Van Le for San Jose City Council D7?

The Resolution 3.8 opposing the display of the Vietnam Communist flag in San Jose has taken a life of its own.  City Councilmember Tam Nguyen thought he was getting the support of the community for his resolution (which was passed unanimously two weeks ago by the City Council).  However, some extremists in the community are criticized him with vengeance for they felt the resolution did not go far enough, i.e., not encompassing as the Westminster's resolution opposing the Communist flag.   Some even suggested that the resolution will prompt a brazen display of the Communist flag.

Van Le, a school board member and a former D7 candidate  against Tam Nguyen 2 years ago, did not let such a political  opportunity went to waste.   She is trying to win some brownie points with the Viet-American voters as she is planning her election strategy for 2018. 

LSI cannot wait till next year with Van Le, Chris Le and Tam Nguyen running against each other.   

Update as of June 11, 2017:  The City Council basically decided that this resolution should be as it is.  And for First Amendment sake and the legal liability involves , they will not take up on this matter further for now.

Immigration Legal Rights under President Trump

Journey of Tao by SJ VietArts

Jimmy Nguyen and His End Game

With the second recount or  known as voter's initiated recount over, Jimmy Nguyen lost the SJC Council District 8 to Sylvia Arenas by 74 votes (17,254 to 17,180).   At the beginning of the recount, he was behind by 98 votes.  

 Last Friday, he filed a lawsuit claiming negligence by the ROV.   He claimed that misconduct and errors by the ROV costed him the election.   He is asking the judge to set aside Arena's election.

Meanwhile, Manh Nguyen is still waiting for the forensic test for his lawsuit against the ROV.  The lab has the IR result of the ink but not the chemical analysis.

Meanwhile, both Lan Diep and Sylvia Arenas are well on their way to start their new job.   What is the chance of a judge setting aside the election and declare a new election?   Only time will tell.

An Imperfect ROV

With second recount progressing onto the 7th day,  a finding of 31 disqualified ballots were tallied by mistake has given Jimmy Nguyen's camp another set of grievances to take this election to court.  The ROV admitted the mistake but there is no recourse since it is too late to determine  which ballots are for which candidate.  In an election of that separated by 68 votes, every ballot counts.

Sylvia Arenas is starting her job next week along with Lan Diep.   It will be the first time that SJC will have two seating councilmembers serving while the election results are being contested.  

Recount Day 6 at ROV

Jimmy Nguyen, candidate for SJC Council D8, is still at it.  Strategically, the recount is now focusing at duplicate ballots and spoiled" ballots.  Nguyen  is expected to end the recount this Friday unless there are unexpected issues.

He so far has challenged about 150 VBM ballots.  Out of the challenged VBM ballots,  there are 79 voters whom he claimed were disenfranchised since their votes did not count because of the different signature on file.   He actually tracked them down and asked them to sign a statement demanding the ROV to count their votes for him.

The ROV declined to consider such statement since election law prevents the ROV from considering extrinsic evidence and documents.

If he cannot convince the ROV to overturn some of the results based on his finding, he will likely take the case to court.

Third Day of Recount Going on Fourth Day at ROV

The final tally from the manual recount for SJC Council in D8  is 17,230 votes for Sylvia Arenas and 17,162 for Jimmy Nguyen, a 68 votes difference.   This is the third day of the voter-initiated recount and  Jimmy is challenging 118 VBM ballots and is looking at duplicate ballots.   He is paying about $1,600 a day for a limited recount since he did not have the funding to go full out.  

The rule of the recount is that it has to be consecutive and if there is a break in the process, the recount is considered to be over.