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“I refuse to allow our electoral process to be subverted and exploited by anyone,” promised Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer after Markowitz’s arrest.
Last week, fraudulent Fullerton City Council candidate Scott Markowitz was arrested and charged with two felonies. Days later, Markowitz pleaded guilty to falsifying his nomination paperwork.
Prior to this development, there had been questions circulating about whether or not Markowitz was physically present for the collection of his required nomination signatures. Markowitz has since admitted to DA investigators that did not personally witness all the signatures despite signing under penalty of perjury that he had.
The arrest follows a complaint filed to Orange County District Attorney which called for an Orange County Grand Jury for investigation into Markowitz’s candidacy. Its author argued that “there [was] clearly enough suspicious activity to point to an effort to subvert an honest election in Fullerton’s 4th District.”
Less than one month later, Markowitz would be booked into the Santa Ana city jail.
“American democracy relies on the absolute integrity of the electoral process,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a press release published by the OCDA office. “Voters must have total confidence that every election is being carried out in a fair and unbiased manner. Interference in the electoral process in any manner and at any stage jeopardizes the will of the people being carried out while eroding the trust of voters that their vote counts. As the elected District Attorney of Orange County, I refuse to allow our electoral process to be subverted and exploited by anyone.”
SoCal Daily Pulse previously reported on inconsistencies with Markowitz’s campaign, highlighting the candidate’s eleventh-hour reregistration from Democrat to Republican; the lack of serious campaign infrastructure; the volume of Democrat signatories who signed on to the nomination papers for an “America First” conservative; the involvement of Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) Executive Director Ajay Mohan, who made Markowitz’s appointment to pull papers with the City Clerk; and past attempts by Mohan to run spoiler candidates in Fullerton.
When another Twitter user asks Mohan if he “personally [caused] this egregious violation of election law,” Mohan retorted jokingly with “I'm surprised they didn't get me for storming the capitol.”
For context, a public records request unearthed communications between Mohan and Fullerton City Clerk staff, in which Mohan writes “I’m reaching out to make an appointment to pull papers for Fullerton City Council District 4. The candidate (cc’d) is Scott Markowitz, and he can drop by at 1 PM tomorrow. Please let us know if we can confirm that appointment.”
Regardless of Markowitz’s ineligibility to run, ballots have already gone out with his name on them. While it is and was extremely unlikely that he would emerge as the top vote-getter, the mere appearance of his name may be enough to split Republican voters across two candidates (Markowitz and Linda Whitaker) to favor the lone Democrat Vivian 'Kitty' Jaramillo. Many Fullertonians now argue that may have been the strategy all along; as several of Jaramillo’s endorsements—like Diane Vena—signed the nominating paperwork for Markowitz to run.
“Did you know the circulators?” a Friends for Fullerton’s Future blogger asks Vena. “Were they friends? Was it Aaruni Thakur? Was it Ahmad Zahra? Was it Ajay Mohan?”
The identity of the circulator(s) will remain unknown—at least for the time being. But, in a sense, the damage has already been done and Markowitz’s misleading “America First” ballot statement is already in Republican households across Fullerton’s 4th District—or worse, back at the Orange County Registrar of Voters office, already marked for a spoiler candidate who openly lied to voters.
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