Los Angeles City Councilman David Ryu sent a letter to the Registrar Recorder/County Clerk’s office Tuesday asking officials to not allow alleged illegal electioneering by his District Four opponent, Nithya Raman.
Ryu said he filed a formal complaint against Raman’s March 3 primary campaign, alleging that her representatives violated the law that prohibits candidates or their campaigns from campaigning within 100 feet of a polling location.
“In the March primary, Nithya Raman used illegal electioneering to influence voters and skew the result in her favor,” Ryu said. “We saw Nithya Raman tables stationed well within 100 feet of vote centers across District Four, where they pressured voters to fill out their ballots right then and there.”
Calls and emails from City News Service to the Raman campaign were not immediately returned.
In an email, Ryu said his campaign documented the Raman campaign activities in question, and he provided a link to what his campaign gathered.
When lines formed in March around vote centers, Ryu alleged voters had “no choice but to hear Nithya Raman talking points and be given Nithya Raman literature.”
Ryu said although the primary election is over, he asked the Registrar Recorder/County Clerk’s office to ensure illegal electioneering will not take place in November.
In the primary, Ryu, who has championed himself as a reformist on the City Council and has pushed for more transparency measures within the government, was forced into a Nov. 3 runoff with Raman, founder of a nonprofit that aids the homeless and a former executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, a nonprofit that works against sexual harassment and abuse in the workforce.
Ryu finished with 44.7% of the vote in March’s election, while Raman received 41.1%.