A GOP election observer and candidate for the 14th Congressional District was arrested and charged with trespassing on public property at the Alameda County Registrars of Voter's (ROV) last weekend.
Alison Hayden was observing at a random drawing of 1% of the county’s precincts' when she was arrested on Friday, Nov. 18.
“They saw me recording the pulled precinct numbers and said that I was being disruptive,” she said. “I was observing alone, writing, and took a picture of my notes.”
The charging documents cite penal code 853.6, a misdemeanor.
Hayden, who campaigned against Democrat incumbent Eric Swalwell, spent the night in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
“The officer grabbed me and I was startled since at that moment they were claiming a ‘415’ violation, which is disturbing the process but they had to back off of it since I was silent,” she said.
Hayden has so far garnered 30.7% of the vote compared to Swalwell's 69.3%, according to the Secretary of State website. Results will be certified on Dec. 16.
"The Deputy Registrar has been itching to get me arrested, threatening me several times, as early as during the primary when I caught a wrong remake of a ballot being called for Newsom when it was another much longer name," Hayden told the Southern California Record.
The Alameda County Registrars of Voter's office did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Hayden is scheduled to face the charges at the Wiley Manual Courthouse in Oakland on Dec. 19 at 2 pm.
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, Hayden had been expelled on election night on Nov. 8 from the adjudication room after conversing with a Chinese woman in Mandarin.
On Nov. 7, she sent a report to Alameda County's Board of Supervisors, Registrar of Voters, Sheriff's Office, Civil Grand Jury, and District Attorney detailing her concerns about the security of ballots during the June primary elections.
"The vote is the basis of our constitutional democratic Republic of, for, and by the people," Hayden wrote in the report.
"Safeguarding its integrity should be the priority of every citizen and certainly those whom we have elected to represent us. Regrettably, the Board has chosen to ignore my emailed letter of October 31, 2022, and the testimony of numerous citizens of voting processes delinquent to the California Election Code with evidence, reports, and demands made at the regular Board meeting on November 1, 2022."