{"id":21996,"date":"2019-10-08T13:14:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T17:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21996"},"modified":"2019-10-16T11:35:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T15:35:02","slug":"illegal-voters-california-motor-voter-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/10\/08\/illegal-voters-california-motor-voter-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure to Ensure Non-Citizens Don\u2019t Vote Lands California in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2015, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla proudly proclaimed<\/a> that legislation he sponsored \u2013 the California New Motor Voter Act – would \u201cmake our democracy stronger\u201d by allowing millions of \u201ccitizens\u201d to be automatically registered to vote when applying for a state ID or driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, according to a lawsuit<\/a> filed last week, it is Padilla who is undermining democracy by violating federal law<\/a> by implementing the motor voter law<\/a> without safeguards in place to ensure non-citizens are not placed on the state\u2019s voter rolls as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn direct violation of his duties to ensure that only eligible voters are placed on the voter rolls, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has established a pattern and practice of doing nothing to verify that a potential voter is a United States citizen, thus causing non-citizens to be placed on the voter rolls,\u201d reads the complaint<\/a> filed by well-known Republican lawyer Harmeet Dhillon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filed on behalf of three California voters, including\ntwo naturalized citizens, the lawsuit also names Director of California\nDepartment of Motor Vehicles Steve Gordon as a defendant.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the state law stipulates the Secretary of State is \u201csolely responsible for determining eligibility for voter registration,\u201d Padilla\u2019s office has argued in previous exchanges with the plaintiffs that it simply requires voters to attest to their voting eligibility, according to KQED News<\/a>. Under California\u2019s law, an individual is automatically registered to vote unless they opt out of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padilla issued a statement in which he claimed\nDhillon\u2019s argument was \u201ca fundamental misrepresentation\u201d of the National Motor\nVoter Registration Act (NVRA) and \u201cnothing more than an underhanded attempt [by\nRepublicans]to bring their voter suppression playbook to California.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padilla\u2019s desire to deflect scrutiny away from the\nmotor voter program is understandable, but indefensible, considering its\nextremely flawed history, including a damning audit released weeks before the\nlawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audit<\/a>, which was completed in March but released in August, found nearly 84,000 duplicate records and twice that number of political party mistakes in the five months of the program that were examined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns about the potential for inadvertent or\nintentional voter fraud were raised even before April 2018 when the program\nstarted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to The Modesto Bee,<\/a> prior to the April 2018 launch, concerns were brought to the attention of state officials, including Padilla, but they chose to go ahead anyway. It was subsequently discovered<\/a> that at least six ineligible voters cast ballots in the June 2018 primary and two of those individuals managed to vote in the November general election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean Logan, registrar for Los Angeles County, said\nthere \u201cwasn\u2019t the appropriate readiness to go forward in April\u201d and that issue\nwas shared with the Secretary of State,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2018, officials from California\u2019s DMV and Department of Technology conceded in a letter<\/a> to Padilla that as many as 1,500 people, including non-citizens, had been improperly registered to vote. The errors happened when DMV customers mistakenly \u2013 not intentionally – filled in the wrong voter eligibility response on their applications. The mistakes were brought to the attention of DMV staff, but were not correctly logged, according to the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just last April, the Los Angeles Times <\/a>reported<\/a> that the DMV\u2019s registration system had been hacked too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While other responsible public servants might put\nmotor voter on hold or simply consider working to fix the existing problems,\nAlex Padilla is choosing to remain willfully blind to the potential for fraud<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In boasting of the state\u2019s aggressive drive to pre-register teens to vote, Padilla recently boasted to Teen Vogue<\/a> that the state is moving forward on plans to pre-register 16- and 17-year-olds when they \u201capply for or renew their driver\u2019s license or their state ID through the DMV.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, let\u2019s get an early start on voter fraud. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2015, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla proudly proclaimed that legislation he sponsored \u2013 the California New Motor Voter Act – would \u201cmake our democracy stronger\u201d by allowing millions of \u201ccitizens\u201d to be automatically registered to vote when applying for a state ID or driver\u2019s license. In fact, according to a lawsuit filed last<\/p>\n

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