As California continues counting votes from this week&#8217;s primary elections, the Department of Justice has launched multiple investigations into potential election fraud and plans to audit the state&#8217;s voter rolls.  
Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, announced the investigations Friday, saying his office is working with the FBI. 
“We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent,” Essayli posted on X.
Essayli also said the Justice Department intends to audit California&#8217;s voter rolls. 
“The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote,” he wrote. “This case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Protecting the integrity of California’s elections is a top priority for my office.
California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding…
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/2062889608787161176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A federal prosecutor also visited the Los Angeles County ballot processing center on Friday, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/doj-office-investigations-california-elections-trump-claims-cheating-rcna348746">according</a> to NBC News. A county spokesperson told the outlet the prosecutor participated in a walkthrough of ballot-processing operations, which are open to public observation.
The developments come as California election officials continue tabulating millions of outstanding ballots.
President Donald Trump accused California Democrats of attempting to “steal” elections multiple times this week, citing the state&#8217;s lengthy vote-counting process. Two big races remain unresolved: the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral elections. 
“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116693025089379568">wrote</a> on Truth Social Thursday.
With 68% of the gubernatorial vote <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/california-governor-results">reported</a> as of Saturday morning, Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the November runoff in the general election with 26.78% of the vote. His opponent is still unknown, but Republican Steve Hilton narrowly trails Becerra with 26.35% support. Both were ahead of Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer, who is at 21.05%. Under California&#8217;s top-two primary system, candidates from the same party can advance to the runoff if they finish in first and second in the primary.
In the Los Angeles mayoral election, incumbent Democrat Mayor Karen Bass has been projected to advance to a runoff in the general election. As of Saturday morning, Bass has received 35.0% of the vote, with 71% of the vote <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/los-angeles-mayor-results">counted</a>.
Republican challenger Spencer Pratt is still in second with 28.2%, ahead of far-left Democrat Nithya Raman, who has been <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-mayor-election-spencer-pratt-nithya-raman/3900642/">closing in</a> on Pratt in recent days. She currently has 24.9% support.
In the L.A. mayoral race, two members of the same party can advance to the general election if neither receives more than 50% of the vote. Around three million votes have yet to be counted, and the state has 35 days for counties to process ballots, verify signatures, and let voters cure defective ballots.

U.S. DOJ Sends Observer To Watch California Primary Ballot Processing

DOJ Investigates California Election As Trump Warns Democrats Are Trying To ‘Steal’ It

California

Donald Trump

Election Fraud

Elections

Karen Bass

Nithya Raman

Politics

Spencer Pratt

steve hilton

Tom Steyer

Vote Fraud

Xavier Becerra

Something strange happened overnight in Los Angeles, and the internet <a href="https://x.com/Milajoy/status/2062639953792897268">noticed</a>.
Karen Bass and Nithya Raman each saw their vote totals surge by over 10,000 votes while the sun was down and people were asleep. Meanwhile, Spencer Pratt, the only candidate with a coherent plan to rescue a city drowning in vagrancy, methamphetamine, fire, and fecal matter, apparently received zero votes out of more than 20,000 cast.
Zero. Not one. Statistically, that is not an anomaly. That is an impossibility.
As for the gubernatorial race: days after election night, only 60% of ballots have been counted, with several million votes still outstanding. We do not yet know which mayoral or gubernatorial candidates will advance to the runoff. We may not know for weeks. Or months. Or, at the rate California operates, sometime before the next Ice Age.
California&#8217;s voting system is not broken by accident. It is meticulously designed to corrode public trust, and it is succeeding. Here is exactly how they did it.
California operates the most mail-in-dependent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-is-notoriously-slow-for-counting-elections-heres-why?row=0&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;rowType=Web+Search+Overlay">voting system</a> in the country. Every registered voter automatically receives a ballot. Ballots can be postmarked on election day itself and still accepted up to seven days later. Counties then have weeks to verify signatures and process returns. &#8220;Election Day&#8221; in California is less of a civic event and more of a suggestion, a starting pistol for a bureaucratic marathon that ends whenever the state decides it&#8217;s done.
California must have a case of dyslexia like their governor, Gavin Newscum, because they saw “Election Day” and read “months.”
The predictable consequence, which is not a coincidence, is that Republicans routinely lead on election night, only to watch their margins dissolve as weeks of late mail-in ballots roll in and &#8220;flip&#8221; the race.
It tends to feel like officials just wait to call elections until enough of their blue mail-in ballots come through the mail. Whether that is intentional coordination or simply negligent design that consistently benefits one party is, at this point, a distinction without a difference.
<a href="https://x.com/RonDeSantis/status/2062336024022274241">Florida</a> processes over 10 million votes in a single evening with paper ballots and same-day results. California, home of Silicon Valley, Stanford, and the most vaunted tech economy on the planet, cannot finalize an election before the next one is scheduled.
The state that puts a computer in your pocket cannot count ballots in a week.
In a world where you can design elections for speed and trust, it raises the question of why you wouldn’t, unless you had ill intentions, which California Democrats do.
They’ve rigged election law to favor their own candidates, and the machine is able to coordinate its institutions and nonprofit apparatus to reap votes. It’s legalized and sophisticated fraud. We’re watching it happen.
They’ve perfected the ballot harvesting game, where a third party can collect and submit an unlimited number of ballots with almost no oversight. Unions, Democratic Socialists of America chapters, activist networks, homeless-service groups, and the entire institutional apparatus of the California Left operate sophisticated, well-funded, voter-contact operations that collect and deliver ballots at scale.
They know exactly which precincts to target, which populations to harvest, and precisely when to submit to maximize impact.
They could just channel this energy towards, I don’t know, simply putting up normal candidates, but that would apparently be insane.
Republicans, who do not have an equivalent organizational infrastructure in California and who remain ideologically skeptical of the practice itself, cannot match this.
The asymmetry is not incidental. The rules were written by the people who benefit from them.
Layered on top of this is no voter ID requirement for mail ballots and signature verification that is often rubber-stamped under pressure, and you get a system where people counting and delivering votes have more power than the voters themselves.
Democrats in California do not need to be compelling, charismatic, or responsive to constituent concerns. They do not need innovative policy, persuasive messaging, or genuine community engagement. They need an organized harvesting operation and a permissive legal framework. They have both.
Then there is the voter roll catastrophe, which is not a bug but a feature.
A recent lawsuit exposed <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/02/us-news/bombshell-lawsuit-exposes-873000-ghost-voters-in-california/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost">873,000</a> inactive &#8220;ghost voters&#8221; still on California&#8217;s rolls. Of those, 150,000 had been inactive for four or more consecutive elections, a direct violation of the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law that California has simply elected not to follow. Los Angeles County alone carries 5.8 million registered voters, a figure that exceeds the total population of most American states and defies every reasonable demographic analysis.
Yet the same registrar-recorder offices that get <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/04/us-news/inside-la-county-election-vote-counting-facility-with-rows-of-empty-desks-despite-336-million-budget/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter">$336</a> million a year (and pay top officials almost half a million) can’t keep the lists clean.
Taxpayer dollars are always being used with the utmost love, care, and respect in the Golden State.
But inflated, unaudited rolls are not just embarrassing; they are operationally useful. They provide plausible deniability for questionable ballots, make large-scale harvesting easier, and create the conditions under which late vote &#8220;discoveries&#8221; in close races appear to be administrative processing rather than manipulation.
When a system refuses to purge ghost voters but spends lavishly on ballot processing infrastructure, you are not watching negligence. You are watching strategy.
Combine all of it: voter registration at locations without ID verification, no mail ballot ID requirement, unlimited harvesting with minimal oversight, unmonitored drop boxes, ballots counted weeks after election night, and rolls packed with hundreds of thousands of legally ineligible inactive voters. The result is a system where accountability is structurally impossible to enforce, and no one trusts a darn thing.
People are not stupid. We can see what’s going on and draw rational conclusions.
If Nithya Raman ultimately surpasses Spencer Pratt, it will further fuel distrust in elections and simply certify that Los Angeles hates itself. They’d rather engineer outcomes for the political machine that built it than abide by the will of the people.
The fraud is not cinematic. There are no masked operatives rappelling into polling stations. It is drab, procedural, and conducted entirely in the open, in statutes, in nonprofit 990 filings, in late-night batch uploads, in signature verification logs that no one audits. It is legalized, systematized, and optimized.
And California is proud of it.
If they won’t change, then fine. Let them wither and rot in it. They don’t deserve Spencer Pratt or Steve Hilton.

Mailed Voter Ballot And Voter Information For The California Primary Election

California Doesn’t Have A Voting System, It Has A Fraud Reward System

California Elections

DW Opinion

Mail-In Voting

The SAVE America Act may be stalled in the Senate, but Congress is still debating it, and every American, regardless of political affiliation, should demand its passage. Requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections is overwhelmingly popular and long overdue. Yet even if the bill becomes law — and especially if it dies under Democrat obstruction — states should not be sitting idle. State legislatures should be passing strong measures to ensure that only citizens can vote in all American elections.
Evidence of the problem is not hard to find. Over four years, a single county in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/19/thousands-of-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls-in-one-county-underscore-need-for-save-act/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1PCGuGnYoDUudOaHW0MTSfGTTW0b63zuI_dBW9lmBwFQUGqgsRX278ZgAwnwEO-MFm9-71XxmdmPnkvY$">removed</a> nearly 2,000 noncitizens from its voter rolls. States like <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2025/10/29/ohio-noncitizens-voting__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1PCGuGnYoDUudOaHW0MTSfGTTW0b63zuI_dBW9lmBwFQUGqgsRX278ZgAwnwEO-MFm9-71XxmRpCs_8Q$">Ohio</a>, Texas, and Virginia have identified thousands more, many of whom had cast illegal ballots that canceled out the legal votes of Americans. The system is fundamentally broken, and far-left Democrats only seem interested in adamantly opposing commonsense reforms.
The lion’s share of the problem stems from the National Voter Registration Act and the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.eac.gov/voters/national-mail-voter-registration-form__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1PCGuGnYoDUudOaHW0MTSfGTTW0b63zuI_dBW9lmBwFQUGqgsRX278ZgAwnwEO-MFm9-71XxmSOkY8Mo$">National Mail Voter Registration Form</a> it created. A 2013 Supreme Court ruling misinterpreted the law, forcing states to “accept and use” this federal form as-is. So long as someone checks a box claiming citizenship, officials must register him to vote and can’t require actual proof of citizenship. Only later can those officials attempt to verify that claim through less reliable means. Thanks to the federal form, a noncitizen is one lie away from voting.
States have repeatedly petitioned the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to modify the form to honor their own proof-of-citizenship laws, but the Democrat commissioners have frustrated those efforts, including ignoring an executive order from President Trump. The SAVE America Act would solve this by requiring up-front proof of citizenship, but Senate Democrats are stonewalling. That fight must continue, and it is time for states to step up.
First, every state should require proof of citizenship to register: a birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate, or other documents already required to get REAL IDs. If the voter has already given this to the DMV, a simple driver’s license number will do. Officials verify citizenship and add the voter to the rolls. No proof, no registration.
The federal form will remain a problem unless it is fixed or the Supreme Court reverses its erroneous ruling. Until then, the focus should be on damage control, that is, limiting the risk of noncitizens using the federal form to register. The Constitution offers a solution. Congress may “make or alter” the rules of congressional elections, but states retain control over state and presidential elections.
Using this framework, states should create a category of “federal-only” voters. If states cannot verify the citizenship of a federal-form applicant, he only gets to vote in congressional elections. Arizona pioneered this system in 2021, and the radical Left sued, but the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal-only system to remain in effect. Utah adopted a similar model this year. More states should follow — and go further.
States should use every available state and federal database to vet new and existing registrations. The Trump administration transformed the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database into a free and easy tool to scan voter rolls for potential noncitizens. Legislatures should make its use mandatory.
DMVs should be collecting citizenship data and automatically sharing it with election officials. States should tap state and federal jury records, too; anyone unable to serve on a jury due to non-citizenship should be flagged for election officials and referred for investigation if they registered or voted. Photo IDs issued to noncitizens should be made visually distinct, and state agencies should be barred from offering to register anyone who is not a citizen.
Critics howl that citizenship laws will disenfranchise millions. But that is the charge they level against every election safeguard, and it never comes true. Americans easily comply with proof-of-citizenship requirements in other contexts. The same Senate that is now deadlocked on the SAVE America Act voted unanimously in 2005 to require Americans to prove citizenship to get a REAL ID.
Federal law requires individuals to prove identity and citizenship to get a job or apply for most welfare benefits. These laws haven’t barred millions from roads, airports, or welfare offices. The same will be true for voting. Americans understand this, which is why more than <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://news.gallup.com/poll/652523/americans-endorse-early-voting-voter-verification.aspx__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1PCGuGnYoDUudOaHW0MTSfGTTW0b63zuI_dBW9lmBwFQUGqgsRX278ZgAwnwEO-MFm9-71XxmXjPzwZJ$">80% of the public</a> wants everyone to prove citizenship to vote.
The SAVE America Act may yet pass, but the next election won’t wait. Republican-controlled state legislatures should be moving now — even convening in special sessions — to strengthen their laws before the midterms. Many states have made progress, but few have gone as far as they should to ensure that elections are reserved for American citizens. It’s time to change that.
* * *
Jason Snead is Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project Action.
Hans von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow at Advancing American Freedom.

Senator Mike Lee Holds Capitol Hill News Conference On The SAVE America Act

The SAVE America Act May Stall. States Shouldn’t.

States Should Pass Their Own SAVE Acts

Congress

Democrats

Republicans

SAVE America Act

U.S. Senate

Voter ID

California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed an emergency writ with the court of appeals to halt Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into potential voter fraud, raising questions about why the state’s top law enforcement official is so desperate to stop a physical count of ballots.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 BREAKING: Attorney General Rob Bonta just filed an emergency writ with the court of appeals to stop ballots from being counted in California by Sheriff<a href="https://twitter.com/ChadBianco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChadBianco</a>&#39;s investigating team. 
What are they afraid of? 
For those not aware, they are investigating a reported… <a href="https://t.co/uHvfQVDCQ2">pic.twitter.com/uHvfQVDCQ2</a>
&mdash; Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) <a href="https://twitter.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/2036283641203237251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The legal showdown began after Sheriff Bianco, a leading Republican candidate for governor, executed search warrants to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-23/riverside-county-sheriff-has-seized-650-000-ballots-heres-what-we-know#:~:text=According%20to%20Bonta's%20office%2C%20Bianco's,partisan%20redistricting%20in%20Republican%20states%2C">seize</a> approximately 1,000 boxes containing more than 650,000 ballots from the November 2025 special election. The investigation was <a href="https://www.kvcrnews.org/2026-02-26/riverside-county-sheriffs-office-investigating-alleged-election-irregularities">sparked</a> by the Riverside Election Integrity Team (REIT), a citizen watchdog group that reported a staggering discrepancy: 45,896 more votes were tallied than the number of physical ballots received and logged by the Registrar of Voters.
In a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1015362106/Letter-from-California-Attorney-General-to-Riverside-County-sheriff-dated-March-26">March 4 letter</a>, Bonta slammed the probe as &#8220;unsubstantiated&#8221; and a &#8220;dangerous precedent,&#8221; demanding that Bianco &#8220;stand down&#8221; and hand over his case files. Bonta argued that Bianco’s team lacks the training to handle ballots and suggested the sheriff may have misled the magistrate who signed the warrants.
However, Bianco remains undeterred. &#8220;It is basically a fact-finding mission,&#8221; Bianco told reporters. &#8220;This investigation is simply to physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported.&#8221;
State officials argue that election security falls under the authority of designated election administrators, not local law enforcement.
The ballots in question are tied to Proposition 50, a controversial measure that supporters dubbed the &#8220;Election Rigging Response Act.&#8221; Backed by Governor Gavin Newsom, Prop 50 effectively suspended California’s independent redistricting commission, allowing the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw maps specifically designed to flip five Republican-held congressional seats. Supporters say the measure was a response to Republican-led redistricting efforts in Texas.
The timing of Bonta’s intervention is fueling concerns of a cover-up. The seized ballots are currently scheduled for destruction in May 2026. If Bonta succeeds in blocking the count, any evidence of a 45,000-vote discrepancy could be lost forever.
While Riverside Registrar Art Tinoco claims the discrepancy is a &#8220;misunderstanding of raw data&#8221; and insists the real variance is only 103 votes, Bianco argues that only a transparent hand count can restore public trust. A Riverside Superior Court judge appeared to agree with the need for transparency, recently ordering the appointment of a special master to oversee the count.
The battle over Riverside County’s ballots has national implications. Republicans have already filed federal lawsuits alleging Prop 50 is an unconstitutional &#8220;partisan and racial gerrymander.&#8221; Bianco has even suggested that since the election affects federal seats, the U.S. Department of Justice under President Trump may eventually intervene.
As Bonta takes to the courts to seal the ballot boxes, the central question remains: If the election results are as secure as the state claims, why move so aggressively to stop a sheriff from simply counting the paper?

California Attorney General Rob Bonta Interview

Democrat AG Makes Behind-The-Scenes Ballot Move: ‘What Is He Afraid Of?’

Chad Bianco

Rob Bonta

A coalition of top state election officials led by Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson urged congressional Republicans to require federal election officials to mandate stronger citizenship protections for voter registration, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. 
Watson and ten other GOP secretaries of state urged Republican leadership in the Senate and House to pass legislation requiring the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to change the current <a href="https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/6/Federal_Voter_Registration_ENG.pdf">federal voter registration form</a> to demand proof of citizenship rather than relying on an applicant&#8217;s word. The Republican officials said that the federal form made it more difficult to ensure that only American citizens were voting in elections. 
“Each state requires that to vote, a person must be a U.S. citizen. Unfortunately, the EAC has consistently refused to change the form to require proof of citizenship, preferring a general attestation instead,” Watson wrote on Monday. “As our states’ chief election officials, we respectfully seek your help in fixing this persistent problem.”
The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-ND), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Rules Committee Chair Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-WI). 
The letter asked them to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require applicants to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The measure has been opposed by Democrats. 
The current voter registration form posted by the EAC requires an applicant to check a box as proof of citizenship. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-989763" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM.png" alt="" width="1672" height="333" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM.png 1672w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM-300x60.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM-1024x204.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM-768x153.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-1.24.26-PM-1536x306.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>
For the past two decades, state election officials have asked for the EAC to update its form to require documentary proof of citizenship, but have so far been rebuffed, the letter said. 
“The EAC’s refusal to change the Federal Form instructions has forced election administrators to process and approve voter registration applications which do not themselves satisfy the requirements laid out in state law,” the officials wrote. 
Watson said that the process of making state officials verify applicants&#8217; proof of citizenship was costly and time-consuming. 
“Each paper form requires our election officials to make individualized inquiries into state records and consult with other state databases to process them and determine citizenship,” he wrote. “In Mississippi, these checks can require up to roughly an hour of an employee’s time, depending on how far into the required state process a check must go. This is an enormous aggregate expense both in employee time and tax dollars.”
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="http://dailywire.com/Subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
Other states that signed on to the letter included Alabama, Missouri, Iowa, New Hampshire, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Wyoming.
They requested that lawmakers revise federal law to require proof of citizenship on the form provided by the EAC and to hold oversight hearings examining the EAC’s opposition to stricter citizenship safeguards. 
Election integrity groups like the Honest Elections Project have joined in the calls for documentary proof of citizenship for elections. 
“Requiring proof of citizenship is common sense, routine, and hugely popular,” Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told The Daily Wire. “The time has come for the EAC to affirm laws that keep noncitizens from voting, not undercut them.”

US-VOTE-POLITIC

Top State Election Officials Urge Congress To Protect Elections From Non-Citizen Voting

Top State Election Officials Want Congress To Protect Elections From Non-Citizen Voting

Mississippi

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is delaying the release of documents related to election integrity planning until after Election Day, creating questions about the security of ballots cast from overseas amid the Democratic Party’s push to mobilize voters abroad.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program, the government office tasked with assisting voters living outside our borders, <a href="https://www.fvap.gov/info/reports-surveys/overseas-citizen-population-analysis" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fvap.gov/info/reports-surveys/overseas-citizen-population-analysis&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3SBiBqA03TMFT96ivEVXM0">estimates</a> that 2.8 million eligible voters currently reside outside the United States. The Democratic Party, however, <a href="https://democrats.org/news/dnc-announces-innovative-six-figure-investment-in-democrats-abroad-to-ensure-engagement-of-key-voters-living-outside-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://democrats.org/news/dnc-announces-innovative-six-figure-investment-in-democrats-abroad-to-ensure-engagement-of-key-voters-living-outside-u-s/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Pqw0sF0lSFE3ENMUK_xlg">estimates</a> that there are 9 million such voters and is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-target-us-swing-state-voters-overseas-win-support-harris-2024-08-12/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-target-us-swing-state-voters-overseas-win-support-harris-2024-08-12/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1EdeoF05_coGt_XbXlavq2">spending</a> $300,000 in a get-out-the-vote effort specifically tailored to them. Democrats Abroad did not respond to a request for comment on how it obtained its estimate.
Eligible voters abroad include military service members, military spouses, diplomats, and other Americans studying or working abroad. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) protects their right to vote, and a majority of completed UOCAVA ballots are <a href="https://www.fvap.gov/info/reports-surveys/2022postelectionreporttocongress" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fvap.gov/info/reports-surveys/2022postelectionreporttocongress&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3q4tNt4AdZtMYRZ17rJx5H">returned</a> by postal mail.
Postal mail in Georgia has been disastrous for much of this year, thanks to a new mail processing plant that opened in February in the tiny town of Palmetto. In March, <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-ranked-worst-state-mail-service-usps-end-q2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than 43%</a> of the state’s First-Class Mail was delivered <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/how-is-the-mail-delivery-near-you-the-postal-service-has-a-tool-to-measure-that/5IAWKX2NJJCY7JGIQZRNTWMOGU/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on time</a>. People missed bills and legal notices and ran out of prescription medications, through no fault of their own.
Months later, more than 20% of inbound First-Class Mail is still being <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/special-reports/postal-problems/atlanta-postal-problems-regional-processing-distribution-center/85-1ae6c5f6-4e8a-4749-8ce5-bbf948fcce65" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delivered late</a>, according to the <a href="https://spm.usps.com/#/main" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://spm.usps.com/%23/main&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730905619292000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2YPcp30NshRIT6tjRoVnIA">USPS performance dashboard</a>. If this continues through the election, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is on track to disenfranchise thousands of would-be voters. Meanwhile, USPS is trying to assuage public concern by <a href="https://about.usps.com/what/government-services/election-mail/pdf/fact-sheet_election-mail_09242024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://about.usps.com/what/government-services/election-mail/pdf/fact-sheet_election-mail_09242024.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ar2eb2hHVtBVBm1y-981M">adding</a> additional pickups and deliveries and expediting election mail, among other measures.
On August 30, I filed a public records request asking the USPS to release emails, text messages, and other records from ten officials related to the security of mail-in ballots, including overseas ballots, being returned to Georgia. Federal transparency law requires the USPS to respond within 20 business days in the absence of “unusual circumstances.” On October 10, the USPS told me that “unusual circumstances” apply, and it was granting itself an extension of another 20 working days. Conveniently for them, that places the new deadline three days after Election Day.
Incompetence at the USPS leaves mail-in ballots vulnerable to the most obvious form of voter fraud, in which legal ballots do not get counted. But UOCAVA ballots are also vulnerable to the form of fraud in which illegal ballots do get counted.
Several states <a href="https://www.fvap.gov/guide/chapter2" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fvap.gov/guide/chapter2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Ck6y7F34DA0KhFYFjyKrq">accept</a> UOCAVA ballots that arrive after Election Day so long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day. Georgia is one of these states, with a three-day grace period; Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina each have even more generous return policies and thus even a larger span of time for fraud to take place.
The Democratic Party claims to know exactly how many UOCAVA voters are eligible to vote in each swing state, as evidenced by a handy <a href="https://democrats.org/news/dnc-announces-innovative-six-figure-investment-in-democrats-abroad-to-ensure-engagement-of-key-voters-living-outside-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://democrats.org/news/dnc-announces-innovative-six-figure-investment-in-democrats-abroad-to-ensure-engagement-of-key-voters-living-outside-u-s/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Pqw0sF0lSFE3ENMUK_xlg">chart</a> included in their press release. In Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, the DNC says the number of UOCAVA voters is higher than the margin by which Biden won the state in 2020.
The DNC created a dedicated <a href="https://www.votefromabroad.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.votefromabroad.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2axzWu-1AiwmkNKqEtA46B">registration site</a> for UOCAVA voters, which has the added benefit of transmitting a voter’s information through Democratic Party-owned servers when anyone uses the site to register or to request a ballot. Voters may not realize this: The site’s home page appears politically neutral, save for small text in the bottom right identifying the site as being paid for by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad. The site <a href="https://www.votefromabroad.org/privacy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.votefromabroad.org/privacy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32Qmf74lSPi7Ckkk8DoJLp">claims</a> it does not store sensitive information nor have access to it, though other information is <a href="https://www.votefromabroad.org/terms-of-use/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.votefromabroad.org/terms-of-use/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0RRiObFBhJ0QfEili-yqIM">stored</a> for 90 days following the election.
Should the Democrats be less than truthful about which data they store and access, they would find themselves equipped with nearly everything it would take to submit fake ballots. They would not even need the ballots sent out by states: Voters abroad who are registered but do not receive a ballot in time may use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB), a blank ballot not tailored to any state or district, and send it to their polling place. While this is well-intentioned to protect the voting rights of Americans abroad, the FWAB requires only basic information from a voter, including their address and signature.
The future of this country hinges on a free and fair election with no room for doubting its integrity. The current UOCAVA voting system, combined with poor performance by the USPS, leaves our election integrity at risk.
 * * *
Angela Morabito is a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Forum (<a href="http://iwf.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://iwf.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1730900020951000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mIBjpCmSRemlIunpPU9V7">iwf.org</a>) and the spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Americans Go To The Polls In The 2024 Elections

USPS Appears To Hide Election Integrity Records Amid Overseas Ballot Controversy

2024 Election

Georgia

Opinion

USPS

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that Democrats were responsible for a Chinese student in Michigan who illegally voted in the presidential election and was subsequently arrested and charged last week.
Cruz made the remarks during the most recent episode of his &#8220;Verdict&#8221; podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson while talking about the incident.
&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s infuriating. And understand why this happens,&#8221; Cruz said. &#8220;This happened because the Democrats in Michigan passed a law, their voter ID law allows people to show a current student photo ID card from an educational institution in order to vote.&#8221;
&#8220;Now the only problem is, you don&#8217;t have to be an American citizen to get a student ID,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In this case, you had a Chinese national who was from China. He had a student ID, he could be a student that&#8217;s allowed, but Chinese nationals are not allowed to vote in American elections, and yet, this individual did so.”
Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/non-citizen-from-china-charged-after-casting-ballot-in-michigan-his-vote-will-still-count">revealed</a> two charges against the 19-year-old student, who was not identified, in a statement on Wednesday.
The Chinese student reportedly contacted the local clerk’s office after voting and asked if he could get his ballot back. The Detroit News reported that “two sources familiar with Michigan election laws” said election officials cannot retrieve the illegally cast ballot after it went through a tabulator, a rule that prevents ballots from being tracked back to specific voters.
Cruz noted that Democrats voted against the SAVE Act in Congress which would have required that every person registering to vote in the election prove that they are a U.S. citizen.
&#8220;And yet, part of the one of the reasons the Democrats voted &#8216;no&#8217; is they claimed, &#8216;oh, this is not a problem, no non-citizens vote,'&#8221; Cruz said. &#8220;Well, tell that to the Chinese national who just voted in Michigan.”
He said that the key for Republicans now was to turn out voters as the highest level possible so that no matter what happens, Republican candidates will win because the margin for victory is large enough.
The Chinese student was charged with perjury — making a false statement on an affidavit for the purpose of securing voter registration — and being an unauthorized elector who attempted to vote.
Attempting to vote as an unauthorized elector is punishable by up to four years in prison while perjury can result in up to 15 years in prison.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
It is infuriating that a Chinese foreign national voted in our election.
The SAVE Act would have prevented this by requiring people to prove their citizenship in order to vote.
It&#8217;s basic commonsense, and that&#8217;s why Democrats opposed it.<a href="https://t.co/GcKMQ342lE">https://t.co/GcKMQ342lE</a> <a href="https://t.co/98jPIxqZnQ">pic.twitter.com/98jPIxqZnQ</a>
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1852899878638096465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2024</a></blockquote>

Senate-hearing-on-Trump-assassination-attempt

Ted Cruz: Democrats Are Responsible For Chinese Student Illegally Voting In Michigan

Communist China

Ted Cruz

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced charges on Tuesday against six individuals for allegedly voting as non-citizens in previous elections. 
The indictments come after Ohio <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-secretary-of-state-orders-removal-of-nearly-500-non-citizens-from-voter-rolls">removed</a> 500 non-citizens from its rolls in August after an audit of its voter registration database. Other states, like Georgia and Texas, have removed thousands of non-citizens from their rolls in recent months in the lead up to the November election. 
“The right to vote is sacred,” Yost <a href="https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-Releases/October-2024/Grand-Juries-Indict-6-for-Illegal-Voting#:~:text=Illegal%20voting%20is%20a%20fourth,will%20continue%20to%20be%20enforced.”" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “If you’re not a U.S. citizen, it’s illegal to vote – whether you thought you were allowed to or not – you will be held accountable.”
Those charged included Ramesh Patel, 68, of North Royalton; Lorinda Miller, 78, of Hudson; Nicholas Fontaine, 32; Ahmed Aden, 35, of Columbus; Van Thuy Cooper, 53, of Hilliard; and Maria Dearaujo, 62, of Columbus. They could all face up to 18 months in prison if convicted. 
Patel was accused of voting as a non-citizen in 2014, 2016, and 2018, and is expected to be arranged on November 1 in Cuyahoga County. 
Miller, Fontaine, Aden, Cooper, and Dearaujo are all described as legal permanent residents of the United States. They were accused of illegally voting in multiple elections: Miller (2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019), Fontaine (2016 and 2018), Aden (2008 and 2020),  Cooper (2016 and 2020), and Dearaujo (2016 and 2018). 
Yost said the indictments should not undermine confidence in the upcoming presidential election. 
“Irregularities like this are rare, and this is a small number of cases,” he said. “We should all be confident in the upcoming election, knowing that the laws are being enforced and will continue to be enforced.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1729077615157000&amp;usg=AOvVaw17Kprl74oE9DYOLREdiBPU">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ COMING TO DAILYWIRE+ OCT. 28</a>
As Republican officials have pushed to clean up voter rolls across the country, Democrats and the legacy media have repeatedly downplayed concerns about non-citizen voting. 
States like Alabama and Virginia have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-biden-suing-va-for-purging-illegals-from-voting-rolls-even-though-doj-approved-the-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced lawsuits</a> from the Justice Department over efforts to clean up voter rolls, arguing that the states’ actions were taking place too close to the presidential election. 
Earlier this year, the House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nearly-all-house-dems-vote-against-bill-requiring-voters-prove-citizenship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> legislation that would have required individuals to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in elections for federal office. The legislation also would have pushed the states to remove non-citizens from their rolls. The bill advanced to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it stalled out.

Voters Cast Ballots In Ohio Primary

‘You Will Be Held Accountable’: Ohio Charges Six Non-Citizens With Illegally Voting

Ohio

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a> governor-elect Josh Shapiro <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/taking-action/ag-shapiro-announces-charges-against-philadelphia-man-for-orchestrating-the-forgery-of-signatures-on-election-nomination-petitions-in-municipal-primary-races/">announced</a> Wednesday his office arrested a former political consultant on allegations of forging thousands of Democratic primary ballots for the Philadelphia city elections in 2019.
Currently serving as the commonwealth&#8217;s attorney general, Shapiro said authorities arrested Rasheen Crews and charged him with Criminal Solicitation to Commit Forgery and Theft By Failure to Make Required Disposition for duplicating signatures on nomination petitions to get his clients on the ballot.
&#8220;In advance of the 2023 municipal elections, this arrest is an important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime,&#8221; Shapiro said. &#8220;By soliciting and organizing the wide scale forgery of signatures, the defendant undermined the democratic process and Philadelphians&#8217; right to a free and fair election.&#8221;
Shapiro&#8217;s announcement comes days after securing the governor&#8217;s race victory against Republican Senator Doug Mastriano, who conceded in the race Sunday evening after losing by more than 14 points.
Pennsylvania&#8217;s incoming governor often criticized his gubernatorial opponent for his endorsement from former President Donald Trump and casting doubts about the 2020 Presidential Election results.
However, according to an arrest <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-11-16-Rasheen-Crews-CC.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">affidavit</a>, Shapiro&#8217;s office opened an investigation into the allegations against Crews in September 2019, which found that the campaign consultant hired multiple candidates to help with the petition work by writing in enough names, addresses, and forging signatures on nomination petitions in a hotel room.
Crews would then allegedly have the petitions notarized and filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State.
The attorney general&#8217;s office said over 1,000 signatures showed duplicated information, which led some candidates to withdraw from the election entirely.
The affidavit shows his clients were unaware of the scheme.
The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/pennsylvania-ag-josh-shapiro-charges-former-campaign-consultant-with-wide-scale-voter-fraud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> Pennsylvania campaign finance database shows Crews consulted for dozens of federal, state, and local candidates for at least six years, including Shapiro&#8217;s attorney general campaign, which paid Crews $2,000 in 2016.
A spokesperson for Crews told <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/rasheen-crews-philadelphia-forgery-charges-2019-democratic-primary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local media</a> when the allegations first came up in 2019 that the political consultant did not use his normal vetting process for hiring workers to collect signatures to help more people than he could manage.
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, told <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/rasheen-crews-arrest-charged-philadelphia-ballot-petition-signature-forgery-20221116.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a> that he reached out to judicial candidates three years ago after hearing about issues with the petitions, adding that they appeared to be &#8220;kitchen-table jobs.&#8221;
Brady said Crews has attempted reconciliation with the party and was offered a deal despite being under criminal investigation that would bar him from circulating petitions and other political activities. Brady, however, assumed Crews did not take the deal considering the criminal charges announced by the attorney general&#8217;s office.
&#8220;I guess they&#8217;re sending a message to people not to mess around with petitions,&#8221; Brady said. &#8220;Nothing wrong with that.&#8221;

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Josh Shapiro Holds Election Night Event

Pennsylvania Gov. Elect Josh Shapiro Charges Former Political Consultant With ‘Wide Scale’ Voter Fraud

2022 Election

Crime

Pennsylvania

A top <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/milwaukee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Milwaukee</a> elections official has been fired for alleged fraud in what may have been a stunt to spotlight how easy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-military-ballots-discarded-in-troubling-discovery-all-opened-ballots-were-cast-for-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fake military ballots</a> can be trafficked in Wisconsin, authorities said.
Kimberly Zapata, 44, was fired as deputy director of the city’s Election Commission after she allegedly had unsolicited military ballots sent to a state representative&#8217;s home. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said the case is under investigation but may have been a bid to expose how easily the election system can be exploited.
&#8220;This has every appearance of being an egregious blatant violation of trust [and] this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement,&#8221; Johnson said, <a href="https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-election-worker-under-investigation-for-ballot-fraud/41856252" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to WISN</a>.
“It does not matter to me that the alleged crime did not take place at work,” he added. “It does not matter to me that the city of Milwaukee ballots were not a part of this, nor does it matter that there was no attempt to vote illegally or tamper with any election results.”
The drama came less than a week before Wisconsin voters go to the polls to select a governor and senator, among other races. Zapata could face a felony charge of malfeasance in office and a misdemeanor charge of illegally requesting a ballot, a source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Zapata&#8217;s attorney, Michael Maistelman, declined to answer questions about his client&#8217;s alleged actions.
&#8220;We will litigate this in the courtroom, not the media,&#8221; Maistelman <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/milwaukee-election-official-fired-fraudulently-154838417.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a>.
The alleged caper came to light earlier this week when state Rep. Janel Brandtjen posted on social media photos of three military absentee ballots sent to her home on Oct. 27. Brandtjen said the ballots appeared to be sent from clerks in Menomonee Falls, South Milwaukee and Shorewood and were each addressed to a fictitious “Holly” with three different last names.
<div id="attachment_459408" style="width: 726px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459408" class="wp-image-459408 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM-716x576.png" alt="Wisconsin state Rep. Janel Brandtjen posted photos of military absentee ballots sent to her home on Oct.27" width="716" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM-716x576.png 716w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM-300x241.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM-768x618.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM-1536x1235.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.17.51-PM.png 1716w" sizes=" (max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" />Wisconsin state Rep. Janel Brandtjen posted photos of military absentee ballots sent to her home on Oct.27. (Office of Rep. Janel Brandtjen)</div>
Brandtjen, a Republican and chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, said she also suspects someone, possibly Zapata, was trying to prove a point.
“I believe someone was trying to point out how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin,” she said. “Registration for military ballots is not required, so a fictitious name and birthdate is all that is required to obtain a military ballot online.”
Under state law, military voters are not required to register to vote and do not have to provide photo ID or any other identification. Milwaukee Election Commission chief Claire Woodall-Vogg said Zapata was likely trying to show Brandtjen the system’s vulnerability.
<div id="attachment_459414" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459414" class="size-medium wp-image-459414" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.50.06-PM-300x279.png" alt="Milwaukee Elections Chief Claire Woodall-Vogg said Zapata was likely trying to show Brandtjen the system’s vulnerability." width="300" height="279" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.50.06-PM-300x279.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-1.50.06-PM.png 556w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Milwaukee Elections Chief Claire Woodall-Vogg (above) said Zapata was likely trying to show Brandtjen the system’s vulnerability. (Milwaukee Election Commission)</div>
“It’s my belief that she was pointing out that you can go onto the public system, make up a person and request a ballot,” Woodall-Vogg said.
In August, a Racine man was accused of using the state’s MyVote system to fraudulently request absentee ballots in the names of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason in order to show flaws in the system. Harry Wait, a leader of a Racine County-based group known as H.O.T. Government, was praised for the action by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who called him a &#8220;white hat hacker&#8221; for &#8220;trying to show a vulnerability&#8221; in the system overseen by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Early Voting For Midterm Elections Begins In Wisconsin

Milwaukee Elections Official Fired After Possible Gambit To Expose Voter Fraud

Milwaukee

U.S.

The American Civil Liberties Union (<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">ACLU</a>) filed a motion on Wednesday that urges <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">election</a> officials in <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">Pennsylvania</a> to count <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mail-in-voting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mail-in-voting" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">mail-in ballots</a> missing a handwritten date on the envelope.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that mail-in ballots without the required date on the return envelope should be counted. However, after the Supreme Court vacated the decision, acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman issued a <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/state-details.aspx?newsid=536" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/state-details.aspx?newsid=536" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">statement</a> claiming that the opinion was “not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision.&#8221;
The ACLU is therefore seeking to intervene in Ball v. Chapman, a lawsuit pushing for election officials to refrain from counting ballots without a date on the envelope, and contends that thousands of voters’ disenfranchisement is at stake.
​​“Throwing out valid votes because of a minor paperwork error is undemocratic, illegal, and smacks of desperation,” ACLU attorney Ari Savitzky said in a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/voting-rights-advocates-file-intervene-pennsylvania-mail-ballot-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “This effort threatens thousands of Pennsylvanians, most of them senior citizens and longtime voters, with disenfranchisement. Under Pennsylvania state law and federal law, a ballot cannot be tossed if a voter simply forgets to handwrite an inconsequential date on the outer return envelope. These votes must be counted.”
The <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/ball-v-chapman-application-intervention" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion</a>, backed by voting rights groups such as the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference and the Black Political Empowerment Project, argues that any new restrictions would unduly interrupt the midterm election cycle.
“Election officials know when ballots are sent to voters and when they are received,” League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Executive Director Meghan Pierce added. “A voter adding a handwritten date to their return envelope does not add a verification of any sort. This latest attempt to disenfranchise voters for the simple mistake of not dating their return envelopes attempts to undo the progress Pennsylvania has made in making elections more accessible.&#8221;
Strife over the commonwealth’s laws regarding undated mail-in ballot envelopes emerged between Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, who competed to secure the Republican nomination for the Pennsylvania Senate race earlier this year. The Oz campaign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/following-the-democrats-playbook-oz-campaign-blasts-mccormick-for-trying-to-count-undated-mail-in-ballots-in-deadlocked-pa-senate-primary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blamed</a> McCormick for “following the Democrats’ playbook” and eroding voter confidence in the election by pressing officials to count the disqualified ballots. Voters will choose between Oz and Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, a Democrat, next month.
The Republican National Committee, which joins plaintiff David Ball in the <a href="https://prod-media-assets.protectthevote.com/media/document/news/PA_Kings_Bench_Undated_Ballots_0xgwfo47.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a>, argues that returning a mail-in ballot with an undated envelope violates state law. The group asserts that the Supreme Court’s opinion made sufficiently clear that such votes should not be counted and said that Chapman was wrongly usurping the high court in her attempt to disregard the ruling.
“Republicans are holding Pennsylvania Democrats accountable for their brazen defiance of the Supreme Court and the rules duly set by the legislature,” state and national Republican officials said in a <a href="https://gop.com/press-release/rnc-nrcc-pagop-sue-commonwealth-of-pennsylvania/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “Pennsylvania Democrats have a history of election integrity failures and Pennsylvanians deserve better: this lawsuit is the latest step in Republican efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections in the Keystone State.”
The Senate race between Oz and Fetterman is among the most competitive in the country and could help Democrats retain control of the upper chamber. According to a recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surprising-group-of-voters-is-helping-dr-oz-narrow-the-gap-against-john-fetterman-in-pennsylvania-senate-contest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Emerson College and The Hill, the former candidate is supported by 43% of the voting population, while the latter is supported by 45%.

Voters Across The Country Head To The Polls For The Midterm Elections

‘Smacks Of Desperation’: ACLU Files Motion Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots

ACLU Files Motion Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots

ACLU

Republican National Committee (RNC)

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/democrats">Democrat</a> who was booted from the House of Representatives and went to prison for his role in a 1970s bribery scandal pleaded guilty Monday to stuffing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/philadelphia">Philadelphia</a>-area ballot boxes with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/voter-fraud">fraudulent votes</a> for years to get his party&#8217;s candidates elected.
Former U.S. Rep. Michael J. “Ozzie” Myers, who was expelled from Congress in 1980 after being caught taking bribes in the Abscam sting investigation, cheated to help local candidates he worked for win the elections, federal prosecutors said. Myers, 79, was a political consultant in the Philadelphia area.
“Votes are not things to be purchased and democracy is not for sale,” U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a news release.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Former U.S. Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, convicted in the ‘70s Abscam investigation, plead guilty in Philly to fraudulently adding votes for candidates (2014-16)who had hired him. He persuaded poll workers to stuff ballot boxes. Faces 20 yrs. To life. <a href="https://t.co/3DdHNu1hZi">https://t.co/3DdHNu1hZi</a>
&mdash; ❣️Anne❣️ (@USA_Anne711) <a href="https://twitter.com/USA_Anne711/status/1534510690857365504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Myers pleaded guilty to violations of election law, conspiracy, bribery and obstruction. Prosecutors said Myers stuffed ballot boxes in elections from 2014-2018.
Myers&#8217; &#8220;criminal efforts were generally, although not exclusively, directed at securing election victories for local judicial candidates running for Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas or Municipal Court who had employed Myers as a ‘political consultant,’” prosecutors said.
Myers admitted he bribed elections judge Domenick Demuro to add votes for his chosen candidates, including clients who were running for judge. The bribes were for as little as $300 and as much as $5,000, authorities said. Demuro pleaded guilty in May 2020 and was convicted for his role in accepting bribes to cast fraudulent ballots and certify false voting results. Myers also conspired with another elections judge, Marie Beren, to pressure voters on election days to vote for candidates that Myers had selected. Been, who cast fraudulent votes for people who did not appear at the polls, pleaded guilty to election crimes last October.
<div>
<div class="article-content rich-text">
In the late 1970s Abscam sting, Myers, then a two-term congressman, was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for taking $50,000 from FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks. He served just over a year in prison. Myers had served six years in the Pennsylvania legislature before being elected to Congress in 1976.
The Abscam sting swept up five other U.S. House members all but one of whom were Democrats, U.S. Senator Harrison Williams, (D-N.J.), three Philadelphia City Council members and the then-mayor of Camden.
One of the House members netted in the sting, South Carolina Democrat John Jenrette, was famously caught telling an undercover agent posing as a sheikh and offering a bribe, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got larceny in my blood. I&#8217;d take it in a goddamn minute.&#8221;
</div>
<div class="article-content rich-text">
Myers faces up to 20 years in prison on the new charges.
</div>
</div>

Menu