RESOLUTION TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO IDENTIFY THEMSELVES AS REGISTERED VOTERS BEFORE VOTING

No Centralized Voter Registration Database

Whereas, California is the only state in the nation that does not have a centralized voter registration database as required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), thereby preventing the accurate, comprehensive, and timely maintenance of California’s voter rolls, and

Non-Compliance with Election Code

Whereas, there are 825 pages in the California Elections Code and many other federal and state laws and regulations that impact California elections, and

Whereas, according to published reports prepared by the non-partisan Election Integrity Project (EIP) (which deployed 2,100 EIP-trained poll observers in over 600 precincts covering 21 California counties on November 6, 2012), the counties of California are not sufficiently training their poll workers and inspectors to properly follow even the most critical sections of the California Elections Code and federal statutes necessary to ensure the most basic standards for voting integrity, and

Whereas, the California law that requires voters to state their name and address audibly to the precinct officer and write their name and address on the voter roster (California Elections Code §14216) is the only California law that helps prevent voter impersonation, yet it was also the most reported violation of the election laws by EIP poll observers on November 6, 2012, and[1]

Duplicate Voter Registrations

Whereas, EIP has analyzed the voter rolls in fourteen, geographically dispersed counties of California (representing 65% of the total registered voters in California) and believes that California’s voter rolls contain hundreds of thousands of duplicate voter registrations (i.e., the same person is registered more than once at the same address, at different addresses in the same county, or in multiple counties) and many of those voters appear to have voted more than once in an election, and [2]

Whereas, EIP has analyzed the voter rolls of several large California counties and has provided evidence to law enforcement that voter registration circulators are fraudulently duplicating voter registrations and changing party affiliations, mailing addresses, and signatures without the voters’ knowledge, and

Whereas, EIP’s analysis of less than 10,000 online voter registrations within a single California county before the November 6, 2012 election indicates that hundreds of voters were permitted to register online even though they were already registered to vote in another California county and many of the voters who registered online appear to have voted more than once on November 6, 2012, and[3]

Failure to Remove Dead Voters

Whereas, EIP has analyzed the voter rolls in fourteen, geographically dispersed counties of California (representing 65% of the total registered voters in California) and believes that California’s voter rolls contain tens of thousands of deceased voters and that many of those deceased voters appear to have “voted” after they died and[4]

Whereas, the California Department of Health’s Death Index, an important source of death data for election officials, has only been updated through 2011,and

Fraudulent Voter Registrations

Whereas, EIP has analyzed the voter rolls in fourteen, geographically dispersed counties of California (representing 65% of the total registered voters in California) and believes that California’s voter rolls contain thousands of voter registrations at non-existent addresses and business addresses, as well as excessive voter registrations at some addresses (e.g., 12 voter registrations at a two bedroom home), and[5]

Inability to Challenge Signature Matches on Vote-by-Mail Ballots

Whereas, approximately half of Californians vote by mail, a signature match is the only way to verify the identity of a vote-by-mail voter, and, under Election Code §15104, poll observers are not permitted to challenge signature match decisions of election clerks, and

Statement of Principle

Whereas, the integrity of the ballot must be safeguarded so that the voices of lawful voters are not diluted or disenfranchised, and a law that requires voters to identify themselves as registered voters will significantly reduce the opportunities for, and actual instances of, voter fraud.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, by the California Republican Party at its convention on October 6, 2013 in Anaheim, California that the Republican Party urges state legislators  to enact a law that would (1) require voters who apply to vote by mail to provide a photocopy of an approved form of photo identification; (2) require voters who wish to vote at the polls to show photo identification in order to receive a ballot; and (3) require voters who vote by mail to identify themselves by providing the last four digits of their California driver’s license, California ID card, or social security number. 

Further Resolved, that the California Republican Party send this resolution to all elected officials registered as Republicans in the State of California, both partisan and non-partisan.

Submitted by

Ron Robinson, Alhambra, CA           
California Republican Party Delegate