Clowncil Members Crash Gate

Nov. 6 was a solemn night for many voters. Mission Viejo residents supporting Cathy Schlicht anticipated her reelection as a bright spot as they gathered at a lakefront home after the polls closed.

Cathy’s numbers improved throughout the night. The first report came shortly after 8:00 p.m. when the Registrar of Voters posted totals for early absentee ballots. With two seats open, incumbents Frank Ury and Cathy were leading, and Wendy Bucknum was in third place, 33 votes behind Cathy.

The totals for the early absentees reflected Ury and Bucknum’s mailers to that group of voters. However, Cathy had the best ground game of all candidates, with precinct walks and other activities gaining votes for her in the final days before the election.

Two doors down from the gathering of Cathy’s team on election night, another lakefront homeowner was hosting a party for Wendy Bucknum. The two groups were aware of each other. As some of Cathy’s team members were leaving at 11:00 p.m., five of them were inside the house near the entrance. To their surprise, a man they didn’t know opened the door without knocking. He acted as if he were sneaking in, sticking his head inside and looking around. He had an ear-to-ear grin on his face, and he proceeded to come in, with Dave Leckness (beer in hand) and Trish Kelley right behind him. They were clearly out of line, and they were told to leave.

Trish Kelley called Cathy Schlicht the following morning and apologized. At the point the three pranksters showed up, Frank Ury had been bragging on another blog, giving his theory on why he expected Cathy would lose because of the early absentee votes. The intruders from Bucknum’s party were not coming in to congratulate Cathy on being 33 votes ahead after the first report but acting like bullies toward the opponents they thought they had vanquished.

When all polling place votes were counted, Cathy’s margin over Bucknum grew to more than 300 votes. Following are the numbers as of this writing, with approximately 4,000 late absentee and provisional votes still to be counted:

CITY OF MISSION VIEJO Member, City Council
Number To Vote For: 2
Completed Precincts: 71 of 71

Vote Count
Percentage

FRANK URY
17,259
27.3%

CATHY SCHLICHT
14,632
23.2%

WENDY BUCKNUM
14,329
22.7%

ED SACHS
9,244
14.6%

RICHARD W. COLEMAN
4,343
6.9%

DESI J. KISS
3,393
5.4%