While voicing concerns about possible voter confusion and state-law violations, a Newport Beach City Council majority voted on Friday, Sept. 11, to move forward with preparing for a court-ordered special election on Nov. 3 that will let voters weigh in on three resident-sponsored initiatives.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page answered quickly on Friday that his office will be too busy conducting the regularly scheduled general election in November to take on the process for the city — help city officials were hoping for since Newport Beach hasn’t conducted its own election in 44 years.
City Manager Seimone Jurjis said Friday afternoon that now the city will hope to explain on Monday the complications of holding its own special election Nov. 3 to the same Orange County Superior Court judge who has spent weeks deciding what will happen to the three measures and whether they will appear on a ballot this fall.
The initiatives, authored by the Newport Beach Stewardship Association, would change term limits, how the councilmembers representing the city’s seven districts are elected, and oversight of public meetings and records. The special election could cost up to $1.5 million.
An Orange County Superior Court judge ordered the special election after the City Council tried last month to schedule the initiatives for a 2028 ballot — this was after the judge had shot down the city’s argument that the measures weren’t valid because they were published in a newspaper not considered a publication of record for Newport Beach.
Mayor Lauren Kleiman and councilmembers Michelle Barto, Robyn Grant and Joe Stapleton voted Friday that it was better to move forward with the court-ordered process in order to meet an already compressed timeline for holding a special municipal election that two weeks ago the Registrar of Voters declared too difficult to be included in the general election because the city had failed to meet earlier deadlines for the measures to appear on the ballot.
City Attorney Aaron Harp advised the council on Friday to comply with the judge’s order and added that, on Monday, he will speak with the judge to ensure the city’s efforts to move forward with the special election process comply with her ruling.
“A court order is not optimal for good governance,” Grant said. “Everyone up here, at least I am, is feeling how grave these issues are, and we need to make very nuanced decisions here. I take the advice of our city attorney; this is what he does.”
Grant added that after hearing from the city’s consultant Jessica Blair, who worked as a city clerk and ran elections in Malibu and Half Moon Bay and now operates her own consulting firm helping municipalities out with special elections, she felt even more confident that the special election could be achieved in a way that benefits voters. Blair is the only one of four consultants contacted by the city who said she could get the election done in the timeframe required, city officials said.
“Everything I was presented today, she is able to accomodate, so that actually gives me confidence,” Grant said. “We are working to comply, but we also have a hearing on Monday that will discuss what that looks like. Can we actually comply with what the judge is asking us to do given the obstacles that are presented? I do feel comfortable in that two-step process to move forward. It sounds like, if this is legal, we’ve found someone that can make it occur in the timeframe that we have.”
Councilmembers Noah Blom, Sara Weber and Erik Weigand voted against starting the process for the special election, citing concerns over confusion for voters, the compressed timeline and the chance that even if the process is started, it could be upended if requirements under the election laws, such as signature verification and timely delivery of ballots to military and overseas residents, couldn’t be met.
“I don’t feel comfortable that the city can conduct an election without disenfranchising just one vote,” Weigand said. “I don’t support the election, and I don’t think it will be fair. Residents who are overseas or those in the military, I don’t feel confident that they will get their ballots in time.”
And Weber added that she was very concerned that holding the special election violated the state’s election law and the city charter, which, unless consolidated, don’t allow the city to hold a separate election on the same day as a statewide election.
“I literally feel like I’m being forced to break certain laws,” she said. “We are being asked to move incredibly fast and skip steps and do things we’ve never done before.”
If, on Monday, Harp is satisfied that the city’s election efforts meet the judge’s order and do not conflict with the city’s charter and elections code, City Clerk Lena Shumway will serve as the city’s election official.
Shumway will run the election with help from vendors, temporary election personnel and Blair. All ballots would be mail-in because of the timeline. Shumway said on Friday that she has already been given a list of the city’s registered voters and their addresses.
Shumway will also establish ballot identification, voter instructions, ballot-return procedures, voter-information resources, accessible-voting services, and public communications separately. The city’s ballot would look significantly different than the general election ballot sent out by the Registrar of Voters, and the city would conduct outreach to minimize confusion, officials said. The ballot would also have to be translated into eight more languages to accomodate non-English-reading voters.
Weigand said he worries the city’s attempt to hold the election could undermine the integrity of the entire voting process.
“We don’t need to cause the city of Newport Beach to be the epicenter of ballot integrity,” he said. “We’re opening the door for people to question the election process.”
“Hopefully,” Weigand added, “the judge will finally realize we cannot legitimately hold an election this November.”
Representatives with the Newport Beach Stewardship Association could not be immediately reached on Friday for comment.