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View Winners → Arcadia Police Officers’ Association pulls endorsement of Sho Tay
Arcadia Weekly Mar 28, 2014
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Sho Tay said his campaign manager suggested they offer to help people in order to get more voters to send in their ballots- Photo by Terry Miller
Arcadia POA pulls endorsement of candidate Sho Tay
By Terry Miller
The Arcadia Police Officer’s Association has removed their endorsement for Sho Tay for Arcadia City Council in the April 8 election, Acadia Detective Mike Hale confirmed with Arcadia Weekly on Thursday.
Sho Tay. Who has made 5 previous attempts at a council seat, has been under fire since several allegations of election code violations occurred via his campaign staff.
An attempt to collect mail-in ballots for the upcoming April 8 election in Arcadia by a young man identified only as an Asian teenager approximately 16 years of age who was knocking on doors in the 1700 block of Alta Oaks and asking residents if he could collect their election ballots and mail them for them was the catalyst.
Arcadia Weekly spoke with candidate for council, Sho Tay last week regarding this matter to see what his thoughts were. Arcadia Weekly was the first to break the story on March 20.
ShoTay told this newspaper that 2 years ago voter turnout was so low that he wanted to encourage people to vote in this election for a better balance. “After some suggestion from my campaign staff , I enlisted the help of students from the Democratic Club at Arcadia High School to offer residents of Arcadia stamps for the mail in postcard. It was all quite innocent and done with the best of intentions.”
“We (the campaign staff) did a survey and found out that many people didn’t even know how many (stamps) to put on a ballot postcard, so we offered to help.” He asserted, “…it was certainly not an attempt to sway the voter in either direction.”
The candidate’s intentions, while honorable in objective, caught the attention of local residents and law enforcement when one of the students offered to mail the ballots for the resident.
“It’s about people (the election) not the party…I’m a registered Republican,” Sho Tay said in a telephone interview. “We were simply trying to encourage those who might not send in their ballots, to do just that!”
We asked Sho Tay if anyone took the students up on the offer of stamps or the offer to mail the ballots for them. His answer was in the affirmative “Yes, some Arcadians did take stamps and we took (3) ballots to the post office.”
Sho Tay has since stopped the practice and will not offer to mail in ballots for residents, nor offer stamps.
Arcadia Weekly contacted Chief deputy city clerk/records manager
Lisa Mussenden in Arcadia who told us that “ They are looking into the matter…and as it is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further.”
Arcadia Police Lieutenant Colleen Flores said the dept. issued an automatic alert to area residents advising residents that in no case will City representatives come to your home and collect election ballots.
Regina Ip from the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office sent us the pertinent laws regarding this issue: Here is the law, as stated in Los Angeles:
18576. Any person who willfully (a) interferes with the prompt delivery of a completed vote by mail ballot application, (b) retains a completed vote by mail ballot application, without the voter’s authorization, for more than three days excluding weekends and state holidays, or by the deadline for return of vote by mail ballot applications, whichever is earlier, or (c) denies an applicant the right to return his or her own completed vote by mail ballot application to the local elections official having jurisdiction over the election, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
18568. Every person is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years, or by both that fine and imprisonment, who:
(a) Aids in changing or destroying any poll list or official ballot.
(b) Aids in wrongfully placing any ballots in the ballot container or in taking any therefrom.
(c) Adds or attempts to add any ballots to those legally polled at any election by fraudulently putting them into the ballot container, either before or after the ballots therein have been counted.
(d) Adds to or mixes with, or attempts to add to or mix with, the ballots polled, any other ballots, while they are being counted or canvassed or at any other time, with intent to change the result of the election, or allows another to do so, when in his or her power to prevent it.
(e) Carries away or destroys, attempts to carry away or destroy, or knowingly allows another to carry away or destroy, any poll list, ballot container, or ballots lawfully polled or who willfully detains, mutilates, or destroys any election returns.
(f) Removes any unvoted ballots from the polling place before the completion of the ballot count.
Lt. Flores advises If someone does come to your home offering to collect your mail-in election ballot “do not give it to them” and contact the PD. While it is unlikely any criminal or civil charges will be files, the Election Code clearly states that
Anyone with any additional information is asked to call Arcadia police at 626-574-5123.
Fellow council candidate hopeful, Burton Brink has asked some additional tough questions of candidate Sho Tay:
“In his comment on the article he states he was a ‘Former Police Officer.’ He told me he was with Arcadia Police Department, but he has never been an “Officer” much less a “Reserve Officer” there. I have yet to confirm he was a reserve officer anywhere.” Detective Mike Hale, however, confirmed that Sho Tay did complete the Reserve Academy in 1993.
