The Brief

Vote centers are open in the recall election of Santa Ana City Councilmember Jessie Lopez, but it's unclear whether the election is legal.

That's because the Orange County registrar of voters recently concluded the city was using the wrong district boundaries and the wrong population data to calculate how many signatures were needed to trigger the recall and who should get to vote.

As a result, nearly 1,200 voters who, according to O.C. Registrar Bob Page's recent calculations, should be able to vote in the Nov. 14 election did not get ballots.

Using the correct district boundaries, Page also calculated that the initial recall petition actually fell short of the number required to hold an election by 230 signatures. Last week, Page rescinded his initial verification that recall petitioners had met the signature threshold.

On Friday, Guadalupe Ocampo, one of Lopez's constituents, filed a legal challenge asking a judge to immediately stop the election. Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin was set to hear the case Tuesday morning. (Read the complaint.)

Here's the story behind the recall snafu and what election experts say could happen now.

Why was Lopez targeted for recall in the first place?

Recall backers, primarily the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and several real estate groups, want Lopez off the council because of her support for policies they say have pushed up housing costs, and reduced support for police.

Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez was elected in 2020 to represent the city district called Ward 3.

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City of Santa Ana

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LAist reached out to the police officers association and to Tim Rush, a real estate executive who chairs the recall campaign, but has not gotten a response.

In a February op-ed in the Orange County Register, Rush cited Lopez and fellow councilmember Thai Viet Phan's "palpable hostility to law enforcement," including voting to reduce the police force budget and voting to end a ban on street cruising, as reasons for the recall.

Rush also cited their votes to enact what he called "the most radical city rent control measure in California." (The campaign failed to turn in enough signatures to trigger a recall election for Phan.)

Santa Ana is the only city in Orange County where elected officials have passed a rent control ordinance. Its policy restricts rent increases to 2.54% through the end of August 2024. A handful of cities in L.A. County cap rent increases under 3%. For example, West Hollywood’s cap is 2.5% through the end of August 2024 and rent controlled housing in the city of L.A. is currently under a rent freeze that prohibits rent increases in most cases.

Lopez's supporters say her actions on the city council have led to more police oversight and helped low-income residents fight unjust evictions and steep rent hikes.

"It really is about losing the gains that the community has made if this recall were to be successful," said Hairo Cortes, executive director of the Latinx youth advocacy group Chispa.

Experts say California election law is confusing

LAist spoke with six outside election experts to get their opinions on the Santa Ana recall snafu, two of them county registrars of voters.

They told us:

• Page, the O.C. registrar of voters, is right — there is a fundamental error in the Lopez recall election. The wrong district boundaries were used to calculate the number of signatures needed to trigger the recall and to determine who gets to vote.  
• Nevertheless, California election law isn't exactly straightforward on the subject. 

"I can certainly understand how mistakes are made because the law is not at all clear," said Douglas Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation, a company that assists local governments with redistricting.

The experts consulted by LAist agreed that California law and court precedent have established that elected officers are to represent the population that initially voted them into office — and that the same population should get to decide whether to remove their representative from office.

That means, in the case of Santa Ana, that the district as it existed when Lopez was elected in 2020 should get to vote on whether to recall her. But recall proponents would need a thorough understanding of California election law to catch this nuance, experts said.

"The fact that the answer is clear doesn't mean that the question comes up often enough for it to be on the top of everybody's mind," said Fredric Woocher, a Los Angeles-based election lawyer.

First off, redistricting only happens every 10 years after the Census.

Second, questions about how many signatures are needed to trigger a recall and who gets to vote only matter if the official subject to recall was elected to represent a specific geographic district rather than at-large. A little less than half of all cities in California vote by district, according to Johnson.

And third, the window for recalling an elected official after redistricting is pretty small. After the 2020 Census, most jurisdictions in California didn't finalize their new district maps until late 2021 or early-to-mid 2022. Santa Ana officially adopted its new districts, which it calls wards, in April 2022. That doesn't leave much time to mount a recall campaign and bring it to voters before elected officials' terms are up.

According to the website Ballotpedia, just two recalls made it to the ballot in California in 2023: the Lopez recall and the recall of former Councilmember Catherine Alvarez in Downey. Alvarez was ousted by voters in February and ballots for a special election to choose her replacement are due Tuesday.

Downey city clerk Maria Alicia Duarte told LAist there was no question that the recall would be up to voters in the district that originally elected Duarte in 2020. The city has made clear that the new boundaries for the district formerly represented by Alvarez won't go into effect until the November 2024 general election.

What state election law says, and doesn't say

When Santa Ana adopted its new district boundaries, the city council passed an ordinance stating the new boundaries would go into effect starting with the November 2022 general election "and subsequent elections thereafter."

But that seems to contradict state law. California election code states that new city council districts will take effect at the first election following adoption of the new boundaries, "excluding a special election to fill a vacancy or a recall election."

Johnson noted that the "excluding" subclause is key but easily ignored.

"It's only a couple of throwaway words, but they have huge impact," he said.

The California Secretary of State's 2023 recall procedures guide says nothing specifically about how to handle a recall election after redistricting.

Johnson and Woocher said court precedent is much more decisive on the matter. Woocher noted a 2021 opinion from the California attorney general regarding a special election held after a San Luis Obispo County supervisor died during his term in office. The state attorney general determined that the district boundaries in place when the supervisor was elected, in 2020, should apply to the special election to fill his seat.

In a letter to Santa Ana's City Clerk advising her of the mistaken boundaries in Lopez's recall election, Page cited a different attorney general opinion from 2014. That opinion suggested that a city council member was unlawfully appointed to serve out the term of his predecessor who resigned because the new member didn't reside within the city council district boundaries that existed when the incumbent was elected.

Whose fault is the mistake in Santa Ana?

Page told LAist he recognized there was a problem with the Lopez recall when a fellow registrar, Lupe Villa in the Central Valley's Kings County, emailed his counterparts on Oct. 25 to ask for advice on a school board recall. There, a group is seeking to recall all five board members of the Reef-Sunset Unified School District, three of whom were elected in 2020 before redistricting and two of whom were elected in 2022 after redistricting.

The question caused Page to re-examine how his office reviewed the recall petition for Lopez and is administering the recall election, Page told LAst in an email. He realized the city had incorrectly used post-redistricting population numbers to calculate the number of voter signatures needed to trigger the recall — 26,370 voters instead of the correct number, 27,158.

Using the correct, pre-redistricting boundaries and population, Page found that signature gatherers actually fell short of the amount needed to trigger an election — by 230 signatures. He contacted Hall, the city clerk, on Oct. 26 to tell her and ask how the city wanted to proceed.

Hall did not respond to LAist’s request for comment.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters administers elections at the request of cities. But city clerks are officially in charge of municipal elections. "The city tells the county what they want to have done," said Woocher, the election lawyer.

So who's fault is the Santa Ana mistake? Woocher said "everybody has the responsibility to provide correct information."

Johnson added that this responsibility starts with the recall proponents. "California election law is very clear that it is the people who are circulating the petitions' responsibility to get the rules right," he said. "Even if someone tells them the wrong information, that's not an excuse."

What's less clear, Johnson reiterated, is what election law says about how to handle snafus like the one in Santa Ana.

"Running an elections office is so complicated," he said. "In defense of the county registrar and the Santa Ana folks, the only way anyone learns this stuff is by running into it, unfortunately."

What happens with the election?

At a special meeting last week, the Santa Ana City Council deadlocked 3-3 on whether to take action to cancel the election or let it proceed. (Lopez recused herself from the vote.) That means it is continuing as planned, according to city officials and Page, the registrar. The last day of voting is scheduled for Nov. 14.

For voters, this means unless the recall ends up in court and a judge intervenes, votes will be counted later this month.

In a Facebook post following the vote, Santa Ana Councilmember David Peñaloza said he was rescinding his endorsement of the recall campaign given the unresolved legal questions. He said a judge should decide whether the election can lawfully go forward.

"The integrity of our elections is way too important and sacred for politicians to be the ones who decide whether an election currently taking place gets canceled or not, especially after many Santa Ana residents have already cast their votes," he wrote.

Lopez advised supporters, in a recent fundraising email, that she plans on "taking this corrupt recall to court." LAist reached out to Lopez via phone and email, but did not receive a response.

Woocher said Lopez isn't the only one who could challenge the election — the registrar has identified more than 1,000 voters who lived in Lopez's district when she was elected and therefore should be able to vote in her recall, but weren't mailed ballots.

"If you are one of the people who should be able to vote, you would certainly have standing to complain about it," he said.

Ocampo, the voter who is asking the court to stop the election, had another request in her court filing. If the judge won't stop the election, she asked that he allow voters in Lopez's district as it was when she was elected to cast ballots.

Master escape artist and world-famous entertainer Harry Houdini had been dead for decades by the time teenager Kevin Connolly sat down with his dad in their New Jersey home in the late 1960s to watch Houdini, the biopic with actor Tony Curtis in the title role.

“I'm so engrossed in the movie that I'm crying that he passed away. And my dad looks down at me and says, 'What's the matter, son?' I said, 'Houdini died,'" Connolly said.

His father then comforted him.

That experience with the movie and with his father sparked a five-decade-plus collector’s obsession in the teen that led him to amass thousands of items from Harry Houdini’s life and career.

The collection includes handcuffs owned by Houdini, a signed life-size portrait of Houdini in chains, a linen bag his wife, Bess Houdini, made him and a pocket watch she gifted him on his birthday in 1910, at the height of his career.

Signed Cabinet Card Photograph of Houdini in Chains.

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Connolly Collection courtesy Potter & Potter Auctions.

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“Engraved inside the cover is a very personal note from her to him that also contains a little hidden code in the inscription,” said Gabe Fajuri, president and principal auctioneer at Potter & Potter Auctions. The watch has the highest valuation of the items, with an estimate between $20,000 and $40,000.

The auction house has been displaying these 100 items at its Chicago offices and will transport them to the Magic Castle in Hollywood for display on Oct. 30 and the final auction the day after.

“ These are things that potentially have his DNA on them. These are things that Houdini himself owned, handled, used, treasured,” Fajuri said.

The auction marks two milestones: 100 years since Houdini's death and the winding down of 71-year-old Connolly's collecting efforts, which enriched his and his family’s life.

“It broadened our world, and it was nice to be recognized for your collecting abilities,” he said.

Connolly’s collection has turned him into a Houdini authority, attracting the attention of Houdini biographers, film documentarians, as well as museums and galleries.

Houdini was born in Hungary in 1874. He came to the U.S. as a young child and moved to New York with his father, a rabbi, at 13. He began performing as a magician four years later and shot to stardom on the vaudeville circuit with bold escape acts. There wasn’t a straitjacket, chains or ropes that he couldn’t escape.

Connolly admires how Houdini inspired a generation of immigrants with these stunning feats.

A photo of an escape stunt by Harry Houdini. It's the first Houdini item Kevin Connolly bought as a teen during his 50-plus years of collecting Houdini memorabilia.

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Courtesy Kevin Connolly

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One of those acts is captured in the very first Houdini item Connolly bought after watching that Houdini movie. It’s a photo of Houdini hanging upside down from a rope in front of a building, two stories up. His arms are bound to his body. Crowds look up from the street, staring at Houdini as he attempts to escape. “TORONTO OCT. 18/’16” is written along the bottom edge of the photo.

“That one is not in the auction,” he said. Oct. 18 is Connolly’s father’s birthday, which makes it special. Plus, “That would be probably the last one I'd let go, because that's the one that started it all.”

With Halloween approaching, a women’s walking group is helping Angelenos explore the city’s spooky and historic landmarks. Their next outing is Angelino Heights — home to century-old Victorian homes and an iconic piece of pop culture history.

Los Angelistas organizes weekly walks throughout Los Angeles. October draws some of its biggest crowds, according to the group. Earlier this month, the group visited the Spadena House in Beverly Hills for a witch-themed walk and explored Los Feliz for a murder-themed tour.

Members of Los Angelistas stand in front of the "Spadena House" in Beverly Hills in 2025.

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(Jillian Goodman/Los Angelistas)

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Exploring LA’s spooky side

On Nov. 1, the group heads to Angelino Heights, a tiny neighborhood next to Echo Park known for its Victorian homes.

“It has so much history, but also really beautiful, stunning Victorian architecture,” said Jillian Goodman, one of the group’s three co-founders. “It’s such a cool place that I don’t think many people know about.”

Some of the homes have been backdrops for films and TV shows, including Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Thriller” video — which will be a stop on the tour.

Los Angelistas visit the "Charmed" house while on a walk through Angelino Heights in 2024.

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(Jillian Goodman/Los Angelistas)

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Building friendship beyond the walks

Los Angelistas began in April 2023, when Goodman and a few women who met through another social club decided to continue spending time together through walks.

The group has since grown to more than 7,000 members, Goodman said. Its organizers live across L.A., allowing them to host events in neighborhoods like Brentwood, Mid-City and Glendale.

Goodman said the walks encourage women to discover parts of L.A. they might pass by without stopping.

“Everyone thinks of L.A. as a driving city. No one ever really stops and takes a breath,” Goodman said.

For Goodman, watching members build friendships that extend beyond the walks has been one of the most rewarding parts of the group’s growth.

“They go to each other’s weddings. They go to concerts. Seeing people connect, not just in the group, but then having that extend outside has been amazing to watch,” she said.

The group has also helped members support one another during devastating times. Amid last year’s Eaton and Palisades wildfires, some members helped others find places to stay, despite having only met on walks.

“I thought that was so beautiful and wonderful that without us they wouldn’t have known each other,” Goodman said.

A slew of Medicare Advantage plans are disappearing for next year, leaving seniors in many areas with fewer options. In 193 counties across the country, no plans are offered at all.

Medicare's annual open enrollment period kicked off October 15 and runs until December 7, and seniors enrolled in those privatized Medicare plans that are closing in certain markets should carefully review their options.

Medicare Advantage means private insurers run Medicare for older Americans who choose it over traditional Medicare, where the federal government itself administers the program. More than half of the 70 million Americans in Medicare choose Medicare Advantage. It's popular because it covers services like vision and dental, often with lower premiums than traditional Medicare. It also often folds in the "Part D" drug benefit, simplifying that decision.

But a downside of Medicare Advantage is that companies can pick and choose where they offer plans. If a certain community is not profitable, a company can leave that market. And that has been happening on an increasingly large scale the last three years, according to research published in JAMA.

Who is affected

Big swaths of rural America are losing Medicare Advantage choices and so are some major metro areas.

Last year, 2.9 million seniors were in Medicare Advantage plans that closed up shop, according to JAMA. This year, an analysis of insurance company announcements by An Arm and A Leg podcast, shows at least 2 million people will be affected. Other preliminary estimates range from 3.2 million to 5 million seniors. About 35 million people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

According to an analysis of federal data by the health policy research organization KFF, the 193 counties that will have zero Medicare Advantage plans are mostly rural. Last year that number was about 120 counties without a plan offered.

KFF's numbers also show that there will be far fewer plans offered in some metro areas. Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, Houston and Portland all have between a quarter and a third fewer Medicare Advantage plans for seniors.

What happens next

If your plan is ending, and you don't choose another, the insurance company will assign you to another Medicare Advantage plan or the government will enroll you in traditional Medicare — but without a supplemental or drug plan.

If you want to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare and your plan is ending, you can enroll in a Medicare supplemental plan — also known as Medigap — without the same restrictions that you would normally have. If you have a pre-existing condition that has prevented you from enrolling in Medigap before, that could be good news.

Another wrinkle this year is that insurance companies can cap enrollments on some of the Medicare Advantage plans that they do offer.

Which means: If you wait to sign up, a plan you want might already be full.

The companies are supposed to enroll people on a first-come, first-serve basis — and not cherry-pick customers based on health conditions, age, or demographics.

Another reason not to delay is that with so many people on the hunt for new plans, it may take longer than usual to get help.

How and where to find help

Here are some tips for navigating Medicare open enrollment this year:

• Find out if your plan is still offered: First, check your mail. Medicare Advantage plans that are closing should have sent letters the first week in October. You can also log in to your account on Medicare.gov to check your plan's status for next year.
  
• Try calling your SHIP: There's a State Health Insurance Assistance Program — known as a "SHIP" — in every state to help seniors with Medicare. The name's not easy to remember or particularly descriptive, but it's free, mandated by the federal government, and the staff and volunteers are required to give you unbiased information on all available options. Find your state in the directory at shiphelp.org. Your county may have a specific number that you can find on your state's SHIP website.
  
• Look for local Medicare counseling services: Friends, family, leaders at your place of worship, and the constituent services of your local elected officials may have the scoop on where you can get one-on-one help. The nonprofit Medicare Rights Center also has a national helpline, and a well-organized library of online guides.
  
• Brokers can be helpful, but be savvy: You want a broker who's going to talk with you about all your options — including switching to traditional Medicare and a supplemental plan. Ask if they sell plans from all available insurance carriers. And ask if they answer questions about your plan year-round, because insurance never stops being confusing.
  
• Double check what you see on Medicare.gov: Medicare's Plan Finder allows you to search plans online. But lists of doctors and drugs that are covered can sometimes be wrong. To be safe, double check with your doctor's office or a SHIP counselor, broker, or other Medicare assistor.
  
• Don't share your personal information with services you find online: Be careful where you share your personal information like your phone number. Some online agencies will sell your information, leading to spam calls and potentially even scam artists.
  
• Be mindful of the deadlines: Open enrollment for Medicare runs October 15, 2026 through December 7, 2026. The coverage starts January 1, 2027. If your plan is ending, you qualify for a "special enrollment period" to give you a little more time — until February 28, 2027. (For coverage that starts January 1, 2027, enroll by December 31.)

Emily Pisacreta is the senior producer for An Arm and a Leg, a podcast about the cost of healthcare produced in partnership with KFF Health News and distributed by KUOW, Seattle's NPR member station. 

Copyright 2026 NPR

Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Data shows illegal voting by people who aren’t U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races.

Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State’s office in a lawsuit that aimed to block them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people who are “likely” noncitizen voters. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Trump administration asked the 9th Circuit court of appeals to rule on the lawsuit barring a decision from the district judge assigned to the case. They set a deadline for Saturday.

Now, according to the LA County registrar’s office, at least 18 counties across the state have received similar letters. They have been given a 48 hour deadline to provide identifying information corresponding with ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizens illegally registered to vote. The letter requests that county officials also sequester any ballots where citizenship cannot be verified.

“Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.

The Justice Department is asking counties to send information about the voters it suspects are noncitizens including social security numbers, ID information, a copy of their registration and more.

That information can help the government and state quickly assess each person suspected of illegally registering to vote, said the letter sent to San Bernardino County voting officials. The letter says the government’s list of suspected noncitizen voters includes 1,133 people from the inland Southern California county.

California’s secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar have opposed the federal government’s demands. In legal filings, lawyers for California say the request threatens to delay the certification of the vote and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms. They have also argued that the federal government’s data is unreliable and that their demands risk disenfranchisement of citizens.

Voting is underway in California, with the state’s more than 23 million registered voters receiving ballots in the mail earlier this month. The state said in legal filings that over 330,000 mail-in ballots have already been counted.

The letters on Friday came on the heels of statewide sweep by federal authorities earlier in the week, where 28 people from the list of 20,000 were charged with illegally registering to vote. Some were also charged with illegally voting and lying on naturalization paperwork. Those charges could lead to years in prison.