by Ruth Weiss, EIPCa Director of Legislative Oversigh
AB 860 has made it to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
GOOD NEWS: Regardless of the shameless rejection and spurious excuses offered in response to our request and Senator Nielsen’s offered amendment forbidding the mailing of ballots to inactive voters, the combined pressure of two lawsuits, EIPCa (and all of you!) and some behind the scenes activism by one or more “friendly” senators recruited by EIPCa moved the needle.
Yesterday the governor released a supplemental Executive Order with that specific prohibition and this morning the same amendment appeared in AB 860: (j) … nothing in this act is intended, and shall not be construed, to mean that a voter with an inactive voter registration status shall receive a vote by mail ballot for the November 3, 2020, statewide general election.
While it is true that hearts, minds and votes are rarely, if ever, immediately changed by citizen input at a public hearing of any kind, the voices are still heard, and in this case wisdom prevailed.
We must not stop now.
It is still vital that the message be received that if ballots are to be mailed to all registered voters, the rolls MUST be as clean as possible. We have sent a new letter of opposition to the Appropriations Committee highlighting not only the potential for fraud but also the waste of taxpayers’ money in sending close to half a million ballots to addresses with no likely legitimate recipient.
If you are a constituent of one of the members of the committee, consider sending an email or making a phone call to your representative. Members are Senators Anthony J. Portantino (Chair). Patricia C. Bates (Vice Chair), Steven Bradford, Jerry Hill, Brian Jones, Connie Leyva and Bob Wieckowski.
PLEASE call in to the hearing at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 9. The call-in number will be posted on Monday, June 8, at https://sapro.senate.ca.gov/billhearings.
Call in early to avoid technological glitches. If you are told the meeting is full, continue to try back-the problem WILL be fixed.
Keep the pressure on. Talk to you on Tuesday.
Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE
- Advertisement -
