in the process.”
