This front-page article appeared in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. It is not to be missed. It begins:

In most cities, elections happen at least every four years. In Vernon, officeholders haven’t faced opposition in a generation.
Twenty-five years after its elected officials last had a contested ballot, eight strangers took up residence in the tiny city four miles south of downtown Los Angeles. Last month, after just a few days in town, three of the newcomers filed petitions to run for City Council in the April 11 election.
Within days, city utility trucks had turned off their power. The building they shared was slapped with red tags by inspectors who said the property was “unsafe and dangerous” as a residence. Strobe lights flashed through their windows. They and some of their relatives were placed under surveillance. Shortly, city police and other officials drilled holes in the locks and evicted the would-be office-seekers.
Having deprived the interlopers of city residence, Vernon officials on Jan. 27 disqualified them from the ballot. In a letter to one of the men, the city clerk accused the three of being part of a plot orchestrated by one of the county’s most notorious political figures, Albert Robles, a convicted felon who as treasurer of South Gate nearly bankrupted that city.
The letter also said the county counsel had determined that Vernon officials had legal power to decide who was “a valid elector and legally registered to vote” in the city.
On Thursday, after inquiries by The Times, county officials denied that they had told Vernon officials they could take such an action and released to The Times a Feb. 1 letter to Vernon officials from County Counsel Raymond G. Fortner Jr. The letter declared that the city’s effort to disenfranchise the eight residents was “without effect.”