California Sec of State Issues 14 ‘Emergency’ Regulations for Election, Weakening Security
October 13, 2020 by Jennifer Van Laar
On September 28, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D-OfCourse) issued 14 new “emergency” regulations pertaining to the November general election, in which all registered voters in the state — in addition to lots of dead residents and those who’ve moved away — have been sent vote-by-mail ballots. The regulations make it more likely that invalid votes will be counted and increase restrictions on official observers.
Padilla’s office didn’t post the proposed regulations to the Secretary of State website until September 25, which is outside the five-day limit for public comment, according to Election Integrity Project California. . . .
. . . Just how ridiculous are these new regulations? Again from
EIP-CA:
Now a voter does not even need a genuine ballot, but can just mark up a sample ballot, or scrawl votes on a “letter or note”. A diligent fraudster can stuff one barcoded ballot return envelope with as many notecard ballots as will fit, and scribble names and signatures of additional voters somewhere on the envelope. [20991(b)(11)]. Because signature verification has been weakened, such fraud could well succeed.
The new Regulation 20940(j) imposes a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard for determining that a voter’s signature on the envelope and their registration card do not match AND requires that two election judges agree that they do not match beyond a reasonable doubt. This makes it more likely that fraudulent ballots will not be rejected, especially since all of the regulations are to be liberally construed in favor of the voter. Upholding a vigorous standard for signature matching doesn’t run the risk of disenfranchising voters since the “curing” provides that no ballot can be rejected without notifying the voter and offering an opportunity for that voter to verify the ballot. . . .
