Inglewood mayoral candidate Fre’Drisha “Sha” Dixon was at home catching up on emails after a day of door knocking when she received a concerning text message from a campaign volunteer.
Dixon said the Oct. 3 message contained a photo of what seemed to be an official mail-in-ballot displaying the names of the six hopefuls vying to become the city’s next mayor.
Dixon recognized all but one name, her own. Second from the top read “Fre’Drisha ‘Sha’ Dixion,” her last name now curiously containing an extra “I.”
It soon settled upon Dixon that not only was her name misspelled on the Nov. 3 ballot, but also that the ballots were already in some voters’ hands.
“I wasn’t shocked,” Dixon said of that moment. “All of this is to try to prevent me from getting votes, to make voters think that Dixon — the name that we have been campaigning under and branding for the past eight months — is not on the ballot.”
Dixon is now seeking to remedy the situation through the courts, hoping a judge will order the city and county offices to correct any election materials that haven’t been sent out, update the in-person ballots and send voters written and digital notices about the error.
Meanwhile, LA County and Inglewood officials seem to be pointing the finger at each other. A spokesperson for the LA County Registrar-Recorder said they’re only responsible for printing names given to them by localities, while an Inglewood official would not comment on Dixon’s accusations or how the mixup happened in the first place, and ultimately pointed back at the county when denying Dixon’s request for a reprint.
In a city where more than 66,000 people were registered to vote as of Sept. 4 and less than a month until voters head to the polls to choose the city’s next leader, the misspelling of Dixon’s name on official election materials is the latest chapter in an already contentious election season that has included allegations of one candidate using the N-word and the sitting mayor inappropriately touching a girl, both of whom denied said accusations.
It’s unclear how Dixon’s last name wound up misspelled on official election materials. When she ran for mayor in 2022, her name was spelled correctly, and up until at least Aug. 21 the city government had posted materials with her name spelled correctly.
Dixon also provided The LA Local with copies of election documents she previously submitted to the government agencies that supervise Inglewood elections, including the Inglewood City Clerk, the LA County Registrar-Recorder and the California Secretary of State. In all those documents, her name was spelled correctly.
Inglewood’s City Clerk’s office is responsible for verifying the spelling of local candidates’ names on the November ballot. The city then submits these names to the county’s registrar-recorder’s office, which is responsible for printing official election materials like ballots and candidate statements, according to Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the registrar’s office.
Sanchez said that before the registrar-recorder’s office publishes election materials, the city clerk is given proofs of the upcoming ballots to approve before anything is printed. Sanchez said the city signed off on the proofs prior to production.
“The [registrar-recorder] must print the candidate information as officially certified and provided to us,” Sanchez wrote in an email to The LA Local. “In this instance, the candidate’s name appearing on the Vote by Mail ballot and our printed and online election materials matches the information certified to our office by the City.”
After several requests from The LA Local for an explanation of Dixon’s name being misspelled, especially when the county spokesperson said the city approved the ballot proofs, Inglewood City Clerk Aisha Thompson wrote in an email: “My statement is every vote cast for Ms Dixon (Dixion) will count in her favor.”
In a separate email to Dixon — which she provided to The LA Local — Thompson seemed to be apologetic for what she described as a “misprint” while stating that Dixon’s name would remain misspelled to avoid confusion.
“Please accept my sincere apologies for the misprint spelling of your last name on the ballot materials,” Thompson wrote to Dixon on Monday. “As mentioned, I inquired with the County Registrar Recorders Office whether or not your name could be corrected on the vote machines and I was told no due to the fact that such a change would create 2 versions of the candidate’s last name… which could cause confusion among voters.”
“I am completely disappointed in the blatant disrespect and utter incompetence displayed by you and your office,” Dixon responded. “The people of Inglewood deserve better.”
Dixon is steadfast in her belief that the misspelling was not an honest mistake. She has since filed a writ of mandamus, a legal maneuver that places the issue in front of a judge who will then decide how — or if — the city and county offices will correct the error.
Dixon said while the misprint has impacted her directly, the more important issue is the impact it has on Inglewood voters.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and money making sure people can recognize my name. Because of this error, not only have I been disenfranchised,” Dixon said, but so have “all of the voters in Inglewood.”
