Fullerton City Council Candidate’s Arrest Leaves 10% of Votes Uncounted

Although Fullerton City Council Ward 4 candidate Scott Markowitz was charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office with felony perjury for falsifying nomination paperwork, his name remained on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

As a result, he garnered 10.6 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.

“Those people voted for him for a reason and so now their vote doesn’t get counted for anybody,” said Linda Whitaker who ran against Markowitz. “They’re just lost votes and that’s a disservice to the public.”

Whitaker received 18.5 percent of the vote while Jamie Valencia is in the lead with 35.6 percent of the vote followed by Vivian Jaramillo who garnered 35.3 percent of votes.

All four candidates were vying for the seat Bruce Whitaker vacated due to term limits. Bruce Whitaker, Linda’s husband, had served 14 years.

“I was my husband’s campaign manager for 14 years, and his treasurer so I learned a lot over those 14 years,” she said.

Markowitz was arrested by Orange County District Attorney investigators after he falsely claimed he personally collected the 25 signatures required to qualify him for the ballot.

Scott Markowitz Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor

He has since pled guilty to a misdemeanor section of the California Elections Code for falsifying nomination paperwork.

“If you’re not well known, 25 signatures are not easy to get and Scott Markowitz is not well known,” Whitaker added. “What happened apparently was he had other people collecting signatures for him, which is a big no-no and if you’re going to do something like that, then why are you getting into office?”

Markowitz was sentenced to 160 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution in an amount yet to be determined.

“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,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “I refuse to allow our electoral process to be subverted and exploited by anyone.”

Markowitz filed nomination documents with the Fullerton city clerk, who is the elections official for the city office, according to Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page.

“The limited service the Registrar of Voters provided to the city clerk was to verify the voter signatures on the candidate nomination petitions,” Page told OrangeCountyLawyers.com. “We did not review the petition itself, including the circulator declaration.”

If Markowitz had collected enough votes to be elected, the City of Fullerton would have been forced to hold a special election to replace him.

Markowitz isn’t the first and likely won’t be the last political candidate who engages in falsifying nomination paperwork. Former Orange County County Assessor Webster Guillory was convicted in 2016 of falsifying his nomination paperwork and was sentenced to community service for misdemeanor election fraud.

“I am grateful for the District Attorney’s continued commitment to investigating allegations of election fraud and prosecuting individuals when evidence of a crime is identified,” Page added.