Hundreds of Cali voters being registered under the wrong party, ‘could disproportionately hurt’ GOP

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Thanks to Democrats, besides funneling taxpayer money to illegal aliens and enacting draconian gun legislation, California’s local government may be behind, intentional or not, voters’ registration information being changed without consent.

According to reports, these registration errors are most likely to hurt Republicans.

“At least 600 Californians, including lifelong Republicans and Democrats, have had their voter registration unexpectedly changed, and several county elections officials are pinning much of the blame on the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles,” The Sacramento Bee confirmed this week.

Election officials reportedly blame the fiasco on a program instituted by the state’s Democrat lawmakers that forces DMVs across the state to automatically register everybody who shows up at their offices. Except that in the case of already registered visitors, it appears to be changing their registration status to “No Party Preference.”

“The no party preference default could disproportionately hurt Republicans, because the party operates under a closed primary system that prohibits people from voting in their primary unless they are explicitly registered with their party,” the Bee notes.

“Meanwhile, the Democratic, Libertarian and American Independent parties allow no party preference voters to request a ballot to participate in their open primary system.”

This is one of a large number of scandals that have rocked California’s DMV over the past couple of years:

One of the latest victims has been the daughter of Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove.

“Grove’s daughter had recently visited the Department of Motor Vehicles to change her address,” the Bee reported. “Shortly thereafter, Sacramento County sent her a postcard informing her she is now registered as a ‘No Party Preference’ voter ahead of California’s March 3, 2020 presidential primary.”

Janna Haynes, the public information officer for Sacramento County Voter Registration & Elections, said that while “this kind of issue” has been experienced in the past due because of either voters or election workers inaccurately entering data, the abundance of complaints this year suggests something is up.

“There does seem to be a correlation,” she said. “We have experienced this kind of issue in the past, but there does seem to be an increase.”

The Bee obtained confirmations of discrepancies from three counties: 300 discrepancies in Santa Clara County, 200 discrepancies in Sacramento County,  and 100 discrepancies in Shasta County. Assuming the problem extends statewide, the total number of voters who’ve experienced a change in their registration status could be far higher.

And as it stands, the only option for those affected is to simply re-register:

State Republicans have been critical of the California Motor Voter Program, as it’s called, since day one, though their criticisms ballooned after the 2018 midterm elections.

A month after the election, state Sen. Pat Bates introduced a bill to end the program altogether and also called for an independent audit. While the bill clearly never made it through the state Senate, she did get her audit — and it proved to be devastating.

“California’s ambitious effort to automate voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicle offices produced almost 84,000 duplicate records and more than twice that number with political party mistakes, according to an audit released Friday by state officials,” the Los Angeles Times confirmed this past August.

“The analysis covered just the first five months of the new ‘motor voter’ program, which was launched in April 2018. It found a wide array of problems with the rollout of the DMV system, including a limited amount of testing as well as inconsistent and confusing lines of communication between the state agencies involved in its creation.”

Since the audit’s publication, state Republicans have redoubled their complaints, with one lawyer (not lawmaker) going so far as to sue California and its Department of Motor Vehicles in October over a related matter.

Not only has the California Motor Voter Program been changing the registration details of state voters, but it’s also been registering illegal aliens, Republican lawyer Harmeet Dhillon alleged in her suit.

“California refuses to use the data in its possession, to determine citizenship eligibility, which is a prerequisite to vote in all federal elections,” she said in a press conference at the time. “This is a nonpartisan issue, we believe it affects people across the board, and it’s important that our rolls be accurate.”

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Fast-forwarding back to the present, Republicans believe the latest findings are just further proof that the California Motor Voter Program is highly flawed.

“This is just another example that the program wasn’t ready for the prime time,” California GOP chairwoman Jessica Patterson said to the Bee.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, has dismissed the concerns of state Republicans and their constituents.

“Despite recent claims, there is no widespread glitch with the California Motor Voter program changing voters’ party affiliation,” he claimed in a statement this week.

He added that “[a]ssigning blame for alleged mass voter registration errors without evidence is irresponsible and undermines public confidence in our elections.”

Apparently, he doesn’t view the audit as legitimate evidence.

Nor does he seem to care about the experiences of California Democrats and Republicans alike:

“If a voter believes there may be an issue with their registration, they should contact the Secretary of State or their county elections office to research their voter registration history. In nearly every case, there is a reasonable explanation for any changes to a voter’s registration record,” his dismissive statement continued.

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Vivek Saxena

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