John McCann and Steve Padilla

No fewer than five media outlets reported on January 2 that attorney John Moot filed a lawsuit challenging the San Diego Registrar of Voters to count 15 provisional ballots from the November election.

In the November race for Chula Vista council seat, John McCann defeated Steve Padilla by two votes. The unopened provisional ballots do not match the addresses of the people who cast the ballots and the suit seeks to have the votes counted and, if warranted, unseat John McCann.

John Moot

Michael Vu

The civil suit was filed on behalf of Chula Vista resident Aurora Clark. The defendants are councilmember McCann and Registrar of Voters Michael Vu.

The January 2 filing was preceded by a week of angling by supporters of Steve Padilla to find a citizen to represent the case. Padilla supporters also circulated concerns about similarities between the November election and a previous election in 2004 presided over by Vu in Ohio.

In 2004, Vu had been executive director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. According to a Cleveland news report, “The election ended with giving President Bush the electoral votes needed to narrowly win the White House over Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry.”

Subsequently, “two election board workers were convicted of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough review of the votes.”

After the convictions, Vu resigned. He was hired as San Diego County assistant registrar amid accolades and complaints in 2007.

A look back into Chula Vista history would be informative as well. It was not that long ago that attorney John Moot was trying to prevent Steve Padilla from being reelected as mayor.

Just before the election in 2006, when Padilla was in a tough fight with Cheryl Cox for the position of mayor, a taxpayers’ group produced an economic analysis of Chula Vista’s budget as overseen by then-mayor Padilla. The analysis faulted the budget — and by implication Padilla — for overspending.

A U-T article from 2006 gives an account of Moot’s efforts to implicate Padilla for the alleged poorly handled budget. The article demonstrates the way the names stay the same but allegiances change in Chula Vista politics.

“Some findings in the [taxpayers’] report echo a presentation that former City Councilman John Moot, and community activists Russ Hall and Kevin O'Neill, made Oct. 17 during public testimony to the City Council.

“During that presentation Moot displayed large poster board charts showing year-over-year budget comparisons. Hall, Moot and O'Neill are supporting Cox in her bid for mayor.”

In the 2014 election cycle Moot supported Padilla. Moot and Padilla ultimately became business partners and appeared several times last year before the Chula Vista City Council lobbying for their client Inland Industries. Inland Industries, property owned by the Berg family, is located on the fringes of the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan.