In a formal petition submitted September 29, 2026, Mayor Earl Trapp has called for an official, full-scale investigation into a slate of alleged election anomalies in Polling Area 73, a high-stakes electoral district that serves nearly half of all registered voters in the twin communities of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.
Trapp’s legal representation, led by attorney Darrell Bradley, formally submitted the request in a written correspondence to Chief Elections Officer Josefine Tamai, targeting the voter roll and on-the-ground conduct of the March 12, 2025 national general election. The core of the complaint centers on suspicious over-registration of voters at residential addresses across the district, including one single residential property that lists 34 registered voters.
Trapp’s campaign and legal team estimate that as many as 700 names currently on the Polling Area 73 voter roll may be ineligible to cast ballots in the district, though this claim has not yet been confirmed or validated by any independent third party. The petition also details a prior court ruling: a magistrate previously ordered 23 names struck from the voter roll after questioning the plausibility that that many people could reside at a single small bungalow. Despite that court order, the complaint confirms those 23 names were never removed from the official list, and multiple of those registered voters allegedly cast ballots during the 2025 general election.
Beyond the disputed voter registrations, Trapp has raised additional serious concerns about multiple other procedural irregularities on election day. These include delayed and restricted access for opposition scrutineers tasked with monitoring voting processes, unreported and potentially invalid proxy voting, unauthorized political campaign music played within close proximity of polling stations, and allegations that multiple voters cast their ballots under explicit, undue direct supervision from political operatives.
The petition also draws attention to a striking, unexplained shift in voter turnout for the district: official records show a 27 percent jump in total votes cast in Polling Area 73 between the 2024 municipal election and the 2025 general election, a surge that Trapp’s team claims is inconsistent with demographic and registration trends.
In addition to opening a formal investigation, Bradley is calling for three key actionable steps: a full independent audit of the entire Polling Area 73 voter roll, a comprehensive review of all election day protocols that were in place during the 2025 vote, and the deployment of neutral independent observers to oversee the upcoming March 3, 2027 municipal election in the district. The complaint formally requests the Elections and Boundaries Department issue a public written response that details its investigative findings and outlines any corrective measures the department plans to implement to address documented flaws.