The State - News from Aug. 25, 1989

The Legislature, responding to an incident last year in Orange County, has sent Gov. George Deukmejian a bill to ban the posting of security guards at polling places without permission from election officials. By a 35-0 vote, the Senate approved Assembly amendments to the bill, sending it to the governor’s desk. The Assembly passed the proposal last month. The measure, SB58 by Sen. Milton Marks (D-San Francisco), would make it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to station an armed or uniformed security guard at a polling place without permission. It also would make it illegal to hire someone else to intimidate voters. The bill responds to an incident last year in which Republicans involved in a tight Assembly race posted guards at polling places in a number of heavily Hispanic precincts. The guards carried signs in English and Spanish that warned that “non-citizens can’t vote.”