Mayer

The City of South Gate requires a candidate for the city council to be a registered voter of the city for 29 days before the election. One can be a registered voter of the city only if one is a resident of the city. Appellant badly wanted to be an elected member of the South Gate City Council. He was not, however, a resident of the city. To avoid the residency requirement, appellant arranged to use the address of a person who lived in the city as his mailing address. He signed under penalty of perjury papers required to qualify him as a candidate in three elections, listing his mailing address in the city as his residence. Appellant, as justification for his actions, testified that he believed that “residence” had a meaning for politicians different from the statutory meaning of that word.

Appellant was convicted, following a jury trial, of three counts of submitting a false nomination paper or declaration of candidacy in violation of Elections Code section 18203, three counts of peijury in violation of Penal Code section 118, and one count of solicitation of peijury in violation of Penal Code section 653f, subdivision (a). The trial court suspended sentencing and placed…