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A Shocking Revelation
“Cleaning the voter rolls” is NOT the major path to restoring election integrity. That is a shocking statement for many, but nevertheless accurate.
Consider:
- In the first place, Clean Voter Rolls are a figment of the imagination, an unattainable nirvana, in a word: impossible.
- If at one miraculous moment in time completely clean and accurate rolls were achieved, a micro-second later they would again be a mess.
Why?
- About 7,000 of these moves occur within the same county, some of which represent a move from one precinct to another.
- Every day, about 3,000 people move from one California county to another.
The number is likely much larger today. Many of these migrants will solicit the DMV for a license or ID card, putting them at risk for automatic voter registration.
A significant number of them could easily become registered to vote through exposure to organized efforts to deceive and manipulate them, or through their own wrongdoing.
- The number of these transmissions that resulted in a voter registration is not known.
Even if there were an army of people, or computers, or even AI bots working around the clock, keeping the voter rolls up to date is simply impossible.
Yes, federal and state law could and should be updated to make the process more streamlined and effective, but the energy being expended all over the country by enthusiastic and well-meaning individuals and groups to "clean" the rolls is at least partially misplaced.
In 2017, EIPCa sued Dean Logan, Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, and Alex Padilla, then Secretary of State, for failure to follow federal voter roll maintenance mandates. In January of 2019 a settlement was reached:
- L.A. had to (and did) immediately remove 1.6 million inactive registrants who had long since gone through the eight-year wait period and qualified for removal.
- L.A. had to (and did) begin the inactivation process for 1.5 million additional voters who had overstayed their legitimacy on the active list, some by decades.
- L.A. had to (and does) provide to EIPCa through its attorneys at Judicial Watch yearly reports as to the numbers of voters notified, moved from active to inactive, and finally removed from the rolls in continued compliance with the settlement.
- The SOS was required to (and did) update the official voter roll maintenance manual used by all CA counties and see that all 58 CA counties complied in all future years with federal standards for voter roll maintenance.
Yet California’s voter rolls are still among the worst in the nation.
The truth is, bloated voter rolls would be a problem hardly worth mentioning
- IF proof of citizenship were required at registration.
- IF government-issued photo ID were required at the time of voting.
- IF only the 1 to 3% of voters legitimately unable to get to the polls were allowed to vote by mail, with all others being required to show up at the polls in person, ID in hand.
Only a return to in-person voting is reasonable,
doable and able to positively impact election integrity.
Citizens willing to fight for true election integrity might do well to rethink their narrow focus on not-so-fruitful efforts to straighten out the voter rolls, and actively lead or embrace efforts to build a groundswell of grassroots pressure to make the changes that would make a bigger difference.
EIPCa recommends that all election integrity advocates:
- Become educated about why two federal election laws (NVRA and HAVA) make voter roll maintenance ponderous and in some ways impossible for the states to maintain accurate voter rolls.
- Meet consistently with your Congressional representatives to educate them on the need to remove or clarify problematic language in NVRA and HAVA.
- Fight to eliminate universal mailing of ballots (revoke Voters Choice Act and AB 37).
- Demand elimination of permanent vote by mail status availability.
- Support making absentee ballots available only to voters meeting certain reasonable requirements to be applied for each election, as needed.
Insertion, sealing and signing of absentee ballot in return envelope should be required to be witnessed and notarized at state expense.
- Support a return to mandatory voting in person for voters other than absentee voters; fight for a return to neighborhood precinct polling places with government-issued photo ID. (State assistance should be provided for individuals having trouble acquiring the required ID.)
If these changes were made, voter rolls would be much more accurate, and only voters who could prove with legitimate ID that they are still alive and residing in the proper precinct would be able to cast a legal vote.
The success of EIPCa’s federal lawsuit would clear a direct path, even potentially create a mandate, to restructure California’s electoral process if citizens do not inspire it first.
EIPCa challenges California citizens willing to work for meaningful change
to take the steps listed above, AND…
- Educate your family, friends and acquaintances.
- Be part of EIPCa’s lawsuit with your prayers, your verbal support and your generous financial (tax-deductible) gifts.
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