UTLA VOTE MAY BE SCRUBBED; ANOTHER ROUND OF BALLOTING COULD BE LAUNCHED.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

With the fate of two candidates in limbo, the Los Angeles teachers union may have to scrub the results of this month's election and launch another round of balloting, a union spokesman said Wednesday.

Steve Blazak with United Teachers Los Angeles said that since the fate of two candidates won't be decided before the current voting deadline of Feb. 25, the union may have to start the process again after the disputes have been resolved.

``We could just treat it as a run-off and send out new ballots,'' he said. ``I'm sure it's going to go to second-round balloting.''

Two candidates - one for union president, one for secondary vice president - face challenges to their eligibility for office. In both cases, questions arose after a private firm hired by the union mailed ballots last week to the union's 34,000 members.

``The problem is that this wasn't discovered until the ballots were on their way out the door,'' said union lawyer Jesus Quinonez.

Northridge teacher Sheila Hopper, trying to oust incumbent Day Higuchi as union president, was notified last week that union records did not list her as an active member. She acknowledged writing to the union last year and asking to drop her membership, but said she never filed the paperwork necessary to make the split official.

The union's election committee discussed her situation at a meeting Tuesday night, but did not reach a decision, Quinonez said. Nor will they announce any opinion on her eligibility until the votes from the current round of balloting are counted, he said.

``It will be relevant only if the votes she receives affect the outcome of the election,'' he said.

That approach allows her to continue her campaign without interference, Quinonez said. ``If she's eligible, she's eligible, no harm, no foul,'' he said.

But Hopper said she believes that hands-off approach is really part of an effort to discourage teachers from voting for her, a charge union officials deny.

``If the message is out there that you vote for Sheila Hopper and your vote is wasted, then yes, I think that's the whole strategy here,'' she said.

A teacher at Darby Avenue School, Hopper has never ducked a public fight. She once waged a lawsuit against the school district over a suspension action tied to her public complaints about the district's special education programs. She has also clashed with the teachers union, briefly backing an effort to have the union decertified in an effort to shake up the leadership.

Francis Creighton, a Reseda High School Teacher running for secondary vice president also faces possible disqualification, although for very different reasons. Incumbent Bev Cook has filed a challenge with the union, charging that Creighton's campaign fliers do not properly disclose who paid for them. Creighton disputes the charges, and said they are nothing more than an election tactic.