December 2, 2020 Reno, Nevada – Election Integrity Project, Nevada (EIPNv) has found 2,410 persons who are registered to vote in Nevada, subsequently registered in California, but voted in Nevada’s November 3 election. EIPNv had previously reported 1,411 such voters. An expanded analysis, matching mailing addresses and phone numbers, found approximately 1,000 more suspect voters. To lawfully vote in Nevada, one must continuously reside in the state and one’s county for 30 days and one’s precinct 10 days preceding Election Day [NRS 293.485]. Federal law allows persons to vote in their old state if they have moved within 30 days of the election.
These findings will be submitted to the Secretaries of State in both Nevada and California. The appropriate U.S. Attorneys will be notified:
-
There are 2,410 Nevada registrants who closely match a California registrant on first, middle and last name, and date of birth. Common names, which might be coincidences, are excluded.
- Of these, 491 have a California mailing address that matches their Nevada residence address, 400 have the same phone number in both their California and Nevada records, and 46 have both a matching address and phone number.
- These registrants’ California voter registration dates are later than their Nevada registration dates, indicating all 2,410 now reside in California. The California registration dates are 90+ days prior to the November 3 election, indicating the voters are not lawfully eligible to vote in Nevada.
- As of November 24, Nevada’s official histories of counted votes show, despite their apparent residency in California, 1,390 voted by mail, 710 voted early, 224 voted at the polls on Election Day and 86 voted provisionally and were counted.
- Of the 2,410 suspect voters, 615 had not previously voted in Nevada, though they were registered.
- The number of suspect votes by district can be found here.
- It is being determined whether these persons also voted in California.
EIPNv further identified 97 Nevada registrants who voted in the November 3 election though they are documented as having moved from their registration address or having never lived there. These findings were documented via canvasser interviews of current residents at these registration addresses.
440,000 “Questionable” Ballots Mailed Out in California’s Election
Nonpartisan watchdog claims ballots were mailed to deceased, relocated, and duplicated registrants.
October 19, 2020 Santa Clarita, CA -- Hundreds of thousands of ballots for California’s November election were mailed to registered voters who have probably moved or died, while more than one ballot was mailed to thousands more, according to Election Integrity Project® California (EIPCa). Vote-by-mail ballots have been mailed to all purportedly "Active" registrants.
EIPCa sent the findings --based on its analysis of the state’s voter registration database of August 18, 2020-- to Secretary of State Alex Padilla on October 17. They call into question why almost 420,000 ballots were mailed to those who have likely moved or died and why two to four ballots were mailed to each of 20,000 voters. EIPCa also published the number of questionable mail ballots in each congressional, senate and assembly district and county.
Questionable registrations of those mailed ballots include:
- LA Co. male, born 1920, last voted 2004, died out of state in 2010, per SSDI.
- Placer Co. female, born 1931, died 2015 at her voter registration address. Matches CA death record.
- LA Co. female, born 1896, died 1993 in LA County. Matches CA death record.
- Monterey Co. male, born 1914, registered in 1936, last voted 2004. Likely deceased.
- Fresno Co. male, born 1936, registered in 1952, last voted 1998. Likely moved or died.
- Alameda Co. female with three Active registrations- same name, birthdate, address, phone, and email. Registered three times in 2020 using three registration methods. Mailed three ballots.
- LA Co. male with two Active registrations- same name, birthdate, differing addresses but same phone and email. Has been double registered since 2016. Mailed two ballots.
"Earlier this year, the Secretary repeatedly rejected similar findings, despite the risks of universal mail voting with a bloated voter list," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "We now encourage all candidates and parties to contact the Secretary of State to obtain our report (EIPCa Findings Report_200818_questioned ballots_4 SOS_201017.xlsx), and to work with local election officials to ensure that only lawful votes are counted in November."
Paine added, "Adding to the problems in this election, the state will now allow multiple votes, scrawled on notecards, to be stuffed into one mail ballot envelope."
Report irregular ballots received at www.eip-ca.com/incident.htm. EIPCa is a nonpartisan IRC 501(c)(3) charity. Contributions are tax-deductible.
With a One-Two Punch, CA Secretary of State Destroys Election Transparency
October 5, 2020
Santa Clarita, Calif. - This week, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla delivered a knockout to election integrity, imposing new mandates completely unrelated to whatever health emergency still exists. These new “emergency” regulations open the door for mail ballot fraud, by hindering signature verification. In addition, they allow multiple votes, even if scrawled on notecards, to be stuffed into a single mail ballot envelope. In addition, Election Observation Guidelines now encourage county election officials to restrict what citizen observers can see and hear when those mail ballots are being validated and counted. Election Integrity Project California®(EIPCa) is fighting back!
On September 28, Padilla released 14 new regulations on mail-in ballots and signature verification, effective immediately.
Though Secretary of State Padilla testified to Congress as recently as August 28 about signature verification being all-important, his website did not even mention these regulations until September 25, by which time the 5-day public comment period had passed. In 2020, in tech-savvy California, the Secretary of State could not spare any keystrokes to facilitate brief public comment on regulations critical to this November’s election. The radical provisions of these regulations explain why Padilla did his utmost to minimize public comment.
We know that Secretary Padilla consulted with at least some county election officials and “several voting advocacy groups” but did not include EIPCa, a prominent and well-known player in the field for a decade.
Most of these new regulations are outside the purview of the executive branch of government because they supersede or countermand what is codified in California’s Elections Code. Any such change may only be sanctioned by an act of the state legislature, not simply declared by executive edict. And yet, Padilla is poised to get away with this excessive and likely disastrous executive over-reach.
Padilla’s new Regulation 20960(j) makes it very unlikely that any envelope signature will be rejected. Without any basis in California law, the Regulation imposes a standard until now occurring only in criminal procedures, requiring that 2 additional election officials agree, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the signatures do not match. [(Regulation 20960(k), 20991(b)(3)].
A vigorous signature matching process filters out fraudulent votes. The “curing” process, whereby no ballot is rejected without notifying the voter and offering an opportunity for that voter to verify the ballot, protects voters from having a ballot rejected by a signature match snafu. Because of that process (passed in 2018 and strengthened in 2019), elections officials should be freed up to challenge signatures with no obvious similarity to the signature on file without fear of wrongfully disenfranchising legitimate voters.
Officials and experts have been reassuring the public for six months that mail ballots are secure, thanks to watermarks in the printed ballots and unique codes on the return envelope that identify each voter. Regulations 20991(b)(9) and (10) make those reassurances obsolete and moot.
Now a voter does not even need a genuine ballot, but can just mark up a sample ballot, or scrawl votes on a “letter or note”. A diligent fraudster can stuff one barcoded ballot return envelope with as many notecard ballots as will fit, and scribble names and signatures of additional voters somewhere on the envelope. [20991(b)(11)]. Because signature verification has been weakened, such fraud could well succeed.
On September 28, Padilla released a new version of "Election Observations Rights and Responsibilities." According to the new mandate, observers may be restricted to a "designated area". County officials are encouraged to use discretion to determine how far back observers have to stand.
Remote observation from separate rooms or even from home is now a condoned and sanctioned obstacle to public oversight under the Election Observer Panel Plan.
CA Election Laws §2300(a) (9) & (10) give California voters the right to observe every aspect of the election process, ask questions and receive answers. Election Code §15104 provides observers the right to observe the processing of vote-by-mail ballots closely enough to see the signatures and the marks on the ballots. It also mandates that observers have the opportunity to challenge procedures in a "reasonable and timely manner".
Remote observation not only limits the quality and narrows the viewing angle of what the observers can see, it also keeps them from asking timely questions about election procedures. This spring in Los Angeles, our observer in the Zoom room was told to write down her question and mail it to the Registrar of Voters, an accommodation that is neither reasonable nor timely.
Election Integrity Project California will carry on its efforts in the face of these attacks on election integrity. Public awareness will be crucial.
EIPCa/EIA Send Letter to President
July 15, 2020
Santa Clarita, Calif. - Election Integrity Project® California (EIPCa), part of the national Election Integrity Alliance (EIA), has signed a letter to President Trump, warning that “a fair and honest election is not possible under current conditions.”
The letter warns that “election integrity is at greater risk than normal this November due to extraordinary and careless changes being made in the name of COVID protection.” It calls upon the president to require states to follow federal election law to maintain clean voter rolls before the August 5 deadline for the November 2020 election.
The letter provides the president with general bona fides of EIA’s founding organizations, EIPCa, Voter Integrity Alliance-NC, and Virginia Voters Alliance, telling the president, “It is critical that you know what we know”. It goes on to say: “Numerous organizations have irrefutable evidence that states are actively working to deny their own citizens’ civil right to self-govern…We also have extensive documentation that the implementation of policies and procedures that supersede federal and state laws has resulted in election chaos, including single individuals casting votes in multiple states.”
EIA’s letter requests an immediate summit with the president or his close advisors to facilitate sharing of vital information that flies in the face of the current media mantra that “voter fraud in not a concern” and that “there is no evidence that vote-by-mail ballots are not a source of election manipulation”.
EIPCa’s LLC affiliates, EIP Arizona, EIP Nevada and EIP Arkansas, are the first of a growing number of supporting citizen organizations nationwide indicating their support by signing on to the letter.
EIA’s letter tells the president: “We do not want to lose our Republic” and warns: “We cannot trust our state leaders to solve these problems, because in most cases they are the problem.” It calls the president “our last remaining hope to restore and protect the integrity of November’s election.”
“Every American who believes in fair and honest elections should join EIA in petitioning the president for these critical and immediate actions,” said Linda Paine, president of EIPCa. “We urge every supporting citizen and citizen organization to sign on immediately.”
2020 Election: Supreme Court May Rule on Ballot Harvesting
Watchdogs file Amicus Brief in support of protecting
the chain of custody of vote-by-mail ballots.
June 18, 2020
Santa Clarita, Calif. - A potential landmark case involving Arizona's election laws, including its right to limit who can handle and deliver vote by mail ballots, is being considered for acceptance by the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa) and Arizona (EIPAz) have joined 13 other parties in filing documents with the court (amicus curiae) in support of Arizona's petition to have SCOTUS take up the case.
At stake is the issue of ballot "harvesting", a practice by which any person can collect-- and possibly manipulate-voters' vote-by-mail ballots. As a minimal protection of the secret ballot and to prevent undue influence, Arizona's law limits who can collect and deliver a voter's ballot: family or household members, caregivers, election officials, or postal service. The Democratic National Committee claims that Arizona's law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, because the limits on ballot handling disparately harm minority voters.
[...Read More..]
Two courts have agreed with Arizona's contention that its limits do not harm minorities. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled those two previous findings. This ruling is stayed until SCOTUS determines whether to take the case.
EIPCa and EIPAz filed their brief, as amici curiae represented by Landmark Legal Foundation, arguing that:
Voting by mail is vulnerable to fraud and requires special protections;
California serves as a warning of the dangers of unchecked and unlimited voting by mail; and
The two prior rulings were correct when they found Arizona's law does not violate Section 2.
If SCOTUS accepts the Arizona case, its ruling could affect ballot harvesting laws across the country. If it rules in favor of Arizona, it and other states that wish to protect ballot chain of custody could continue to do so. Unfortunately, California's unlimited ballot "harvesting" practices would not be immediately affected. If SCOTUS rules against Arizona (or refuses to hear the case), all states' limits on ballot handling could be challenged under Section 2. This means that California-style ballot "harvesting" could spread across the country, compromising election integrity and further damaging voter confidence in our elections.
The schedule for the required hearings on these matters is yet to be determined.
Hundreds of Thousands of Ineligible Persons Could be Mailed Ballots
if California Goes All-Mail in November Election
Watchdog group claims over 458,000 likely dead or relocated persons will be mailed ballots;
24,000 will be mailed two or more ballots. Poor voter list maintenance cited.
Santa Clarita, Calif. (May 7, 2020) - On April 28, Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa) sent notice to California's Secretary of State (SOS) of the state's failure to comply with federal voter list maintenance laws. EIPCa's report, based on its analysis of California's official voter registration file, includes evidence that the coronavirus-related proposal to mail ballots to all California voters has heightened the risks to the integrity of the November 2020 election:
- Over 458,000 California registrants who have likely died or moved will be mailed ballots. These registrants have not voted or updated their registrations since November 2008 or prior. Though likely deceased or relocated, they remain classified as "active" status. Almost 178,000 have never voted. Almost 2,000 have birthdates indicating they are 105+ years old.
- Over 38,000 Californians appear to have more than one voter registration. 24,000 of them will be mailed two or more ballots under an all-mail scenario, because they have more than one active registration each.
Mailing hundreds of thousands of ballots to non-existent addressees opens the door to election crime. Mass "seeding" of unclaimed ballots, coupled with ballot "harvesting" by unscrupulous operatives, is a significant risk to the integrity of the November election. Mailing two or more ballots each to thousands of duplicated registrants allows-- even "invites" --voters to vote twice. California's SOS has already confirmed double voting in the March 3 primary by duplicated registrants who were mailed two ballots each.
"Federal law requires the state to maintain voter lists free of those who have died or relocated and to remove duplicated registrations," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "This is especially critical under all-mail voting. Unless ineligible registrations are removed, hundreds of thousands of unclaimed ballots will likely go into circulation without chain of custody protections, due to state-sanctioned ballot harvesting. Defective laws and mismanaged voter rolls continue torisk the integrity of California's November election."
EIPCa's letter asks the SOS to work with the counties to investigate and remove all registrations found to be ineligible so they are not automatically mailed ballots.
download pdf of press release
Judicial Watch and Election Integrity Project California
Both Work to Restore Voter Confidence Nationwide
Santa Clarita, Calif. (May 25, 2020) - In the wake of proposals to change voting laws and practices due to the Covid-19 virus, Judicial Watch, Inc. and Election Integrity Project California, Inc. call on lawmakers and election officials to renew their commitment to another important voting rights issue: the urgent need to clean up voter registration rolls and ensure that elections cannot be manipulated through weak laws and practices that erode voter confidence.
[...Read More..]
For more than two decades, Judicial Watch has been known for its aggressive, leading edge use of public records laws and lawsuits, as well as taxpayer, civil rights, and whistleblower protection litigation to fight government corruption. In 2012, it launched a nationwide effort to promote voting integrity and protect voting rights. As part of this effort, Judicial Watch has assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who have fought gerrymandering in Maryland, stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements. In April 2020, Judicial Watch’s voting rights team filed lawsuits in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to compel the clean-up of voter rolls in five counties in those states. Judicial Watch is headquartered in Washington, DC.
Since 2010, Election Integrity Project California has worked to enable citizens to become active participants in the entire election process. Its Data Analysis Group™ uses proprietary analysis techniques to research the accuracy of the voter rolls and report to officials duplicated, deceased and other ineligible registrations. This helps ensure compliance with federal and state list maintenance laws. Its Election Procedures Observations Program™ has resulted in providing documentation of the chaos in the election process due, in part, to bloated voter rolls. Based in Santa Clarita, California, Election Integrity Project California has recently expanded its efforts to include Arizona, Nevada and Arkansas.
Judicial Watch and Election Integrity Project California joined forces in 2017 to challenge the failure of election officials in Los Angeles and Sacramento to clean up Los Angeles County’s voter rolls. A 2019 settlement of that lawsuit caused changes in California’s statewide voter maintenance procedures and has the potential to result in the removal of some 1.5 million inactive registrations from Los Angeles County's voter rolls.
In this election year, Judicial Watch and Election Integrity Project California jointly call upon all nonpartisan organizations interested in promoting genuinely fair and honest elections to coordinate their efforts across the election process.
“Confidence in voter rolls is a civil rights issue,” declared Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "If voters don’t have confidence that voter rolls are updated regularly, it undermines the integrity of our elections."
Bob Popper, who leads Judicial Watch's voter roll clean-up efforts, explained, "We look for counties that aren't taking steps mandated by federal law or have more registered voters than citizens over the age of 18 who could lawfully register to vote. These are red flags and indicate that election officials may not be complying with their voter list maintenance obligations. We then request records from state and county election officials to see what efforts they are making to clean up their voter rolls. After analyzing the records, we work with officials in state and counties that fall short to educate them about their obligations and to encourage them to comply with the law."
Linda Paine, President of Election Integrity Project California, said that "As co-plaintiffs in the 2017 lawsuit, our organization's evidence was instrumental in getting Los Angeles County to agree to update its voter rolls. Since then, our Election Integrity Project® identified significant structural flaws in California's VoteCal voter database. Our Election Integrity Project® alerted the California Secretary of State to those flaws, and pointed out multiple incidents of double voting by mail in the March 3, 2020 primary, which he confirmed was double voting by duplicated registrants who had each received two mail ballots."
Paine added, "Our Election Integrity Project® recently served notice on the California Secretary of State for violations of the National Voter Registration Act, after identifying hundreds of thousands of registration irregularities. Our work has exposed the urgent need to clean the voter lists, especially with potential all-mail elections on the horizon."
Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan, tax-exempt educational organization under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Its motto is "Because no one is above the law!®." For more information about Judicial Watch and its many programs, visit its website at www.judicialwatch.org.
Election Integrity Project California is a non-partisan, non-profit, tax-exempt, public benefit corporation and is a public charity under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Its motto is "Every Lawfully Cast Vote Accurately Counted®." For more information about working with the Election Integrity Project® in California, Arizona, Arkansas and Nevada, visit its website at www.eip-ca.com or contact Linda Paine at (661) 313-5251.
click here to download pdf of press release
One Person, One Vote?
Watchdog claims hundreds of California voters mailed two ballots each in May 12 Special Elections,
as Governor declares all-mail November election.
Santa Clarita, Calif. (May 11, 2020) - Hundreds of voters in California's May 12 Congressional District 25 and State Senate 28 elections appear to have been mailed two or more ballots each, according to Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa). These special elections were declared as all vote-by-mail by Governor Newsom due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, state VoteCal data show the voter lists for these districts contain hundreds of voters with multiple registrations in their names.
[...Read More..]
On May 4, EIPCa alerted California's Secretary of State, the Registrars of Riverside, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties and informed both candidates in each of these closely contested races. No election official has responded to the following EIPCa findings:
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In Congressional District 25 (CD25), 773 voters appear to have been mailed two or more ballots each. Five voters, if confirmed, were mailed 3 ballots each. These voters have two or more active registrations under the same names, addresses and birthdates. Those at differing addresses have additional matching factors. Persons mailed more than one ballot can easily vote more than once, since the system has them listed as two different voters. In addition, 82 duplicated voters appear to have moved to a different congressional district, retained their CD25 registrations and were mailed CD25 ballots. Also mailed ballots were 54 people who appear to be 105+ years old.
- In Senate District 28 (SD28), 805 duplicated registrants were apparently mailed two or more ballots, five of which were mailed three. Additionally, 61 duplicated registrants appear to have moved to a different senate district, retained their SD28 registrations and were mailed SD28 ballots.
EIPCa recently reported over 458,000 registrants statewide who have likely died or moved will be mailed ballots in November. An additional 24,000 have two or more registrations and will be mailed two+ ballots each.
"Our organization has been advocating for clean voter lists for ten years. These two elections are examples of what will happen statewide in November unless California's list is finally cleared of duplicates, deceased, and voters who have moved away," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "The lack of response from election officials underscores their focus on access over integrity. California voters deserve and must demand both."
# # #
Hundreds of Thousands of Ineligible Persons Could be Mailed Ballots
if California Goes All-Mail in November Election
Watchdog group claims over 458,000 likely dead or relocated persons will be mailed ballots;
24,000 will be mailed two or more ballots. Poor voter list maintenance cited.
Santa Clarita, Calif. (May 7, 2020) - On April 28, Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa) sent notice to California's Secretary of State (SOS) of the state's failure to comply with federal voter list maintenance laws. EIPCa's report, based on its analysis of California's official voter registration file, includes evidence that the coronavirus-related proposal to mail ballots to all California voters has heightened the risks to the integrity of the November 2020 election:
[...Read More..]
- Over 458,000 California registrants who have likely died or moved will be mailed ballots. These registrants have not voted or updated their registrations since November 2008 or prior. Though likely deceased or relocated, they remain classified as "active" status. Almost 178,000 have never voted. Almost 2,000 have birthdates indicating they are 105+ years old.
- Over 38,000 Californians appear to have more than one voter registration. 24,000 of them will be mailed two or more ballots under an all-mail scenario, because they have more than one active registration each.
Mailing hundreds of thousands of ballots to non-existent addressees opens the door to election crime. Mass "seeding" of unclaimed ballots, coupled with ballot "harvesting" by unscrupulous operatives, is a significant risk to the integrity of the November election. Mailing two or more ballots each to thousands of duplicated registrants allows-- even "invites" --voters to vote twice. California's SOS has already confirmed double voting in the March 3 primary by duplicated registrants who were mailed two ballots each.
"Federal law requires the state to maintain voter lists free of those who have died or relocated and to remove duplicated registrations," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "This is especially critical under all-mail voting. Unless ineligible registrations are removed, hundreds of thousands of unclaimed ballots will likely go into circulation without chain of custody protections, due to state-sanctioned ballot harvesting. Defective laws and mismanaged voter rolls continue torisk the integrity of California's November election."
EIPCa's letter asks the SOS to work with the counties to investigate and remove all registrations found to be ineligible so they are not automatically mailed ballots.
download pdf of press release
2020 Election: Over One Million Ineligible Persons
Registered to Vote in California
Despite a lawsuit and resulting efforts to cancel ineligible registrants,
California's bloated voter list problems continue.
Santa Clarita, Calif. (March 26, 2020) - A review of California's statewide voter database shows that 13 counties have more registered voters than eligible citizens-- totaling over 1 million ineligible registrants-- says Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa). The overage was calculated by adding together each county's active and inactive-status registrants and comparing the total to the estimated number of eligible citizens from the California Secretary of State's (SOS) website. Both sources are dated February 18, 2020.
[...Read More..]
Six counties have the most ineligible registrants and contribute most to the one million+ ineligibles count. The full list includes Imperial, Lassen, Marin, Nevada, Plumas, Santa Clara and Siskiyou counties.
|
County
|
Total #
Registrants
|
Total #
Eligible Citizens
|
% of
Eligible
|
# Ineligible
Registrants
|
|
Los Angeles
|
7,040,216
|
6,184,428
|
114%
|
855,788
|
San Diego
|
2,306,159
|
2,232,644
|
103%
|
73,515
|
San Mateo
|
534,316
|
507,291
|
105%
|
27,025
|
Solano
|
320,863
|
294,638
|
109%
|
26,225
|
Santa Cruz
|
206,585
|
187,357
|
110%
|
19,228
|
Ventura
|
563,728
|
546,938
|
103%
|
16,790
|
Total Six Counties
|
|
|
|
1,018,571
|
In 2017-18, EIPCa sued the LA County registrar and California's SOS over similar findings. A settlement was reached in which the state agreed to begin removing millions of ineligible, inactive-status registrants from its rolls. While California counties research the eligibility of their inactive registrants, thousands of new voter registrations have been added through the state's automatic DMV voter registration system, growing the list from eight counties to thirteen. While San Francisco and San Diego counties have made progress by cancelling hundreds of thousands of inactive registrants, new counties joined the list as their new registrations have accelerated.
The one million+ ineligible registrants include inactive registrants (who have not voted in years but are still registered and can vote in any election), persons who've likely died or relocated but remain on the active voter list, and tens of thousands of people who have two or more registrations each. EIPCa cannot quantify how many more are ineligible due to non-citizen status or other reasons.
"One million ineligible registrants allowed to vote opens doors to election crime in the upcoming 2020 election, especially if they're mailed ballots," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "California needs to take immediate action to correct its bloated voter lists."
Click here to download copy of Press Release
Voters Beware! Los Angeles County Faces Significant Risks to the Reliability of its Elections
if it Mails Ballots to Every Voter
A bloated voter list means hundreds of thousands of likely deceased or relocated could "receive" ballots;
thousands of duplicated voters would be mailed two or more ballots.
Santa Clarita, Calif. (March 15, 2020) -- Los Angeles County debuted a new voting system in the March 3 election, and it was plagued with problems. Unreliable connections with the state voter database, inadequately trained election workers and new machines that broke down created long lines and voter frustration. Many reportedly gave up and did not vote. In a questionable response to these problems, California's Secretary of State (SOS) Alex Padilla directed county Registrar Dean Logan to mail a vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot to every Los Angeles County registrant for the November 2020 election.
[...Read More..]
This action will only worsen LA County's elections. On March 9, Election Integrity Project, California Inc. (EIPCa) sent a letter to SOS Padilla, Registrar Logan and the county Board of Supervisors, describing the risks to the integrity of the November election should the county move forward with Padilla's VBM plan, namely:
-
Los Angeles County has 206,728 registrants who have not voted or updated their registrations since November 2008 or before. Though they have not voted in more than a decade and may have died or relocated, these 206,728 registrants are still listed as "active" voters and would be mailed VBM ballots. This means hundreds of thousands of VBM ballots will be mailed to potentially ineligible voters, which will open the door to unlawful voting. The risk is increased because California law allows anyone to gather and deliver these ballots to the officials.
-
Los Angeles County has 8,158 persons who have TWO active voter registrations in their names. These persons will each be mailed two VBM ballots. Persons receiving two VBM ballots can easily vote twice undetected, since the system has them documented as two different registrants.
The new EAC report*** confirms that most of LA County's provisional voting was driven by vote-by-mail voters without a ballot to surrender. According to the EAC, 282,240 Los Angeles County vote-by-mail voters that actually came to the polls had to vote provisionally in that election, accounting for two-thirds of all provisional ballots cast. Similar patterns of VBM voters forced to vote provisionally were seen in EAC and VoteCal data for San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, Fresno, Humboldt, San Francisco and San Joaquin counties. 2018 is the first year that this statistic has been required by the EAC, so there are no comparative figures from previous elections.
Unless and until Los Angeles County's bloated voter list is fixed, the risks associated with mailing ballots to all remain. To make matter worse, there's talk of legislation requiring mailed ballots to the entire state. Since most California counties have similarly bloated voter lists, this legislation will only worsen the VBM risks to the November 2020 election.
# # #
Click here to download Press Release
