Lawmakers’ Request for Audit of California DMV
Killed Despite Suspicion of Election Fraud. DMV’s Motor Voter registration program impacts federal elections, by Katy
Grimes, 7/1/19.
In January we learned that the Department of Motor
Vehicles and county voter registrars told the California Secretary of State
Alex Padillalast
year that the motor Voter program was not ready. Motor Voter automatically registers voters when they renew or obtain a
drivers license. The DMV and registrars asked Secretary Padilla to hold off on
the roll-out. But Padilla and the state went ahead anyway.
The new system had not
been properly checked, according to the county voter registrars. They had valid
concerns, said Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno). “The people of California
are suffering with the DMV and it’s 1980’s technology,” Patterson said.
California’s Motor Voter
program has been plagued
with problems since its rollout in April 2018. The
Department has admitted mishandling voter registration information for 23,000
drivers and double-registering as many as 77,000 others. In addition to this,
as many as 1,500 ineligible voters were registered by the DMV – including an
unknown number of non-citizens. Also, over 500 Californians may not have been
able to vote in the November 2018 election because the DMV did not send their
information to the Secretary of State’s office in time.
Patterson said his
office is still getting reports from constituents whose Party registration was
changed after a visit to the DMV. “This is how ballot harvesting is happening,”
Patterson said.
Patterson is a member of
the Joint Legislative Audit
Committee, and
has been pushing for a bipartisan audit of the DMV, including the Motor Voter
Program. Assemblyman Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) and Patterson made the
bipartisan request to audit the DMV Motor Voter Program of the Joint
Legislative Audit Committee at a special hearing in May.
Last week Democrats on
the JLAC committee declined to
authorize an audit, despite
concerns of voter fraud within the Motor Voter program. In addition to
registering illegal aliens to vote, “a number of families with 16-year-olds are
getting registered to vote – not just pre-registered, as legislated,”
Assemblyman Patterson said in an interview with California Globe.
“The SEIU intervened on the
audit request, and let the governor know, as they did with Gov. Brown, they
didn’t want it moving forward,” Assemblyman Jim Patterson said. “They were
really worried about the motor voter program and what would be found. The
ruling Party didn’t want to have to explain the screw up of Motor Voter or even
the Real ID program,” Patterson added.
By March, 2018, more than one million “undocumented”
immigrants received
driver’s licenses from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, which
automatically registered them to vote under the “Motor Voter” program, California Globe reported. “Last September, the DMV sent
out 23,000 “erroneous” voter registrations they blamed on ‘technical errors.
Padilla proclaimed himself ‘extremely disappointed and deeply frustrated’ but
legitimate voters could believe he was delighted. The odds are strong that
illegals made up most if not all of the newly registered voters but Padilla
wasn’t saying how many made it to the polls in November.”
“I am very disappointed
that State Auditor Elaine Howle was not given a green light of an audit focus on Motor
Voter… we were getting closer to having the Department of Technology, the Secretary of State, and DMV scrutinized,”
Patterson said. He explained that is is constitutional to audit the Secretary
of State, a Constitutional officer.
Patterson said he and
Salas were given the same excuse as he received in audit requests and denials
of the High Speed Rail system: “it’s premature – too early.” Patterson said
Democrats want Governor Gavin
Newsom’s appointed DMV strike force to
complete their investigation, as well as Ernst & Young’s audit to be
completed, prior authorizing Elaine Howle to do one. “What Elaine Howle
provides is an absolute independent look at reality,” Patterson said. “She is
not attached to the (Newsom) administration.”
Patterson said Sen.
Richard Roth (D-Riverside), the JLAC Committee Vice Chairman who voted “NO” on
the audit request, made it clear to him that he would seriously look at an
audit after the DMV strike team and Ernst & Young complete their report.
“It
took me three years to get the High Speed Rail audit,” Patterson said. “I think
this will happen. But they don’t want to know the truth. Sooner or later the
mess at the DMV will be audited.”
Patterson said several
in the media, including California
Globe, are not letting the need for a DMV audit go. “They are
smelling something really wrong,” he said. “There is political danger when Elaine
Howle is turned loose on the High Speed Rail, the University
of California and others.
Rudy Salas and I will continue. This was a setback, but I will be back with
another audit request, because until it happens, we are denying the Legislature
and the people of California the one independent auditor.” “Like High Speed
Rail, the problems with the DMV will be so self-evident,” Patterson added.
California’s Motor Voter
issues are also under scrutiny because California officials moved up the state
primary election from June to March. The goal was to be an influencer in
determining the Democratic nomination for president. And because of the impact
on federal elections, California is under a microscope, making the audit more
important than ever, according to Patterson.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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