Debt Erased in Bankruptcy Court : Candidate Still Owes County for 1978 Filing

When Marshall Norris first ran for Orange County clerk in 1978, he promised to pay the county for the cost of his statement of qualifications, mailed to nearly a million registered voters.

Norris, a courthouse clerk, is running for clerk again this year against the appointed incumbent, Gary Granville. And Norris recently paid the county $7,800 for a new statement of qualifications.

But to date, county officials have been unable to collect the $7,300 that Norris admits he owes the county from the 1978 election.

In 1982, the county obtained a court judgment against Norris and several other candidates who had failed to pay for statements of qualification. Some of the defendants, like Norris, were county employees. Officials said it took four years to obtain the judgment because of a lengthy dispute over the cost of bilingual ballot materials.

But while most 1978 candidates eventually paid the county, Norris did not. In 1983, in the wake of a catastrophic windswept fire that destroyed his family’s apartment and several square blocks of housing, Norris declared personal bankruptcy and a judge dismissed the old election debt.

Court records show that Norris received a low-interest federal disaster relief loan after the fire, but Norris said he was--and continues to be--unable financially to satisfy his 1978 election debt.

“It’s taken three years for me and my wife to get back on our feet,” Norris added. “We plan to pay back the county. That’s just one of the bills we haven’t been able to handle yet. We’ll get around to it some day.”

County officials said the $7,800 Norris deposited with the registrar of voters for this year’s statement of qualifications is probably enough to cover the county’s actual costs this time around.

If not, officials added, they’ll send Norris a bill.