SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Fullerton City Council candidate for Ward 4 has been charged with felony perjury for falsifying nomination paperwork stating he personally collected the signatures necessary to qualify him for the November 5, 2024, Fullerton City Council election. As a result of the falsified nomination paperwork, candidate Scott Markowitz will not be eligible to serve on the Fullerton City Council should he be elected to the seat, according to the OCDA.
Ballots have already been printed with Markowitz’ name as a candidate for Fullerton City Council Ward 4. Due to his ineligibility to serve on the City Council, if Markowitz is elected, the city of Fullerton would be forced to hold a special election to elect a candidate eligible to be seated.
City Council candidates are required to sign an attestation under penalty of perjury that they personally collected the signatures necessary to qualify as a candidate for a particular elected office.
Markowitz was arrested by Orange County District Attorney investigators Monday night and booked into the Santa Ana city jail. He has been charged with one felony count of perjury by declaration and one felony count of record of forged or false instrument. He faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts.
On August 9, 2024, Markowitz signed candidate nomination paperwork under penalty of perjury that he was the circulator of the candidate paperwork and collected the 30 nomination signatures. Anyone over the age of 18 can circulate the nomination paperwork, but the person signing the paperwork must be the same person who witnessed the signatures in person. Markowitz attested under penalty of perjury that he personally witnessed the signatures, but numerous voters who signed Markowitz’ nomination paperwork told district attorney investigators that Markowitz was not the circulator of the paperwork, and he did not witness them signing the nomination papers, rendering the signatures 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. As the elected District Attorney of Orange County, I refuse to allow our electoral process to be subverted and exploited by anyone. The decision to file criminal charges against the candidate prior to an election is not a decision I made lightly but given the risk to the electoral process as well as the potential of the City of Fullerton having 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. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office remains fiercely committed to investigating and prosecuting election fraud to ensure the voice of every Orange County resident is heard when they cast their ballot.”
Deputy District Attorney Heather Heslep-Morrissey of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.
Editor’s Note: “Markowitz was a set-up candidate, created by prominent Democrats to draw votes away from Linda Whitaker to help her opponent, Vivian Jaramillo,” acording to the blog Friends for Fullerton’s Future. Markotwitz changed his voter registration to Republican after that blog outed him.
Who put Markowitz up to this? The Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog came up with these names “Ahmad Zahra and Aaruni Thakur, Ada Briceno and even Congressman Lou Correa.”
Dirty politics at it’s best. Just like Adam Schiff funded Steve Garvey’s campaign to get his viable opponent, Katie Porter, off the ballot. These people are scumbags. Every last one of them. Remember, they’re not looking out for us, they’re looking out for their careers. Vote them out!