Forget provisional ballots in Ohio and hanging chads in Florida. The Orange Unified School District has its own election woe: It can't find the winner of Tuesday's board election.
Public records point to the fact that Steve Rocco really does exist.
He's a registered voter. He owns a home in Santa Ana. And he filed paperwork in July to run for the school board.
"He is not a figment of your imagination," said Christina Avila, a campaign disclosure filing officer at the Orange County registrar of voters and apparently one of the few people who can confirm his existence, because he handed his papers over to her. "He's a real man."
After that, the details start getting sketchy.
He is registered to vote, though he declined to state a party. Neighbors who have lived next door to him for years say they've seen the 53-year-old man only occasionally, when he takes out the trash from the home he shares with his parents. On the ballot, he listed his occupation as teacher and writer, though proof of either is elusive.
Neither the district nor the registrar has a phone number on file for him, and nobody answered the door at his home.
Somehow, though, without mounting a real campaign, filing a candidate's statement or showing up at a community forum, he managed to upset his formidable opponent, Phil Martinez.
Meet Mr. Martinez: father of three kids in the district, a county park ranger, president of a local PTA, endorsed by the teachers union. Not to mention the fact that he spent more than $6,000 trying to get elected.
His goals were succinctly laid out in the county voter guide. Among them: "provide a quality education for all students, work closely with our educators and parents and bring fiscal solutions to our school budget crisis."
"It's out of my hands," Martinez said of Tuesday's election results. "What they voted for is what they got: the mystery person. I think everybody is just scratching their heads."
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Public records point to the fact that Steve Rocco really does exist.
He's a registered voter. He owns a home in Santa Ana. And he filed paperwork in July to run for the school board.
"He is not a figment of your imagination," said Christina Avila, a campaign disclosure filing officer at the Orange County registrar of voters and apparently one of the few people who can confirm his existence, because he handed his papers over to her. "He's a real man."
After that, the details start getting sketchy.
He is registered to vote, though he declined to state a party. Neighbors who have lived next door to him for years say they've seen the 53-year-old man only occasionally, when he takes out the trash from the home he shares with his parents. On the ballot, he listed his occupation as teacher and writer, though proof of either is elusive.
Neither the district nor the registrar has a phone number on file for him, and nobody answered the door at his home.
Somehow, though, without mounting a real campaign, filing a candidate's statement or showing up at a community forum, he managed to upset his formidable opponent, Phil Martinez.
Meet Mr. Martinez: father of three kids in the district, a county park ranger, president of a local PTA, endorsed by the teachers union. Not to mention the fact that he spent more than $6,000 trying to get elected.
His goals were succinctly laid out in the county voter guide. Among them: "provide a quality education for all students, work closely with our educators and parents and bring fiscal solutions to our school budget crisis."
"It's out of my hands," Martinez said of Tuesday's election results. "What they voted for is what they got: the mystery person. I think everybody is just scratching their heads."
Full Story