Scott Edward Markowitz, a Fullerton City Council candidate in Orange County, California, has been charged with felony perjury after allegedly falsifying his nomination paperwork.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the candidate had said he personally gathered all of the signatures needed in order to qualify him for the Fullerton City Council election, which takes place on Nov. 5.
Although ballots have been printed with Markowitz as a candidate for Fullerton’s Ward 4, which sits in the city’s southwest, the allegedly falsified nomination paperwork disqualifies Markowitz from serving on the Fullerton City Council if he is elected. In the event Markowitz wins the election, the city would shoulder the cost of a special election to elect one of the other three candidates in the race for the seat.
Markowitz, like all city council candidates, had to turn in a signed attestation under penalty of perjury that whoever signed was also the one who collected signatures to qualify as a candidate for elected office. Markowitz signed the attestation, but allegedly did not collect the signatures.
Orange County investigators arrested Markowitz on Monday night. The candidate was booked into the Santa Ana city jail with one felony count of perjury by declaration and one felony count of record of forged or false instrument. If convicted on both counts, Markowitz faces a maximum of three years and eight months in state prison.
Markowitz signed on Aug. 9, 2024, that he collected 30 nomination signatures on his candidate nomination paperwork. However, the person who signed the paperwork must have also witnessed the signatures, and numerous people who signed said that Markowitz did not handle the paperwork, although he attested to doing so. The signatures therefore are considered invalid.
“American democracy relies on the absolute integrity of the electoral process,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Voters must have total confidence that every election is being carried out in a fair and unbiased manner. 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.”
Spitzer said he did not take the decision to file charges lightly, “but given the risk to the electoral process as well as the potential of the City of Fullerton needing to pay for a special election should Markowitz be elected, there was no choice but to file criminal charges prior to the election and alert voters of his ineligibility to run for City Council.”
Linda Whitaker, Jamie Valencia, and Vivian Jaramillo remain the three candidates in the Ward 4 election. They would face off if Markowitz were to be elected despite his arrest.
Markowitz and the District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ requests for comment.
