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Former Stanton Councilwoman Hong Alyce Van is being charged with multiple felonies for allegedly lying about where she lived when she ran for office in the 2024 election.
Van has not accepted a plea deal from prosecutors as of Wednesday afternoon and is set to be arraigned in Westminster on Jan. 29.
Van did not return a request for comment from Voice of OC.
Prosecutors claim that while Van did live in Stanton’s second city council district when she was elected in 2020, she allegedly moved shortly after to District 4 without resigning her seat, which is illegal.
She did not sell the house, but was not using it as her primary residence, a requirement to represent the district according to prosecutors.
Van also claimed the house was her primary residence in her nomination paperwork, which she signed under penalty of perjury. She was also registered to vote at her old address, meaning the vote she cast in the 2024 election was a felony according to prosecutors.
“The integrity of our elections will be safeguarded and political candidates who lie and cheat the system in order to get elected will be prosecuted,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a news release announcing the case. “These are not mistakes. These are deliberate decisions to interfere with our democratic process and they will not be tolerated.”
Van is one of several people who ran for office this year charged by Spitzer for falsifying or incorrectly handling their nomination paperwork.
Former Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Carol Gamble suspended her campaign for reelection after prosecutors found she’d submitted an error in her nomination paperwork.
Scott Markowitz, a candidate for Fullerton City Council, was arrested for perjury on his nomination forms.
[Read: Fullerton City Council Candidate Arrested For Alleged Perjury 3 Weeks Before Election]
Spitzer’s office is also helping prosecute former Supervisor Andrew Do, who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes, and of newly elected Tustin Councilman Lee Fink, who pleaded guilty to battery charges last month.
[Read: Tustin City Council Member Pleads Guilty to Battery, Sentenced to 1-Year Probation]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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