EVERY LAWFULLY CAST VOTE ACCURATELY COUNTED

Transcription

1 EVERY LAWFULLY CAST VOTE ACCURATELY COUNTED

2 July 2017 Election Integrity Project, Inc. (EIP) is a non-partisan, volunteer citizen organization that advocates for fair and honest elections in CA. We are funded by donations of time and money from volunteers. We purchase and analyze CA voter lists and report list irregularities to officials for investigation. We also train election observers in state and federal election laws and deploy them across the state. Our observers document their Election Day observations via written Incident Reports, signed under penalty of perjury.

3 The Election Integrity Project, Inc. (EIP) of California has spent the last six and half years researching the issues of California s electoral process and have deep concerns about the lack of integrity in the system. California is the largest voting state in the nation. It has 55 Electoral College votes and 53 Congressional seats. Yet for reasons I will explain in this talk, its voting is dangerously unconstrained, with few safeguards to protect lawful voters.

4 NVRA requires all people interacting with government agencies to be offered a voter registration form CA eliminates voter ID - facilitating voter impersonation CA changes from Absentee Ballot to Permanent Vote-by-Mail HAVA is passed. CA out of compliance 14 years while expanding use of provisional ballot beyond all reasonable boundaries CA enables non-citizens to be poll workers while not relinquishing allegiance to their native country, allegiance to their leaders, or swearing allegiance to the United States 2014 California begins issuing licenses to non-citizens 2014 VBM ballots may arrive up to 3 days late without postmark Many counties cleared for all VBM elections for special elections CA passes AB 1461: voter registration becomes an opt-out process at DMV while applying for driver s license

5 CA passes bill to allow 8 additional days after Election Day to sign Vote-by-Mail ballot (signature can be done remotely online rather than on actual ballot) 2015 California s Election Integrity Project research and documentation triggers hearing by U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Regional Director states citizen testimony and documentation extremely troubling; hearings should be held in other states Regional Director removed Required report heavily redacted, generalized, appears to have been buried entirely CA passes SB450, essentially legalizes ballot harvesting; removes the right to vote in person CA allowing voters to photograph their voted ballot & post it on social media making pay for vote possible CA passes bill allowing voters to submit their mail ballots to polling places anywhere in the state requiring ROVs to find and forward those ballots to the proper county within 8 days.

6 Statewide Voter Database (HAVA Sec. 303) 2005 HAVA MOA with the Department of Justice, required development of a HAVA-compliant state database be expedited and have the most rapid possible completion, yet due to numerous delays, the new VoteCal database was not completed until June 2016, almost 11 years later Deceased and Duplicate Voting (HAVA Sec. 905 (a)) Despite penalties for vote fraud contained in HAVA Sec. 905 (a), EIP has had little response from officials, and only two referrals to law enforcement of the 3,600 suspected crimes submitted.

7 Election Official Training (HAVA Sec. 101 (b)(d), 241(b)(8) funding for election official training and Sec. 241 requires periodic studies be conducted on improving poll worker performance over two-thirds of Election Day incidents reported by thousands of EIP poll observers in the 2012 and 2014 federal elections reflect insufficient poll worker training or ignoring the training October, 2013 EIP met with the Deputy Secretary of State and the Secretary s Chief Counsel re: non-compliance with HAVA and the California election code. EIP specifically told that the Secretary has no line authority over county election officials and the Secretary s position is limited to advisory direction only. HAVA and the CA Government Code section (a) states that The Secretary of State shall administer the provisions of the elections code...and see...state election laws are enforced.

8 THE EIP NETWORK Observation Teams Alameda Contra Costa Fresno Kern Los Angeles Monterey Nevada Orange Placer Riverside Sacramento in 2012 Primary Election San Bernardino San Diego San Joaquin Santa Barbara Santa Clara Shasta Stanislaus Solano Tulare Ventura Added For The General Election

9 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PRELIMINARY REPORT Check-in violations Ballot and voter registration issues Poll worker training/ qualification issues Polling place/voting equipment issues Voter privacy issues and more ' "()(#*+, #-. ")#/!""#$%&

10 AREAS OF UNCERTAINTY IN THE ELECTION PROCESS PROVISIONAL BALLOTS VULNERABLE POPULATIONS VOTE BY MAIL POLL WORKERS REGISTRATION

11 THE PROBLEM Noncompliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). No Statewide Data Base. CalVote - cross-county data verification questionable. Accurate and timely list maintenance is required by federal NVRA law, yet it appears that our state is in serious violation. Duplicates, multiples, deceased and other illegitimate registrations on our voter rolls. Hundreds of thousands of inactive registrants are on the voter rolls. Inactive voters are easy to impersonate since they will not notice someone voting in their name.

12 THE PROBLEM MOCK-UP OF SAME ADDRESS DUPLICATES Affidavit Number Registration Date First Name Middle Name Last Name Address City County Birth Date Birthplace AC /12/01 James Eric Hilton 123 Palm St. NG /1/12 Jim Hilton 123 Palm St. Fresno Fresno 4/2/57 MN Fresno Fresno 4/2/58 MN CF /1/12 George E Jones 4 Elm St. Clovis Fresno 12/23/48 MX NG /1/12 Jorge Emilio Jones 4 Elm St. Clovis Fresno 11/23/48 MX FR /23/88 Johnson F Susan 2 Pine St. Selma Fresno 5/16/77 CA NG /1/12 Susan Frances Johnson 2 Pine St. Selma Fresno 5/16/77 CA Note slight birthdate changes and name flip. Note related affidavit numbers and registration dates for the second registration, suggesting an organized effort to duplicate voters. Not real voter information, but based on real occurrences

13 THE PROBLEM Registration Fraud. EIP has clear evidence of circulators fraudulently duplicating voters and changing party affiliations and signatures. EIP receives calls from people telling us that they are receiving campaign calls from candidates in counties where they have never lived and have never registered to vote. EIP is pursuing a 2010 registration fraud case and preparing a 2012 case in one county, but we need more legislative and legal attention to this problem state wide to prevent it in the future.

14 The solution is citizen involvement. Adopt a Poll Program trained Poll Workers and Inspectors will be able to ensure the laws are being followed so that voters cannot be impersonated. Watch the Polls Poll Waters, trained by EIP in the election laws, will be able to contact the Party Headquarters. Signature Verification This is a critical position. Watch the process during the vote count. Volunteer to be the person verifying the signature.

15 WHAT S NEXT? LEGISLATE Support legislation that promotes integrity COMMUNICATE Network across the state EDUCATE Equip citizens to be involved LITIGATE Support public interest litigation

16 WHAT CAN I DO? SPREAD THE WORD BECOME A VOLUNTEER MAKE A DONATION Website: On Facebook: electionintegrityproject On