Editing Loretta Sanchez (section)

===1996===
In 1996, Sanchez ran for the [[US House]] in [[CA-46|California's 46th District]] against six-term Republican incumbent [[Bob Dornan]]. The bitterly fought race saw Sanchez charge that Dornan was out of touch with his constituency, especially after a distracting run for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination. The 46th and its predecessors had always had a Democratic tilt, but became even more Democratic after the 1990 census when it absorbed a considerably larger number of [[Hispanic]]s than had previously been in the district. Sanchez won by 984 votes, and Dornan contested the election, alleging that many votes were cast by people who were not American citizens. 
A 16-month Congressional investigation found some evidence that 624 votes were indeed cast illegally (of which 84 votes were cast by newly naturalized citizens on the actual date of the election who had registered before their naturalization, which is not allowed under California law). An additional 124 flawed absentee votes had already been thrown out by California officials.<ref name="govinfo.gov">{{Cite web|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt416/html/CRPT-105hrpt416.htm|title=House Report 105-416 - DISMISSING THE ELECTION CONTEST AGAINST LORETTA SANCHEZ}}</ref>

In consultation with the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS]], the House investigative panel began with an INS name-matching list of 4,329 individuals with entries in INS computer records, compared to the voter rolls in the 46th Congressional District; and proceeded to use other government records, including claims of non-citizenship to be excused from jury duty, ultimately arriving at a list of 7,841 "suspicious" votes.  California's Secretary of State and the Orange County District Attorney also investigated a voter-registration group, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional and other alleged voter fraud in Orange County.<ref name="govinfo.gov" />  Local investigators, and eventually the Los Angeles Times, confirmed that Hermandad, an immigration and naturalization service still very active today in both Texas and California, had helped 172 register to vote before their naturalization, under the erroneous belief by some of its employees that as long as someone was naturalized before the date of the election, this was lawful.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/us/inquiry-finds-possible-illegal-ballots-cast-in-upset-of-dornan.html|title = Inquiry Finds Possible Illegal Ballots Cast in Upset of Dornan|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date = 16 February 1997}}</ref>  The Orange County D.A. attempted to indict two employees of the organization, but when a grand jury declined to go along, the local investigation was dropped.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1421|title=California: Integration, Schools, Economy - Migration News &#124; Migration Dialogue}}</ref>

In February 1998 the House Committee on Oversight voted 8–1 to dismiss the matter, ending its investigation.  As Federal law required a proportional reduction of vote totals for each candidate, there being no means of determining just which candidate an illegal (or suspected illegal) voter had actually voted for, it was clear the result of the disputed election would not change even if the probe had continued.<ref name="govinfo.gov" />

The acrimonious disputes between Republicans and Democrats throughout the investigation and a desire not to alienate voters of Hispanic/Latin descent in the forthcoming congressional elections by GOP leaders also seem to have played a role, along with former Rep. Dornan's rather abrasive personal style, which the House in general had grown tired of.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/13/cq/sanchez.html|title=Proof of Illegal Voters Falls Short, Keeping Sanchez in House - February 7, 1998|website=[[CNN]]}}</ref>

Indeed, the supposed total of 624 'illegal' votes was bitterly disputed by the Democratic minority, which argued that the investigation had never actually proved that many of the identified voters were in fact non-citizens; indeed asserting that between one quarter to even one half of "illegal" voters "were U.S. citizens at the time they voted in the 1996 election," although they registered to vote in advance of being sworn in as U.S. Citizens.  And that in fact the Oversight Committee's suspected illegal voter list still "contain[ed] a significant number of names whose Orange County Voter Records indicate that they were born in the United States...." Despite the lengthy investigation, definitive proof of citizen or non-citizen status, and proof that the actual person still on the suspect voter list was actually the same individual whose name appeared in INS records was lacking for many of the 540 remaining voters, once those determined to have registered too early, before naturalization, were subtracted.<ref name="govinfo.gov"/><ref>[http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/13/cq/sanchez.html "Proof Of Illegal Voters Falls Short, Keeping Sanchez In House"]. CNN.com. February 7, 1998; retrieved February 7, 2007.</ref>

Sanchez became the first member of Congress of Mexican heritage to represent [[Orange County, California|Orange County]] and was re-elected.