EIPCa's report summarized what its observers witnessed at polling places in just eight of 58 counties on November 6, 2018. In a small sampling (2-10%) of polling places in the eight counties, the poll observers documented over 1,300 vote-by-mail voters who came to the polls to vote because they did not receive their VBM ballots in the mail. Forced to vote provisionally, many became worried or convinced their votes would not be counted. The new EAC data confirms that in Los Angeles County alone, three times as many provisional ballots were cast in 2018 than in the 2014 midterm. At the time, the county election office spokesperson admitted to the media that most of the surge was due to those "listed as vote-by-mail voters who didn't have mail ballots with them to surrender".**

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.

The increase in provisional voting may be partially explained by increased overall voter turnout. Statewide voter turnout in the 2018 midterm did increase by 60% over the 2014 midterm; however, provisional voting increased by 221%. Mirroring Los Angeles County, two-thirds of all provisional ballots cast in California were VBM voters forced to vote provisionally.

EIPCa is undertaking a county-by-county inquiry and analysis to answer, among other questions, why so many requested VBM ballots were not delivered to voters in 2018. This must be prevented in California's 2020 election cycle.

"The data from the Election Assistance Commission underscores our concerns that there was a systemic breakdown in the delivery of mail ballots to voters in several counties in 2018," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "We are especially concerned about vote-by-mail voters who did not vote because they did not receive their ballots. I encourage vote-by-mail voters who did not receive their mail ballots in the 2018 election to contact us and tell us their stories." [Effected voters can fill out a contact form at eip-ca.com/contact/]

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*https://www.eip-ca.com/press_releases/EIPCa_Findings_Report_re_Nov_2018_Election_Final_4_22_2019_re.pdf
**https://laist.com/2018/11/21/provisional_ballots_surged_in_la_county_if_you_cast_one_heres_what_to_know.php
***https://www.eac.gov/research-and-data/datasets-codebooks-and-surveys/

# # #

EIPCa is a non-partisan, non-profit, volunteer organization. For over 8 years it has researched and observed California elections to provide citizen oversight to ensure that the state and its counties are complying with laws that protect the integrity of elections. For a full list of counties, go to: eip-ca.com.

(end)

Following are links to reports:

Click here to download Press Release

          Eight counties' voter registrations exceed their eligible populations, the same number of counties originally reported by EIPCa in 2017. The eight counties' registrations range from 103% to 115% of their eligible populations. Ineligible persons who are registered to vote total 991,411. This is an increase over 2017's report of 928,035.

          Since EIPCa published this analysis in 2017, three counties (San Francisco, Imperial and Lassen) have dropped off the list, with San Francisco County posting the largest improvement.

          Unfortunately, three new counties (Ventura, San Benito and Plumas) have been added to the list because their registrations have grown to 103% of their eligible populations.

          Inactive-status registrants are those who have been inactivated by their county due to lack of voting activity and/or lack of response to contact attempts. Though they do not receive voting materials or vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots, Inactive registrants are eligible to vote in any election.

          Excess Inactive registrants can open the door to voting fraud since these registrants (who may have moved or died) are not likely to monitor their old voter registrations. EIPCa and Washington D.C. based law firm Judicial Watch negotiated a successful legal settlement in 2018, requiring Los Angeles County to begin the cancellation process for as many as 1.5 million Inactive registrants. The Settlement Agreement also requires the remaining California counties to follow federal list maintenance laws.

          Inactive registrants are not the only reason total registrations exceed eligible populations. Los Angeles County, for example, has over 300,000 Active-status registrants who have not voted or updated their registrations in more than 10 years and may be eligible for Inactivation or Cancellation. Active-status registrants are mailed voting materials and, starting in 2020, all Active registrants in Los Angeles County will receive VBM ballots.

          Unless the county addresses these 300,000 Actives-- who may have moved away or died-- they will all be mailed VBM ballots and this will increase the risk of voting fraud in the county.

          "We at EIPCa are pleased that Los Angeles County has begun complying with our settlement agreement and has already mailed notices to almost 1.6 million Inactive registrants. We are also happy to see progress in counties like San Francisco, which appears to have lawfully removed over 80,000 of its Inactives," said EIPCa President Linda Paine. "It remains unacceptable, however, that almost one million ineligible people are registered to vote, especially in light of the Voters Choice Act requirement to send vote-by-mail ballots to everyone on the active voter rolls. EIPCa will continue to press for accurate voter lists and hope that these figures will quickly improve when all counties come into compliance with the law. California voters deserve clean, up-to-date lists so they can have confidence in the integrity of our elections."

____________________________________________________________

*Source: VoteCal voter registration database 2/8/19
*Source: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/report-registration/ror-odd-year-2019/

# # #

EIPCa is a non-partisan, non-profit, volunteer organization. For over 8 years it has researched and observed California elections to provide citizen oversight to ensure that the state and its counties are complying with laws that protect the integrity of elections. For a full list of counties, go to: eip-ca.com.

(end)

Following are links to reports:

Click here to download Press Release
Registration vs. Eligible by County Report

"Tens of thousands of individuals have been harmed by on-going roster 'printing mistakes', DMV registration 'software errors' and, now, what appears to be a systemic failure to simply mail out ballots in an accurate and timely manner," said EIPCa President, Linda Paine. "The federal government needs to investigate and force Secretary of State Alex Padilla to take immediate steps to ensure the future integrity of our election process."

As a result, there was a significantly higher amount of provisional voting, such as in Los Angeles County where 390,000 provisional ballots were cast, a 222% increase over the 2014 midterm. There is evidence that some of these ballots were not even counted.

# # #

EIPCa is a non-partisan, non-profit, volunteer organization. For over 8 years it has researched and observed California elections to provide citizen oversight to ensure that the state/ counties are complying with laws that protect the integrity of elections. EIPCa recently partnered with Washington D.C. based legal group Judicial Watch in a lawsuit against California's Secretary of State and Los Angeles County, where the County agreed to remove up to 1.5 million ineligible individuals from its voter list. Agreement requires that all California counties be notified to make similar changes. For more information, go to: eip-ca.com.

(end)

Following are links to press release and reports:

Report_summary_CA2018_election_4-24-19
EIPCa Findings Report re Nov 2018 Election

The lawsuit, filed in August of 2017 with EIPCa as a primary plaintiff, alleged that the defendants were not following the requirements of Section 8 of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA requires states to reasonably maintain state and county voter registration rolls. The mandates of this settlement, when performed, will bring California into federal compliance as is required of every other state.

"Because of the powerful and overwhelming evidence provided by EIPCa, this was an exceptionally strong case," said Linda Paine, president of EIPCa. "California's voter rolls are unforgivably bloated, a situation that invites voter impersonation and fraud."

EIPCa retained Judicial Watch as its lawyer and pursued this suit as EIPCa's first step to restoring to the citizens faith in their election system and confidence in the outcome of California's election results.

Under the Clinton administration, the U.S. Department of Justice gave California a pass on following the NVRA voter roll maintenance mandate. The result was that California was not held accountable for failure to maintain its voter lists for over twenty years. It is no wonder that California's voter rolls are in the deplorable condition they have been shown to be by EIPCa.

EIPCa considers this a colossal win. By bringing California, the most populous state in the union, into legal compliance with respect to its unmaintained voter rolls, the settlement, when performed, will have a major impact across the nation. Los Angeles County has over 10 million residents, more than the population of 41 of the 50 United States. California is America's largest state with over 38 million residents.

The lawsuit was prompted when EIPCa's data analyst team found and reported that the number of registered voters in at least eight California counties exceeded 100% of the eligible population. Los Angeles County had by far the largest number of registrants over 100% with approximately 482,000 people more than those eligible to vote.

This outrageously high figure is exacerbated by the fact that Los Angeles County alone has over 1.5 million inactive registrants on its rolls. Inactives are persons who may not be legitimate registrants but are still eligible to vote by virtue of not being removed from the eligible voter roll database as is required by the NVRA. The settlement requires LA County to contact each of these inactive registrants by March 19, 2019 and timely remove from the voter rolls those who are ineligible to vote.

Under the terms of the settlement, Mr. Padilla and Mr. Logan are required to make regular reports of their corrective actions and results. Progress and compliance will be subject to enforcement by a federal judge and validated by EIPCa researchers.

"This mandate to follow federal law and properly maintain the voter rolls is a critically important win for the citizens of California and the country," said Linda Paine, "because it will make vote fraud more difficult to commit."

There is much more to be done to assure eligible Californians that their votes count, undiluted by the casting of illegitimate votes. EIPCa will continue to leverage the massive amount of evidence and documentation provided by its data team and election observer volunteers to effect further substantive corrections for the protection of each eligible California voter.

EIPCa, a tax exempt, public benefit, non-profit 501(c)(3), non-partisan corporation dedicated to assuring that every lawfully cast vote is accurately counted and reported will continue to add to its 8 years of research and documentation to determine whether the state and counties are complying with state and federal laws that protect the integrity of the electoral process.
Simply stated, EIPCa will relentlessly pursue the fulfillment of its motto:

Every Lawfully Cast Vote Accurately Counted

EIPCa Press Release_Lawsuit - Settlement Agreement_final_1.4.pdf
Complaint_12_13_17_as_filed.pdf
Settlement_Agreement_As_Signed_12_31_2018.pdf