Humans are the best of creatures and the worst of creatures. We are capable of great thinking, creativity, compassion, and acts of love. But we are equally capable of the most ugly, dishonest, and destructive actions imaginable.

So, while most of us do our best to be our best, we need limits, restrictions, and laws to protect us from our inner devils. We need doors, fences, walls, locks, alarm systems, passwords, identification cards, along with law enforcement, consequences, courts of law and jails to protect us from the bad decisions of others.

It is unwise to trust people just because they say they can be trusted. None of us do that in our own lives, especially on things that matter to us. And yet, when it comes to California elections, everything is On Your Honor. The state trusts everyone in every circumstance. This starts with registering to vote.

The California voter registration form asks, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” 

• If the applicant says “yes”, the state does not check further – it takes people at their word.

• If the applicant says “no”, the state sends a card, basically asking, “Are you sure that’s your final answer?”

• If the applicant leaves the citizenship question blank, California sets the default to “yes.” The state makes the registration legal, without any attempt at verification.

An honor system for something as important as

verifying U.S. citizenship harms the integrity of our elections.

And the problem does not end with voter registration forms, because the state can easily register non-citizens to vote without their even having to complete these forms:

• California’s New Motor Voter law mandates the state to automatically register to vote anyone interacting with the DMV, unless the individual proactively opts out. Unfortunately, most people don’t know they can or should take that step.

• When the DMV transmits driver’s license and state ID applications to the Secretary of State (SOS), the SOS may automatically register non-citizens to vote because the Secretary does not have access to the DMV’s information regarding the applicant’s citizenship.

The DMV is one of the best sources of citizenship information, because the DMV requires new license or state ID applicants to present a birth certificate, a passport or some other definitive proof of identification to determine the type of license or ID card it will issue (one for citizens, a different type for documented non-citizens, and a third type for undocumented non-citizens). Yet state law prohibits the DMV from sharing citizenship information with any state elections official, including the SOS.

So, whether people complete a registration form or the DMV automatically uploads their private information after an interaction, elections officials must register them if they are not already registered, without having a way to check for citizenship status first, even if they wanted to.  

The people in charge of our elections are flying blind

in a system operated purely “on your honor.”

As a result, there is no way to determine how many non-citizens are on California voter rolls, how many actively vote, or how many have their identity used by someone else to cast a vote in their name.

This system is NOT a wise way to safeguard our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to choose our representatives by fair, honest and transparent elections!

This article is the first in a series that illustrates how California’s On Your Honor system endangers the integrity of our elections. 

Stay tuned for the rest of this On Your Honor article series.

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