By Michael Hernandez
OXNARD—“California elections can be manipulated and the election process has become corrupt,” said President and Co-Founder Linda Paine at the POV reception for Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) in Ventura County held at the Channel Islands Yacht Club. “Citizens are losing their voice in government.”
The EIPCa reception attended by nearly 100 had a theme of “Liberty and Freedom start with honest elections.” Ventura County cities include: Ojai, Oak View, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, Somis, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Oak Park and Agoura Hills.
POV (Point of View—which originally stood for Port Hueneme, Oxnard, Ventura) who hosted the event is also a grass root nonpartisan organization. They distributed a flyer calling for a California Photo Voter ID Ballot Initiative. For more information go to: https://cavoterid.com.
Available at the EIPCa Ventura County reception was a publication produced by Election Integrity Project and Judicial Watch entitled: “8 Things You Can Do Now to Help Stop Voter Fraud” which included 38 states with counties either near or exceeding 100 percent registration as well as 10 counties in California listed.
Emcee of the EIPCa reception was David Cruz from Salem Radio. The invocation was given by Rev. Jorge Mejia of Santa Clara Catholic Church with special music provided by Andrew Perracca, musical director for Our Lady of Assumption in Ventura. The pledge was led by investment advisory and retired CPA Jeff Burum of Oxnard. Also speaking was EIP Vice President Ruth Weiss, the Honorable Judge Steven Bailey and Ventura County EIPCa coordinator Gloria Chinea of Oxnard. Also participating was Mrs. VC Elizabeth Powell. A fundraising appeal was made by retired banker Barbara Sponsler of Newbury Park and the closing prayer given by Oxnard veteran Joseph Neal of the Department of Defense. The event organizer was Gloria Chinea.
“It was an exhilarating to see the amount of diversity in room and those interested in information about having honesty and integrity in the elections. People were not aware of the election anomalies in California and Ventura County,” said Chinea.
The Election Integrity Project California is a non-partisan group of U.S. citizen volunteers actively participating in the governing of the state and nation by helping to defend the integrity of the voting process that protects freedoms and the America way of life through the right to choose representatives by “fair and honest elections.”
EIP was founded in December, 2010 and the Election Integrity Project California, a nonprofit tax-exempt nonpartisan California public benefit corporation was founded on July 21, 2017. EIPCa volunteers observe California election, study and review the extensive California Election Code as well as federal election laws that govern election processes. The non-profit researches voter rolls in multiple counties as well as VoteCal, the new statewide voter registration database. EIPCa is the first citizen watchdog organization in California and has established a baseline of how California counties are implementing electoral procedures.
In 2012, EIP trained 2,100 volunteers to observe the polls in 36 counties. The following issues were identified in 2012 and in every election since:
- Provisional Ballots:
- 2012: California cast approximately 40 percent of all provisional ballots nationwide;
- 2016: California cast approximately 60 percent of all Provisional ballots nationwide; and
- 2018: California cast approximately 70 percent of all Provisional ballots nationwide.
- Vote by Mail: Ballots submitted in envelopes must be “processed” and are handled by large numbers of people, making them easy to manipulate by those who have a political agenda;
- Vulnerable Populations: Seniors, college students and non-citizens;
- Voter Rolls not maintained: duplicates, deceased people who moved, non-citizen registrations, inactive voters on the active list, voter impersonation facilitated by lack of photo Voter ID requirement; and
- Poll Workers: Not trained in election laws. Easily manipulated and intimidated. “County poll workers know how to set up the voting booth and manage elections but they do not know election law making them vulnerable to manipulation by those who know the loopholes,” said Paine.
According to Paine, “Citizen Action is the best way to address ballot harvesting concerns” which was legalized in California after Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1921 which allows “any person to collect a vote-by-mail ballot from an eligible voter and turn in the ballot to a polling place or a registrar of voter’s office.” The only restriction written into the law was prohibiting the compensation of an individual based on the number of ballots that person returns (but not on being paid a hourly or other type of stipend).
“Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) is concerned with the loss of chain of custody of the ballot resulting in loss of integrity of voting with a vote-by-mail ballot. EPICa urges all concerned California citizens to remove themselves from the Permanent Vote-by-Mail list (if possible) and vote in person on Election Day.”
“In person, Election Day ballots are by far the most difficult to manipulate. An in-person, Election Day ballot cannot be harvested, either legally or illegally, nor changed, ‘lost or misdirected’ or rejected. If enough Californians wisely reclaim their right and responsibility to vote in person, the ballot harvesting industry is effectively crippled.
“Because the deceptively-named Voter’s Choice Act (VCA), is irrevocably (though unnecessarily) tied to sending a mail-in ballot to every registrant on the county voter rolls, EIPCa also implores you to fight the implementation of the VCA in your county.
“Until all counties are complying with federal law to maintain accurate voter rolls devoid of deceased, duplicates, inactive voters and non-citizens, implementation of the Voter’s Choice Act is tantamount to incentivizing and disguising election manipulation, violating the Civil Rights of every California citizen.”
The federal penalty for casting a fraudulent voter is up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for each act. States often impose additional penalties. Non-citizens who knowingly vote may also face deportation—they have committed a crime and will be denied citizenship. “The Constitution of all 50 states clearly mandates that voting is a privilege and a right given only to legal citizens.” Non-citizens, whether permanent or temporary residents, regardless of their property ownership or tax payment status, may not participate as voters in any federal or state election.
Election Integrity Project has trained over 10,000 citizens to observe, document and research California elections. EIPCa recently partnered with Washington D.C. based legal group Judicial Watch in a lawsuit against California’s Secretary of State and Los Angeles County with the county offering to remove up to 1.5 million inactive registrants from its voter list.
EIPCa has targeted six counties in which to pay special attention to the county election policies and procedures. They include: Marin, San Francisco, Fresno, Tulare, Orange and Ventura (the only county wishing to charge EIPCa for the requested records).
EIPCa has a four-fold mission to: 1) Legislate (support legislation that promotes integrity) 2) Communicate (network across the state) 3) Educate (equip citizens to be involved and 4) Litigate (support public interest litigation).
Director of Legislative Oversight is Ruth Weiss, EIPCa vice president. Five election laws have passed in 2019, nine more bills are in process (with EIPCa filing letters) with seven constitutional amendments also in process.
“Get involved with EIPCa or as a concerned citizen,” said Paine. “Let others know of the dangers of voting by mail and change your registration to vote in person. Check your registration to be sure it has not been changed on a regular basis.”
Areas of assistance needed include: regional and assistant coordinators, county and assistant coordinators, community and assistant coordinators, observers at polls or vote centers, and observers for the processing of ballots. Volunteers are divided into observer trainers, administrative support, media and social media teams, legislation research teams, and data analysis teams.
“We need your money. We need your help.”
(Editor’s Note: To find out more about EIPCa go to: https://www.eip-ca.com/.)
Michael Hernandez, co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service, founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher. He is editor of History Makers Report and can be contacted by email at [email protected]
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