As if there weren’t already enough voter registration problems in California, a glitch with the new registration system through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has made matters worse. Due to a software error, approximately 77,000 voter records have been compromised.
The error caused voters to receive two voter registration cards for each person. If the problem isn’t corrected, voters could be prevented from casting “party-specific votes or even cause two ballots to be issued to a voter.”
Yet More Scrutiny
It is quite the headache in a state that’s already been heavily scrutinized. Liberty Nation reported in December that California’s lawmakers have found themselves slapped with a lawsuit regarding their voter registration lists and their refusal to hand over voter information. Judicial Watch, a Washington-based activist group, filed the lawsuit.
Now state election officials are scrambling to correct this newest problem, just weeks before the mid-term elections. "We don't have the time to be researching this, but we have to because we're being thrown into it," said Kammi Foote, registrar of voters in Inyo County.
The state elections offices started receiving the double-forms about a month ago. The Los Angeles Times sampled some of the forms and said, “citizens who were listed as a member of a political party on the first registration document were instead listed as an unaffiliated "no party preference" voter on a second document that arrived a week later.”
"This is not an issue of duplicate registrations, but multiple feeds on the same voter," said Dean Logan, registrar of voters in Los Angeles County.
Voter Drive
The California Motor Voter program was signed into law in 2015 and made voter registration a part of the DMV’s driver license process. The idea was to make it easier for first-time voters to register. Although registering to vote is not required, individuals have to manually opt out of registering via a touchscreen system. Thankfully, although illegal aliens can get a license, they are not able to register to vote… yet. But, we have to remember this is a sanctuary state, and officials in the Golden State are quick to do whatever they can to promote this status.
The program went live on April 23 without public notification. Apparently, the hope was to gain new voters before the upcoming elections.
"My duty and responsibility as secretary of state, along with the elections officials in each of the 58 counties, is to do what we can to increase registration rates and participation rates," Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) said.
Well, that has certainly been accomplished, but the headache caused by the new program could beget even more inquiry into the state’s voter registration process and lists. The program did achieve its goal to register new voters as there are nearly 71,000 new registrations so far. While it is always a good thing to get new voters to participate in elections, the double-forms are a bit concerning in regards to election results.
Fast and Furious is not the best way to proceed – leave that to the Hollywood experts. When it comes to voting, taking the time to make sure that the registration and voting process is as error-free as possible is a must. Let’s just hope the problem is fixed quickly and accurately, and that outside officials use a high-powered microscope to verify the results.
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