Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) Files

Peremptory Writ of Mandate to Protect Nov. 2024 Election

October 31, 2024 – Advocates for Faith and Freedom (AFF) filed a petition for a Peremptory Writ of Mandate on behalf of Election Integrity Project®California (EIPCa) and individual petitioners prior to the general election on November 5, 2024, to ensure the CA Secretary of State and named county elections officials abide by California election laws regarding certifying elections.

A peremptory writ of mandate, or mandamus, is a judicial writ (i.e. order) to any governmental body, government official, or lower court requiring that they perform an act or cease to act where the court finds that an official law, duty or judgment requires them to do so.

This writ would require immediate action on the part of the courts.

As explained in EIPCa’s September 26 media release, on February 27, 2024, EIPCa properly submitted an application to the California Secretary of State for the “voter list or file” maintained by the elections officials for each precinct of all voters who voted in previous elections.

Upon receiving the raw data of over 34 million rows of plain text tab delimited files the Secretary of State, EIPCa conducted an audit of the data, comparing information from the November 2022 Certified Accounting to EIPCa’s June 2024 Accounting.

The comparison should have been a “snapshot” of the November 2022 Certified Accounting Data. Instead, it proved to be substantially different. 

• Overall, the June 2024 Accounting reflects that 32 California counties had 71,092 more ballots cast than the total number of voters that allegedly participated in the November 2022 Certified Accounting.

   

• Statewide, the discrepancies netted a difference of 43,624 ballots cast and counted. Additionally, an unacceptable number of unique voter IDs had more than one ballot counted and attributed to a single voter (in other words, 2 or more votes per voter), amounting to 42,769 ballots.

   

  However, even if these “multi-votes” are not considered, there were still 22,210 more voters listed in the June 2024 data than voters listed at the time of the official election certification in November 2022.

   

• EIPCa reviewed the US Election Assistance Commission data for the November 2022 election to see if the difference was the result of rejected ballots. The report shows that 94,072 ballots cast in Los Angeles County were rejected. Accordingly, the discrepancy of 49,777 could not be explained by rejected ballots.

The implication is that thousands of voters were deprived

of their right to have their vote counted

and thousands of invalid ballots were somehow counted.

On Sept. 26, 2024, EIPCa sent a certified letter to Sect. of State Weber requesting answers to its questions regarding the discrepancies.

Elections officials are required by California law to provide an answer to questions about election procedures or, otherwise, recommend an official who may provide an answer.

(Elec. Code §2300(a)(9)(B); Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, § § 19001, 19003, 19008, 19009.)

To date, the Secretary of State has not responded to EIPCa’s request for explanation. EIPCa had no choice but to file the present Petition because there is a great risk that local elections officials and the Secretary of State will facilitate the same errors in counting and certifying votes in the upcoming November 2024 election.

EIPCa and AFF have petitioned for a peremptory writ of mandate under Civil Code section 1085 and Elections Code sections 13314, asking the court to:

• Order Respondents to timely respond to Petitioner’s questions laid forth in their September 6 and September 20, 2024 letter.

   

• Appoint a special master to investigate, hold hearings, and determine why the November 2022 Certified Accounting fails to match the EIPCa June 2024 Accounting and to provide written findings for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the Elections Code in recordkeeping, canvassing, reporting, and accurate certification of the election results for the November 5, 2024 election and future elections.

   

• Appoint a special master to oversee the November 2024 election in each Respondent County to ensure that all ministerial requirements are fulfilled in compliance with the Elections Code in recordkeeping, canvassing, reporting, and accurate certification of the election results for the November 5, 2024 election.

   

  Respondent counties are: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Kern, Tulare

   

• Appoint a special master to oversee the Secretary of State’s fulfillment of her ministerial duties to ensure compliance with the Elections Code in recordkeeping, canvassing, reporting, compiling, and accurate certification of the election results for the November 5, 2024 election and to ensure that the records are accurately maintained following the election for post-election reporting.

   

• Order Respondents to provide EIPCa with accurate finalized voter history and voter information files from the November 2024 election within sixty (60) days following the Secretary of State’s certification of the final election results.

Time is of the essence, given the upcoming election on November 5, 2024.

EIPCa requests the Petition for Writ of Peremptory Mandate be given preference under: (1) Code of Civil Procedure § 35, given its relation to certification of a candidate(s) by vote; and (2) Elections Code § 13314.

EIPCa has associational standing under the public interest exception to the beneficial interest requirement under California law because “the question is one of public right and the object of the mandamus is to procure the enforcement of a public duty.”

By filing the present writ, EIPCa acts on behalf of the Individual Petitioners and all California voters regarding the “broad public concern” of ensuring transparent and fair elections by requesting that Respondents fulfill their statutory obligations of accurately counting and certifying votes.

EIPCa continues to work on behalf of all California citizens to restore fair, honest, transparent and valid elections.  The incompetence, carelessness or intentionality reflected in EIPCa’s findings regarding the November, 2022 election cannot be allowed to be repeated in 2024 or any other future year.

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EIPCa is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation committed to defending, through education, research, and advocacy the civil rights of United States citizens to fully participate in the election process under Federal and state law.

EIPCa provides grassroots oversight to ensure the integrity of that part of the Republic through which citizens exercise their most fundamental right - the right to choose their representatives by fair and honest elections.

EIPCa works to ensure that all votes

are lawfully cast and accurately counted.

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