Monte Sereno Councilmember Rowena Turner, who was convicted of illegal voting in October following reports that she voted in California and Oregon in past elections, claims her fellow councilmembers are trying to force her out of office.
An Oregon judge fined Turner, her husband and their son for violating the state’s election laws.
On Oct. 6, 2020, Monte Sereno Councilmember Bryan Mekechuk wrote to the director of elections in Oregon, claiming Turner voted in both California and Oregon in the 2018 election. He accused her of a Class C felony.
He claimed Ahval Edward Turner, Rowena Turner and Sean Edward Turner all voted twice, based on information from the Oregon State Elections Division and the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
“Further, based on the same sources of information, the three individuals noted above are currently registered to vote in the Nov. 3, 2020 general election in both California and Oregon,” he said. “I respectfully request that you investigate this matter.”
That afternoon, Bob Roberts, investigations and legal specialist with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division, wrote back to Mekechuk to let him know he was out of luck.
“Thank you for your email regarding alleged voter fraud,” he said, referring to the Class C felony the Silicon Valley resident claimed occurred. “Because it does not appear that you are registered to vote in Oregon, we cannot accept your complaint.”
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said it was looking into allegations of whether Rowena Turner violated election laws, just days after a San Jose Inside article revealed Turner voted twice in at least seven elections.
Public records from the Oregon Secretary of State and Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters showed that Turner was registered to vote in both Monte Sereno, Calif., and Grants Pass, Ore. At the time Council decided not to take any action against her.
Turner is a Filipino immigrant who moved to Monte Sereno in 1986. She studied math at the SFSU and got a master’s degree in education from SJSU, before going on to work in marketing and certifications for HP, Intel Corp. and Tandem Computers.
Later, she taught computer science to young offenders.
Turner pled no contest to a Class A misdemeanor, “Voting When Not Entitled to Vote.”
On Jan. 25, a spokesperson for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum confirmed to the Los Gatan that Rowena and Ahval Turner are married, and that Sean is their adult son.
“The Turners own a home in California, as well as a vacation home in Josephine County,” said Communications Director Kristina Edmunson. “In 2018, they submitted ballots in both states, which led to their prosecution in Oregon for Voting When Not Entitled to Vote. All three received violation treatment, which is standard for first-time prosecutions with no prior criminal history.”
In an interview with the Los Gatan, Turner said her lawyer informed her after the fact that, had she voted in, say, Nevada and Arizona, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
“My attorneys told me that such laws have been overturned in other states as unconstitutional,” she said. “But, the Oregon statute has not been challenged. I believe I did nothing wrong.”
Fighting it in court up there would have been too much of a hassle, she added.
“I have never voted twice in any election,” she claimed. “Voting in an election in California on both local and national issues, and voting in an election in Oregon only on local issues pertaining to my residency there is not voting twice—they are not the same election.”
Josephine County and Oregon Attorney General’s Office reps both declined to confirm or refute whether or not what Turner suggested is true—that the Monte Sereno elected official never voted on non-local issues in any of the elections she was alleged to have double voted:
2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 general elections—and in the 2020 and 2016 primaries.
“For more than a year, I have been harassed by a group of current Council Members,” she said. “They see me as an obstacle to plans they have for our City.”
But former Monte Sereno Mayor Burton Craig said it was actually Turner who started the drama that’s currently plaguing Council.
Turner led the successful charge to get Curtis Rogers kicked off his mayoral post, Craig said.
“She made a lot of unfounded accusations against him,” he told the Los Gatan. “I think it was a really dark part of Monte Sereno’s history.”
Craig has argued for measures that would alleviate California’s housing crunch, while Turner has opposed Sacramento’s efforts to increase the housing stock and was supported by the Santa Clara County Republican Party.
Up until the Rogers ouster, Craig says things were going along swimmingly.
“We always had a really cohesive Council,” he said. “That just seemed to go out the window.
“It’s just really a shame to see what’s happened to the City.”
Turner’s beef with Rogers was related to her feeling she should serve as mayor twice during her four-year term due to the number of votes she received in the election, Craig said.
“It’s an honor to be mayor,” he said. “It’s not a popularity contest.”
Craig added that he was not involved in bringing Rowena’s voting violation to the attention of the press.
Asked if he thought Turner should be removed from Council, now that she’s been convicted of violating election rules, he said he isn’t sure.
But he says he’s definitely appalled.
“I wouldn’t think a government official would do this,” he said, imagining how he might communicate his reaction to Turner. “You sat down and said, ‘I feel like this is OK for me to do, and you went ahead and did it.’”
At the Jan. 18 Council meeting Ahval Turner railed against the efforts to smear their name after the election integrity slap on the wrist, during public comment period.
“We are as much a part of that community as we are of our Monte Sereno community. And we have voted in local elections there for as long as we have owned a home,” he said. “I can’t let this go. I don’t have time now to go into details. But I expect to come back again and I will talk in detail about who did this and why.”
Several other commenters spoke on the matter—one imploring Council to “stop the steal”—in support of Turner and against Mekechuk.
Mayor Javed Ellahie said he hadn’t planned on agendizing the issue.
“I wasn’t going to put it on, but it sounds like there’s a lot of interest in this matter,” he said. “Maybe we need to do that.”
