Westminster School District trustee Jamison Power has asked officials to “move expeditiously” with an investigation into whether a colleague committed voter fraud.
“Frances Nguyen vacated, and is ineligible to hold, the position of trustee,” Power alleged in an email dated Saturday, Aug. 15 to fellow board members, district Superintendent Cyndi Paik and District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
In late June, after Power decided against seeking a third term in the 2020 election, Nguyen officially changed her longtime address to a home near Power’s precinct.
Although in the city of Westminster, that house actually sits just outside the school district’s boundary line – within the Ocean View School District.
In 2018, Westminster School District switched from at-large to by-area elections under threat of a lawsuit claiming violation of the California Voting Rights Act. The precinct system is meant to give minorities a better chance of representing their neighborhoods.
A map carving the district into five precincts put Nguyen in Area 1 and Power in Area 4.
Nguyen, the current board president, is now running uncontested to represent Area 4. She did not respond to a request for comment about Power’s allegations.
Nguyen is the second Westminster School District trustee within three weeks to fall under scrutiny for a stated address.
On July 31, the Orange County District Attorney filed three felony charges against trustee Xavier Nguyen, claiming he used a fraudulent address to run for office two years ago. Xavier Nguyen announced his resignation at the Aug. 13 board meeting.
During the six weeks this summer that Frances Nguyen was registered as living outside the district, Power claimed, she should not have continued to serve – all the while “exercising official duties and collecting salaries (and) benefits related thereto.”
Westminster School District pays trustees a stipend of $269 per month. Board members also can opt to receive the same medical insurance benefits available to district employees.
When asked whether a school board member who moves outside a district forfeits the seat, Orange County Department of Education spokesman Ian Hanigan pointed to a section of the California Education Code.
Should local residence be required, the statute reads, “A vacancy is created in a public office when a person ceases being an inhabitant … of the district.”
Mark Lawrence, who owns the home where Nguyen reported that she lived, said in an interview with the Orange County Register last week that she had planned to lease a room from him but never moved in.
Nguyen told the Register that she realized Lawrence’s home “would not work for me financially,” but continues to seek a renter for her Area 1 house to save money. She owns a trophy business in Westminster that has been hard hit by coronavirus shutdowns, she said.
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said that according to state election law, “a candidate must domicile within the district for which they are seeking election.”
Candidates submit “under penalty of perjury” an address where they live and have “the intention of remaining,” Kelley said.
On Aug. 4, three days before the deadline, Nguyen filed another address with the Registrar’s office – this one in Area 4. She would have run against local activist David Johnson in Area 1.
“In Orange County, if a school district is sub-divided into trustee areas, then the (board) member must live in the trustee area that he or she wishes to represent,” said Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.
Power asked officials to look at “whether Ms. Nguyen has committed voter/election fraud by using false addresses.”
Kevin Shenkman, an attorney whose demand letter forced Westminster School District to ditch at-large elections, said address fraud is fairly common among Southern California candidates.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “It’s just a school board position. It baffles me that someone would go to all this effort for something that should be viewed as public service.”
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