Losing council candidate accuses the winner of electioneering

Lincoln says Lopez broke election codes on day of voting

EAST PALO ALTO >> A lawsuit filed against City Councilman Antonio Lopez by his closest opponent is accusing the newly elected city leader of electioneering and asks that the San Mateo County Court rescind his election certification.

The suit was filed by Webster Lincoln, an East Palo Alto resident who ran an unsuccessful campaign in a tight race for a City Council seat in November against Lopez. Lincoln’s suit — filed Dec. 7 — claims that Lopez broke election codes by campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place on election day and offering people tacos from a stand, allegations that Lopez wholly denies.

The race was so tight it had to go to a recount, but election officials confirmed Lopez beat Lincoln for a council seat with 15.74% of the vote, or about 70 votes.

But Lincoln says Lopez may have received those votes illegally. The suit says Lopez hosted a free taco stand in a truck in the parking lot of a church being used as a polling place and “very close” to the mail ballot drop box, which Lincoln and his attorney say was an illegal act of electioneering.

Prior to election day, the suit says, Lopez “publicized the truck on social media … by posting a message that said “Vote and Eat Free Tacos” in English and Spanish. The suit also adds that Councilman Carlos Romero also participated in the electioneering and benefited from Lopez’ food truck and election day campaigning.

“Romero and Lopez received the most votes at the voting centers because of their illegal campaigning at the voting center,” the suit alleges. “Because of his activity Lopez is disqualified from being a candidate and is subject to this election contest. The illegal campaigning affected the outcome of the election. But even if it did not affect the outcome, Lopez is still disqualified for having committed offenses against the elective franchise.”

Lopez, a 26-year- old who ran an insurgent campaign for City Council, said in an interview

with the Mercury News that he spoke with the city clerk, city field technicians and others before popping up a taco stand in front of the church to ensure that he was more than 100 feet away.

He said he did not expect to be hit with a lawsuit and was initially taken aback, but will go through the motions in court and litigate to a conclusion. Lopez said he did not want to spend too much of his time on the suit as it would be a “disservice” to the community.

“Now is the time to roll up our sleeves,” Lopez said. “For me it’s an affirmation and reminder that the people don’t want us there to litigate, they want us to govern. It would be a disservice to them if I dedicated too much of my time to this lawsuit and not to addressing the needs of this community.”

In a statement, Lopez said Lincoln’s actions “reflect everything that needs to be rooted out of East Palo Alto.” He said that “rather than working to build up our community, (Lincoln) has made it clear that he is singularly focused on achieving power at any cost.”

But even if a court were to decide in Lincoln’s favor, that doesn’t mean he’ll become a council member. If the court does decided to rescind Lopez’ election certification, the city council would have to decide whether to seat him anyway or vacate the seat and call new elections.

In an interview with the Mercury News, Lincoln did not say whether he’d run again in those circumstance. He said all he wants is for the courts “to make a determination and make sure that when people go to vote that the free will of the people is heard and that our leaders are selected by voters who are educated and come of their own will and not those who come with an incentive to vote.”

Lincoln said his court fight “is about voter integrity,” but it’s also about giving a voice to the many people who were upset by the results of the election and Lopez’ actions.

“They feel like their trust was violated,” Lincoln said. “A lot of people who supported me also supported Lopez, and when word started getting out and when people started hearing about what happened at the church they reached out to me and told me about it and as a community leader I’ve taken it upon myself to have this determined.”

As for critics who say that he is only doing this because he lost, Lincoln said he is thinking about the bigger picture.

“Do we want the precedent to be that next time I run I’m going to set up a barbecue outside the YMCA to get people to go and vote for me?” Lincoln said. “People really need to evaluate the totality of the situation and think about how this will affect future elections. This is for the best of the community, not for my personal gain.”