Show Notes
Last week the state of New Jersey admitted that 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote in the Garden State, and that many hundreds of them voted in the last election. So, what might be going on in other states?
At first, New Jersey’s Democratic governor tried to blame it on a “software error” by the system used at the state’s motor vehicle offices, but the software company (IDEMIA) pushed back strongly, saying it is the state’s job to verify the citizenship of someone who indicates on a driver’s license application that they also wish to register to vote.
“IDEMIA’s role is to transmit information through the motor vehicle system. The voter registration information is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote,” the company responded.
Meanwhile, across the country, “In California, you ‘pinky promise’ that you’re a citizen,” says On Background host Susan Crabtree, a longtime investigative reporter and state resident. “You just scroll and hit ‘Yes, I am a citizen.’ You provide no proof when you sign up to vote in California,” she says.
California, New Jersey, and several other states are under fire from the Trump administration for their lackluster effort to ensure only American citizens can register. “It’s beyond ridiculous. And it is a huge problem in California,” Crabtree says on the most recent episode.
The Trump administration is pressing for congressional passage of the SAVE Act, which would require proof of US citizenship to register to vote in any state, and require voters to show a photo ID to cast a ballot. The Department of Homeland Security crosschecked full voter rolls from many but not all states with its own records of non-citizens in the country. DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin sent states a warning based on those findings that as many as 278,000 non-citizens may be registered to vote.
“They sent a letter to New Jersey saying, ‘we believe we found up to 35,000 people, at least 19,000, who have the same name, birth date, and social security number as people in the DHS system that are non-citizens that we believe are registered to vote in your state,’” says co-host Eric Eggers. New Jersey first denied it, then the governor confessed to finding 6,600 through their own verification.
Is the California situation potentially worse?
“I think it is it is intentional to allow illegal immigrants to vote,” Crabtree says, “and I don’t say that lightly.” She reported last month that California has spent $1 billion on services for illegal immigrants, “including keeping them from being deported. Our tax dollars are providing lawyers to keep illegal immigrants from being deported,” she says. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee to succeed Gavin Newsom as governor, has family members who work for an organization that have received $100 million of those funds to provide legal services to illegal immigrants, even those who have been convicted of a felony.
“Why would the Democrats want to keep them from voting? They know that the majority of illegal immigrants in California, because they’re being supported by the system out here that serves as a huge magnet… There’s no desire on the part of the California government to ferret this out.”
“There’s a big drive right now by Republicans and conservatives in California” for a similar ballot initiative in that state this November, Crabtree says. But she noted the state’s Democratic-controlled government, especially state Attorney General Steve Bonta, are fighting it. Bonta, as attorney general, has even changed the name of the ballot initiative.
The original title for the measure was, “ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.”
Bonta ordered it changed to read, “PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING UNLESS THEY PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION.”
“You have to tip your hat to them,” Eggers says ruefully. “It’s quite clever.”
The initiative’s main backer is Carl DiMaio, who is legally challenging Bonta’s attempted “wordsmithing.” Crabtree notes that his group, “Reform California,” is better funded than most conservative organizations in the state.
“They’re using the same firm that represented the California Republican Party on Prop 50 to try to fight that,” Crabtree notes, “but they were they were unsuccessful in that. It’s an uphill battle in California to fight these things because the Democrats control the Secretary of State and the governor’s office.”
