Calif. Letter Debunks Intimidating Flier

Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen answers questions at his campaign office in Garden Grove, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006, about an investigation into the mailing of an intimidating letter to Hispanic voters. Nguyen is seeking to unseat five-term Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in California's 47th Congressional District. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) (Chris Carlson - AP)

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- The California Secretary of State mailed letters Wednesday to counteract an intimidating flier linked to a Republican congressional candidate's campaign that warned immigrants they could go to jail if they vote.

The bilingual letter, endorsed by several Hispanic civil rights groups, encourages U.S. citizens to vote Nov. 7, informs them of the official state requirements to register and tells them to ignore the "false and misleading" information in the earlier flier.

The letter went out to all 14,000 Hispanic voters who received the flier sent this month. It was linked to the campaign of Tan Nguyen, who running for Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez's seat in Orange County. Written in Spanish, it warned: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

In fact, naturalized U.S. citizens have the right to vote.

State and federal investigators are looking into possible voting rights violation; Nguyen's campaign office was raided last week.

Nguyen has denied approving or having any advance knowledge of the letter and has resisted calls by Republicans and Democrats to give up his underdog campaign.

Nguyen said last week that he fired an employee in his office that he believed might have used his campaign's voter database to send the letter without his knowledge. But on Tuesday he said neither he nor any of his paid campaign staffers wrote or funded the mailing, and his attorney said campaign volunteers did much of the work. Nguyen said, however, that his office manager had forwarded the database to a third party.