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Lutz vs. Vu -- Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief

Citizens Oversight (2016-06-16) Ray Lutz, Alan Geraci

This Page: https://copswiki.org/Common/M1658
More Info: Election Integrity, Election Audit Lawsuit

Latest News

  • AB-840 modified on August 28 to allow only early VBM and Polls ballots -- now signed into law.
  • VideoPDFArticle(M1785) 2017-08-31 Citizens Oversight OPPOSES AB-840, the bill to gut CA election audits -- Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight, AB-840
  • In the appellate court, they judged that due to the fact that AB-840 was now law, the case was moot. But they went further to say that it was always that way, and the lower court erred in ruling in our favor. This is ridiculous, but allows the county to get out of paying any legal expenses for our side. Disgusting!
  • Please see the project Election Audit Lawsuit where new information will be provided.
  • Video(M1670) 2016-08-03 Press Conference: Court Ruling on Anti-Election Fraud Lawsuit -- Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight, Also includes court ruling and explanation.
  • Lutz_Vs._Vu_Ruling_on_Injunction_CCE07282016.pdf: Ruling by Judge Wohlfeil on Election Audits Case
  • Hearing was held in San Diego Superior Court, July 6, 2016, 1:30pm Dept C-73. (330 W. Broadway, 6th Floor) requesting injunctive relief. This would essentially stop Vu from certifying the election unless he complied with election code 15360, mandating that all ballots be subjected to the 1% manual tally audit. Vu excluded 285,000 ballots.
  • Since the judge did not rule on it prior to certification deadline, Vu certified knowing he was in violation of the law.
  • Now case has been modified as "Writ of Mandate" which means it will go forward and try to correct this situation for future elections. This should have state-wide application.
  • This trial will likely take a number of months. We hope we can get it completed before November.
  • We received a "Statement of Intended Decision" on Oct 26 and Status conference is scheduled for Dec 1, just before election certification.

PLEASE NOTE
This action was subsequently modified to request for injunctive relief, and now is being handled by former Deputy City Attorney Alan Geraci. Hearing occurred in San Diego Superior Court, July 6, 2016, 1:30pm Dept C-73. (330 W. Broadway, 6th Floor)

On June 16, 2016, the following "Complaint for Declaratory Relief" was filed by Ray Lutz against San Diego Registrar of Voters Michael Vu and his supervisor, Helen N. Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer of San Diego County. This was served to the County Counsel at 12:35pm, and we attempted to serve Micheal Vu directly at 2:35pm but he refused to accept it, so we threw it on the floor at his office.

What is this about

The San Diego Registrar of Voters (SDROV) and many other election districts in California are not complying with the law regarding the 1% manual tally. They are leaving out a vast number of Vote by mail (VBM) ballots that were still to be processed after election day, and also the many provisionals.

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Header of the filed complaint:

0616161814.jpg

Initial Complaint, filed Pro Per by Ray Lutz

First Amended Complaint. Filed 2016-06-24 by Attorney Alan Geraci. Citizens Oversight added as a plaintiff

County response, filed on 2016-06-30

Our Reply, 2016-07-05

Report on Hearing

The judge did not provide a tentative ruling prior to the hearing. He listened to statements from both sides. Counsel from County was caught off guard and was visibly shaking. Judge asked how many provisionals as a percentage were involved, they said 10%, and he seemed to accept that information as if it were quite a large number.

The Trial

The Trial was held October 4, 5, 6 and 11, 2016.

Statement of Intended Decision

Instead of producing a complete decision immediately, Judge Wohlfeil published a "Statement of Intended Decision" and he solicited comments by the parties, (normally within 5 days after official reception, as it was mailed, that is Nov 4, 2016) and then scheduled a case status conference for Dec 1, 2016. That date is before final certification.

Case Status Conference

Judge Wohlfeil scheduled a case status conference for Dec 1, 2016 at 3pm in Dept 73 of San Diego Superior Court. This hearing was postponed to Friday, Dec 2 at 11am because no court reporter had been contracted for the hearing.

Judgment

This was filed on January 10, 2017. The ruling correctly requires that all vote-by-mail ballots must be included in the 1% manual tally audit, but incorrectly rules that provisionals need not be included. The argument by the County and embraced by the court was that we are asking for more than 100% of the ballots to be audited because we want even provisionals that were not accepted to be audited. This argument is ridiculous as we never have asked for more than the validated and accepted provisionals to be included, but it appears the court wanted to give both sides a partial win to prompt appeal.

Appeals

Both parties have filed appeals to this judgment
  1. County appealed because they don't want to include late VBM or Provisionals. at all in the 1% manual tally audit.
  2. We appealed because a)
    • we want the results to apply to all counties and
    • the court ruled against us on Provisionals, but only because of an invalid argument by County that we wanted to also review invalidated or unaccepted provisional ballots when in fact we only argued to include the validated provisional ballots.

BUT -- will say that review of provisional processing and why each was invalidated would not be a bad idea, even though we did not argue for that.

Transcripts prepared for the appeals process

Appellate Briefs & other filings

AB-840 modified on August 28 to allow only early VBM and Polls ballots

Briefs regarding whether appeal should be dismissed due to mootness.

Comments

Media Form edit

Title Lutz vs. Vu -- Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief
Publisher Citizens Oversight
Author Ray Lutz, Alan Geraci
Pub Date 2016-06-16
Media Link
Remote Link
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Forum Link
Note 37-2016-00020273-CL-MC-CTL All legal documents related to the case.
Keywords Election Integrity, Election Audit Lawsuit
Related Keywords Ballot Access Lawsuit, San Diego Primary Contest 2016, Vote By Mail
Media Type PDF
Media Group News, Legal Doc
Curator Rating Plain
Venue
Book ISBN
Author Name Sortable
Thumbnail Link
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
0616161814.jpgjpg 0616161814.jpg manage 1 MB 09 Mar 2018 - 23:51 Raymond Lutz Header of the filed complaint
2018-05-22 Request for Judicial notice of AB-840 Leg. History by County NOL 05222018.pdfpdf 2018-05-22 Request for Judicial notice of AB-840 Leg. History by County NOL 05222018.pdf manage 1 MB 01 Jun 2018 - 16:53 Raymond Lutz County's Request for Judicial Notice of some documents in Judicial History of AB-840
211556_stark_partial.pdfpdf 211556_stark_partial.pdf manage 199 K 28 Oct 2016 - 02:54 Raymond Lutz Partial transcript of Dr. Philip Stark's expert testimony
CARE Law Group Letter Brief 05222018.pdfpdf CARE Law Group Letter Brief 05222018.pdf manage 135 K 23 May 2018 - 00:14 Raymond Lutz CARE Law Group filing on Mootness of Appeal due to AB-840
Closing_Brief_Final.pdfpdf Closing_Brief_Final.pdf manage 209 K 28 Oct 2016 - 02:41 Raymond Lutz Plaintiff's Closing Brief
Combined_Respondents_and_Opening_Appellate_Brief_FINAL_3.pdfpdf Combined_Respondents_and_Opening_Appellate_Brief_FINAL_3.pdf manage 432 K 29 Dec 2017 - 21:35 Raymond Lutz Citizens Oversight & Lutz Appellate Brief
County_Objections_to_RFJN.pdfpdf County_Objections_to_RFJN.pdf manage 1 MB 16 Jan 2018 - 21:36 Raymond Lutz County objects to request for judicial notice of Exh 59
County_Opening_Brief.pdfpdf County_Opening_Brief.pdf manage 530 K 30 Dec 2017 - 21:41 Raymond Lutz County Opening Appeal Brief
County_Reply_Brief_and_Opposition_to_Cross_Appeal.pdfpdf County_Reply_Brief_and_Opposition_to_Cross_Appeal.pdf manage 392 K 13 Feb 2018 - 20:56 Raymond Lutz  
Countys attempt to moot appeal based on new legislation.pdfpdf Countys attempt to moot appeal based on new legislation.pdf manage 94 K 23 May 2018 - 00:14 Raymond Lutz County's brief on mootness due to ab-840
D071907_Record_Filed_-_Civil-multi-1.pdfpdf D071907_Record_Filed_-_Civil-multi-1.pdf manage 14 K 13 Sep 2017 - 22:50 Raymond Lutz Notice of record filed on August 15, 2017. Respondents opening brief due in 45 days.
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_1_OF_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_1_OF_3.pdf manage 11 MB 13 Sep 2017 - 22:05 Raymond Lutz Claimant Transcript 1 of 3.pdf
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_2_OF_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_2_OF_3.pdf manage 8 MB 13 Sep 2017 - 22:06 Raymond Lutz Claimant Transcript 2 of 3.pdf
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_3_OF_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._CT_VOL_3_OF_3.pdf manage 8 MB 13 Sep 2017 - 22:07 Raymond Lutz Claimant Transcript 3 of 3.pdf
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_1_of_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_1_of_3.pdf manage 337 K 13 Sep 2017 - 22:08 Raymond Lutz Respondent Transcript 1 of 3
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_2_of_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_2_of_3.pdf manage 407 K 13 Sep 2017 - 22:11 Raymond Lutz Respondent Transcript 2 of 3
D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_3_of_3.pdfpdf D071907_VU,_ET_AL._RT_VOL_3_of_3.pdf manage 373 K 13 Sep 2017 - 22:12 Raymond Lutz Respondent Transcript 3 of 3
Dec_Supp_Raymond_Lutz_0001.pdfpdf Dec_Supp_Raymond_Lutz_0001.pdf manage 2 MB 06 Jul 2016 - 02:13 Raymond Lutz Declaration Supplement of Raymond Lutz
Dec_of_Ben_Cooper_0001.pdfpdf Dec_of_Ben_Cooper_0001.pdf manage 935 K 06 Jul 2016 - 02:14 Raymond Lutz  
Dec_of_D._Logan_(LA).pdfpdf Dec_of_D._Logan_(LA).pdf manage 76 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:56 Raymond Lutz Declaration of Dean Logan (LA ROV)
Dec_of_G._Pellerin_(Santa_Cruz).pdfpdf Dec_of_G._Pellerin_(Santa_Cruz).pdf manage 51 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:57 Raymond Lutz Declaration of G. Pellerin (Santa Cruz ROV)
Dec_of_J._Lean_(SOS).pdfpdf Dec_of_J._Lean_(SOS).pdf manage 2 MB 02 Jul 2016 - 20:55 Raymond Lutz Declaration of J. Lean of SOS office
Decl._of_J._Canciamilla_(Contra_Costa).pdfpdf Decl._of_J._Canciamilla_(Contra_Costa).pdf manage 77 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:57 Raymond Lutz Decl. of J. Canciamilla (Contra Costa ROV)
Decl._of_J._Lavine_(Sac).pdfpdf Decl._of_J._Lavine_(Sac).pdf manage 79 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:58 Raymond Lutz Declaration of J. Lavine (Sac ROV)
Decl._of_M._Bedard_(Kern).pdfpdf Decl._of_M._Bedard_(Kern).pdf manage 78 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:59 Raymond Lutz Declaration of M. Bedard (Kern ROV)
Decl._of_M._Vu.pdfpdf Decl._of_M._Vu.pdf manage 242 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:54 Raymond Lutz Declaration of Michael Vu
Decl._of_N._Kelley_(Orange).pdfpdf Decl._of_N._Kelley_(Orange).pdf manage 55 K 02 Jul 2016 - 21:00 Raymond Lutz Declaration of N. Kelley (Orange ROV)
Decl._of_T._Barry.pdfpdf Decl._of_T._Barry.pdf manage 57 K 02 Jul 2016 - 21:02 Raymond Lutz Declaration of County Counsel Attorney Tim Barry
Decl._of_W._Rousseau_(Sonoma).pdfpdf Decl._of_W._Rousseau_(Sonoma).pdf manage 85 K 02 Jul 2016 - 21:01 Raymond Lutz Declaration of W. Rousseau (Sonoma ROV)
Decl_Ray_Lutz.pdfpdf Decl_Ray_Lutz.pdf manage 1 MB 02 Jul 2016 - 20:47 Raymond Lutz FAC - Decl of Ray Lutz
Defendants_Closing_Brief.pdfpdf Defendants_Closing_Brief.pdf manage 445 K 28 Oct 2016 - 02:40 Raymond Lutz Defendant's Closing Brief
Defendants_Opposition_to_Mtn_for_Prelim_Injunction-PA.pdfpdf Defendants_Opposition_to_Mtn_for_Prelim_Injunction-PA.pdf manage 331 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:51 Raymond Lutz County Response -- Opposition to Motion, Points and Authorities
Defendants_Req_for_Judicial_Ntce.pdfpdf Defendants_Req_for_Judicial_Ntce.pdf manage 43 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:52 Raymond Lutz Def. Request for Official Notice
EOrderConfirm.pdfpdf EOrderConfirm.pdf manage 51 K 06 Jul 2016 - 02:14 Raymond Lutz  
Evidentiary_Objections_to_Decl._of_R._Lutz.pdfpdf Evidentiary_Objections_to_Decl._of_R._Lutz.pdf manage 93 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:52 Raymond Lutz Objections to Ray Lutz declaration
Judgment.pdfpdf Judgment.pdf manage 4 MB 30 Jan 2017 - 17:22 Raymond Lutz Judgment Document
Lutz_Vs._Vu_Ruling_on_Injunction_CCE07282016.pdfpdf Lutz_Vs._Vu_Ruling_on_Injunction_CCE07282016.pdf manage 2 MB 02 Aug 2016 - 22:03 Raymond Lutz Ruling by Judge Wohlfeil on Election Audits Case
Lutz_vs_Vu_--_Complaint_for_Declaratory_Relief.pdfpdf Lutz_vs_Vu_--_Complaint_for_Declaratory_Relief.pdf manage 155 K 17 Jun 2016 - 00:55 Raymond Lutz Main complaint, Lutz vs. Vu
Lutz_vs_Vu_--_Complaint_for_Declaratory_Relief_-_EXHIBITS.pdfpdf Lutz_vs_Vu_--_Complaint_for_Declaratory_Relief_-_EXHIBITS.pdf manage 288 K 17 Jun 2016 - 00:56 Raymond Lutz Lutz vs Vu -- Complaint for Declaratory Relief -- Exhibits
Lutz_vs_Vu_--_FAC_06212016.pdfpdf Lutz_vs_Vu_--_FAC_06212016.pdf manage 7 MB 02 Jul 2016 - 20:46 Raymond Lutz First Amended Complaint
NOL_Exhibits.pdfpdf NOL_Exhibits.pdf manage 5 MB 02 Jul 2016 - 20:48 Raymond Lutz FAC - Exhibits
NOL_with_Exhibits_0001.pdfpdf NOL_with_Exhibits_0001.pdf manage 7 MB 06 Jul 2016 - 02:16 Raymond Lutz  
NTCE_of_Lodgmnt.pdfpdf NTCE_of_Lodgmnt.pdf manage 161 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:53 Raymond Lutz County Response exhibits
Notice_Motion.pdfpdf Notice_Motion.pdf manage 188 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:48 Raymond Lutz FAC - Notice Motion
Notice_of_Appeal_County.pdfpdf Notice_of_Appeal_County.pdf manage 54 K 13 Sep 2017 - 18:49 Raymond Lutz Notice by County of Appeal, dated 2017-02-03
Objections_to_SOID--Defendants.pdfpdf Objections_to_SOID--Defendants.pdf manage 322 K 11 Nov 2016 - 04:35 Raymond Lutz Defendant's Objections to Statement of Intended Decision
Objections_to_SOID1.pdfpdf Objections_to_SOID1.pdf manage 91 K 11 Nov 2016 - 04:33 Raymond Lutz Plaintiff's Objections to Statement of Intended Decision
POS.pdfpdf POS.pdf manage 201 K 02 Jul 2016 - 20:49 Raymond Lutz FAC - Proof of Service
POS_07052015_0001.pdfpdf POS_07052015_0001.pdf manage 244 K 06 Jul 2016 - 02:18 Raymond Lutz  
Ps_and_As.pdfpdf Ps_and_As.pdf manage 1 MB 02 Jul 2016 - 20:50 Raymond Lutz FAC - Points and Authorities
RJN_0001.pdfpdf RJN_0001.pdf manage 370 K 06 Jul 2016 - 02:18 Raymond Lutz  
Reply_Brief_0001.pdfpdf Reply_Brief_0001.pdf manage 3 MB 06 Jul 2016 - 02:12 Raymond Lutz Reply Brief
Statement_of_Decision.pdfpdf Statement_of_Decision.pdf manage 422 K 02 Nov 2016 - 19:10 Raymond Lutz Statement of Intended Decision dated 2016-10-26
Tentative_Ruling_12-1-2016.pdfpdf Tentative_Ruling_12-1-2016.pdf manage 10 K 01 Dec 2016 - 18:37 Raymond Lutz  
Trial_Brief.pdfpdf Trial_Brief.pdf manage 91 K 28 Oct 2016 - 02:46 Raymond Lutz Plaintiff's Trial Brief
Topic revision: r36 - 03 Jul 2021, RaymondLutz
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