California voters asked to vote by mail in November due to coronavirus fears
California voters asked to vote by mail in November due to coronavirus fears
https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...719-snap-photo[Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered all California voters to be mailed a ballot for the November election. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Gov. Newsom ordered ballots to be mailed to the state’s 20.6 million voters for the November election while imposing new rules for in-person voting
By JOHN MYERS SACRAMENTO BUREAU CHIEF MAY 8, 2020 12:42 PM
SACRAMENTO — Citing public health concerns over millions of Californians showing up at voting locations this fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered ballots to be mailed to the state’s 20.6 million voters for the November election while imposing strict new rules for anyone who participates in person.
The decision, Newsom said, reflects the assessment from health officials that the COVID-19 pandemic will not have subsided enough to permit the election to move forward under its traditional rules.
While a majority of California’s votes are now cast away from a voting place, it would be the first time in state history that every registered voter is mailed a ballot.
“There’s a lot of excitement around this November’s election in terms of making sure that you can conduct yourself in a safe way, and make sure your health is protected,” Newsom said during a midday event.
The decision to radically rethink the November election comes on the heels of a similar effort pushed by lawmakers and local elections officials.
On Wednesday, the chairmen of the Legislature’s two elections committees asked the governor to preempt their own effort, arguing that local officials needed more time to prepare for the changes than might otherwise be available if they had to wait for legislation to be enacted.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the state’s chief elections officer, praised the decision.
“It’s great for public health, it’s great for voting rights, it’s gonna be great for participation,” he said.
California currently has a patchwork system for voting in person, one that varies by county. While the majority of local governments offer traditional polling places on election day, 14 counties already mail a ballot to every voter under provisions of a 2016 law that swaps new “vote centers” for traditional neighborhood polling places. L.A. County, the only place allowed to enact that system without mailing all voters a ballot this year, is already poised to do so for November after the March primary saw widespread problems including long lines at in-person vote centers that are now being investigated by auditors.
Local elections officials have already been looking ahead with concern to the possibility of voters showing up in person.
“Social distancing makes most current poll worker training settings untenable and the majority of poll workers are at increased risk due to their age,” wrote Joseph Holland, the registrar of voters in Santa Barbara County and president of the state clerks association, in a letter to Newsom last month. “Finding suitable voting locations that will allow for proper social distancing and space for line queuing, issuing, voting and receiving ballots will be extremely challenging.”
Newsom’s order, however, requires some in-person voting to be allowed. The governor cited the needs of disabled voters, in particular, who may require assisted technology to cast a ballot.
“We still want to have the appropriate number of physical sites for people to vote as well,” he said.
Five states have permanent all-mail elections.
California’s change would only be for November.
But compared to many others, the state is relatively well prepared to implement Newsom’s directive.
California has had generous rules for absentee voting since 2002, allowing voters to opt for permanent vote-by-mail regardless of the reason.
Remote voting was a key component of the March statewide primary, where 72% of all ballots were cast by mail — a record high. But a number of counties had much lower absentee voting records, meaning the change will take considerable work to make happen.
The cost of moving to mailing everyone a ballot could also be daunting, and locals have often complained that the state has expanded access to voting while not providing sufficient funds for the counties to do the work. And because voter turnout is traditionally higher in general elections, a temporary shift to all-mail voting could create significant new challenges in funding and logistics.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...20-coronavirus
California: Gavin Newsom Orders Vote-by-Mail for November Election
May 8, 2020
JOSHUA CAPLAN
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed an executive order permitting all registered voters in the Golden State to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election, citing concerns stemming from the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
“I signed an executive order that will allow every registered voter in California to receive a mail-in ballot,” Newsom said. “That mail-in ballot is important but it’s not an exclusive substitute to physical locations.”
“People that are otherwise not familiar with mail-in ballots, are uncomfortable with them, may have disabilities, may have other issues that may preclude that as an appropriate option, we still want to have the appropriate number of physical sites for people to vote as well,” the governor added.
NBC 7 San Diego
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@nbcsandiego
WATCH: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to allow all registered voters in California the ability to vote by mail for the November election.
(video within tweet)
An "appropriate" number of physical locations to vote at will still be available. http://on.nbc7.com/5WD9uKg
12:32 PM - May 8, 2020
Newsom said while offering voters the chance to vote by mail, he is committed to providing the ability to vote at a physical location on election day.
“There’s a lot of concern and excitement around this November’s election in terms of making sure that you can conduct yourself in a safe way and to make sure your health is protected and to make sure we are reaching out to all registered, eligible voters,” the governor stated. “And giving them the opportunity, giving them the choice not to feel like they have to go into a concentrated, dense environment where their health may be at risk but provide an additional asset and additional resources by way of voting by mail.”
In a statement to CNN, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh slammed the move by Newsom, calling it a “thinly-veiled political tactic” to “undermine” election security.
Ryan Nobles
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@ryanobles
JUST IN: the @realDonaldTrump campaign has responded to this news out of California.. Spox @TimMurtaugh tells @CNN said this move will “undermine election security”.
Full statement:
via @DJJudd https://twitter.com/casosvote/status...43639033151488 …
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CA SOS Vote
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@CASOSvote
“California will not force voters to choose between protecting their health and exercising their right to vote."
-Secretary of State Alex Padilla
Every California voter will receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the November 3, 2020 General Election.
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2:58 PM - May 8, 2020
Newsom’s order comes as Democrats across the country are pushing efforts to allow voters to vote-by-mail in the 2020 election, despite concerns of potential voter fraud. On Wednesday, Reps. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) went as far as to call for vote-by-mail to be permitted beyond the election.
“If we don’t act fast, we will jeopardize participation in what may be the most important election of our lifetime. People will stay home. Disproportionately, those people will be of color, who live in neighborhoods most likely to lose polling locations,” the Democrat lawmakers wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. “They’ll be students, single parents, and low-wage workers, who can’t put their lives on hold to go vote. They’ll be seniors and medically-vulnerable patients, who would be literally risking their lives just to cast their ballots. So a privileged few will get to decide our country’s trajectory while the people most impacted by this crisis are forced to forfeit their voice.”
Recent data has not shown a compelling public health justification for vote-by-mail. Wisconsin is one of the only U.S. states that held its primary election with in-person voting after the coronavirus lockdown began. Only a few dozen people at maximum were confirmed to have contracted the virus after participating either as voters or poll workers, and none of those cases were fatal. Out of the 413,000 participants, that equals an infection rate below two-hundredths of one percent. Just days later, South Korea held national elections which did not result in any new coronavirus cases.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...mber-election/
UPDATED: 458,000 Dead Persons Could be Mailed Ballots if CA Goes All-Mail in Nov 2020
UPDATED: 458,000 Dead Persons Could be Mailed Ballots if CA Goes All-Mail in Nov 2020 Election
Gov. Newsom issues executive order requiring all CA voters to vote-by-mail
By Katy Grimes, May 8, 2020 7:04 am
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday requiring every voter in the state to vote-by-mail in the November 2020 election, bragging that he is the first governor in the country to do this.
“Gov. Newsom boasts California is the “first state” to make this change,” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay) Tweeted. “Perhaps that’s because other states are still functioning democracies, where new laws need to pass a Legislature.”
The governor’s executive order came on the heals of the Election Integrity Project of California’s recent notice to Secretary of State Alex Padilla 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.
Gov. Newsom’s announcement of the vote-by-mail order fails to address the hundreds of thousands dead or relocated, voters, or the multiple ballots 24,000 Californians receive.
“These are registrants with no apparent voting or updating of their registrations since Nov 4 2008 or before,” EIPCa’s Ellen Swensen said. “They likely moved away or died. But they are still in ‘Active’ status for some reason and would be mailed Vote-by-mail ballots in an all-mail November election, unless they are inactivated while eligibility is researched. They can still show up and vote in Nov while inactivated but will not automatically get a VBM ballot.”
In March EIPCa exposed that 13 California counties now have more registered voters than eligible citizens, California Globe reported.
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 to risk 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.
“We simply cannot go all vote-by-mail in November unless and until California’s voter lists are finally cleared of duplicated, deceased, relocated and other ineligible registrants,” Swensen said. “This is especially important should Gov Newsom fail to ban November ballot harvesting due to virus concerns, which is the whole reason for all-mail voting in the first place.”
The Election Integrity Project-California, founded in 2010, is a non-partisan, non-profit volunteer organization that advocates for citizens to become active participants in the electoral process, according to its website.
If you need to report voting irregularities, EIPCa has this Citizen Incident Statement.
https://californiaglobe.com/section-...2020-election/
