Sunday, November 13, 2016

Does California Let Non Citizens Vote?

registermasterRecently on Facebook, someone stated that the Popular vote showing Hillary Clinton leading over Trump was inaccurate because “a large portion of people voting for Hilary were illegals and dead people”, and he followed that up with “the entire state of california gave illegals the right to vote”.
  
I asked for the source, and he sent me a link to this InfoWars story.  He also sent me a link to the Washington Times, which is simply a direct copy and paste of this story.
  
While it would be easy simply to dismiss the claim out of hand, I believe that anytime someone takes the effort to try to back up their statements, the least I can do is read their citation and analyze it...

On Saturday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1461, the New Motor Voter Act, which will automatically register people to vote through the DMV, and could result in illegal aliens voting.
Any person who renewed or secured a driver’s license through the DMV may now register to vote, or choose to opt out of doing so. Because illegal immigrants are now eligible for obtaining driver’s licenses, they could be allowed to vote in elections if the Secretary of State’s office fails to verify their eligibility properly.  --InfoWars
A point missed by this article is that legal resident aliens  get drivers licenses, too, and they are not permitted to vote, either.  They completely missed this in their zeal to get everyone excited about illegal immigrants.

now that we have the premise of the InfoWars piece, we need to look at what’s going on with drivers’ licenses in California.
    
Licensing
Can illegal immigrants get drivers licenses?  It may sound unlikely, but according to the National Association of State Legislatures,  12 states and the District of Columbia do allow aliens to acquire a driver’s license even if they lack proof of legal residency, and California is indeed one of them. 
This bill would require the department to issue an original driver’s license to a person who is unable to submit satisfactory proof that the applicant’s presence in the United States is authorized under federal law if he or she meets all other qualifications for licensure and provides satisfactory proof to the department of his or her identity and California residency.  -- California Assembly Hill No. 60, 10/3/13
The purpose of the law isn’t to give illegal immigrants licenses to drive.  It’s really about lowering the bar for people who don’t have all their paperwork in place.  In other words, while this does help illegal residents to get licenses, it also helps legal resident aliens who may not have all their paper work in order.  And if you’ve ever tried to get a passport or visa on a timetable, you’d understand why this may be desirable. 

You’re probably wondering why California is bothering: why not just keep the old standards, and make people wait until all their paper work is ready?  Well, it comes down to safety. 
Section 1, (b)- Previous studies done by the foundation have found that approximately one in five fatal crashes… involve an unlicensed or invalidly licensed driver.
Section 1 (e)- in the State of California, there are potentially 1.4 million drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured.
Unlicensed driver can’t get auto insurance.  By loosening the requirements for proof of US residency, California is making sure that more drivers on the road have licenses, and thus have automobile insurance.  That includes the legal resident alien from Nicaragua whose visa is delayed on the other end. 

Bottom line, yes, illegal immigrants CAN get drivers’ licenses.

Now we need to know what information is required to get a drivers’ license in the State of California.
Again, from Assembly Bill 60:
The bill would require the department to adopt emergency regulations, in consultation with appropriate interested parties, as prescribed, to implement those provisions, including identifying documents acceptable for the purposes of providing identity and California residency and procedures for verifying the authenticity of the documents. The bill would require the department to accept various types of documentation for this purpose.
Well, that’s not helpful.  We keep reading.
This bill would authorize an applicant who is unable to provide satisfactory proof that his or her presence in the United States is authorized under federal law to sign an affidavit attesting that he or she is both ineligible for a social security number and unable to submit satisfactory proof that his or her presence in the United States is authorized under federal law in lieu of submitting a social security number.
Now THIS is interesting: if they can’t provided a social security number, they have to swear that it’s because they aren’t eligible to receive one.  This isn’t enough to prevent legal resident aliens from being registered because they do get issued a social security number, but this would exclude illegals from being registered.  That’s a start.
Section 1 (j)- The California Department of Motor Vehicles must promulgate regulations to determine the appropriate documentation necessary to prove identity and California residency under the provisions of this act, and procedures for verifying the authenticity of this documentation.
So the legislature delegated identification requirements to the California DMV.  It’s an extensive list too large to post here, but basically, you need to supply one piece of identification that proves you’re you.  And not a random photo copy, it needs to be an original document, or a certified copy (one with a stamp from an authorized agency).   Acceptable forms of ID  include birth certificates (including foreign); passports (domestic and foreign), green cards and other residency permits, refugee travel documents, certified court order or judgment from a competent jurisdiction, and so on.

It’s a lot of options, but all must be certified and verifiable.  So California verifies that they are issuing licenses to people whose identification is proven; they just may not be legally residing in the US.
 
Voter Registration
OK, the article references California Assembly Bill No. 1461, (see web link).  The first few paragraphs describe existing law, and then we get to the changes.
”This bill would require the Secretary of State and the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish the California New Motor Voter Program for the purpose of increasing opportunities for voter registration by any person who is qualified to be a voter.”
According to InfoWars:
True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht stated, “This bill is terrible. It makes an already bad situation much, much worse,” adding that California’s registration databases “lack the necessary safeguards to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls.”
Does AB 1461 outline any safeguards?
This bill would require the Secretary of State to establish procedures to safeguard the confidentiality of information acquired from the Department of Motor Vehicles pursuant to the California New Motor Voter Program and would state that the provisions of the Information Practices Act of 1977 govern disclosures pursuant to the program.
It does state that there must be safeguards, and the ID they require for the drivers’ license is enough to determine whether that person is in fact eligible.

This next section does give us pause: if someone who is NOT eligible to vote does accidentally end up registered as a voter, they will not be prosecuted or punished:
This bill would provide that if a person who is ineligible to vote becomes registered to vote by operation of the California New Motor Voter Program in the absence of a violation by that person of the crime described above, that person’s registration shall be presumed to have been effected with official authorization and not the fault of that person. The bill would also provide that if a person who is ineligible to vote becomes registered to vote by operation of this program, and that person votes or attempts to vote in an election held after the effective date of the person’s registration, that person shall be presumed to have acted with official authorization and is not guilty of fraudulently voting or attempting to vote, unless that person willfully votes or attempts to vote knowing that he or she is not entitled to vote.
It’s one thing for a person to accidentally become registered to vote, but it’s another for them to use the franchise.  I see that this is probably an attempt to make sure people aren’t afraid to get licensed to drive, but it does show that there is a flaw in the automatic registration approach.
  
Which is why the registration isn’t automatic.
SEC. 2.   Section 2102 of the Elections Code, as amended by Section 6.5 of Chapter 909 of the Statutes of 2014, is amended to read:
2102. (a) Except as provided in Chapter 4.5, a person shall not be registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration. The affidavit shall be mailed or delivered to the county elections official and shall set forth all of the facts required to be shown by this chapter.
2263.  (a) The Department of Motor Vehicles, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall establish a schedule and method for the department to electronically provide to the Secretary of State the records specified in this section.
(b) (1) The department shall provide to the Secretary of State, in a manner and method to be determined by the department in consultation with the Secretary of State, the following information associated with each person who submits an application for a driver’s license or identification card pursuant to Section 12800, 12815, or 13000 of the Vehicle Code, or who notifies the department of a change of address pursuant to Section 14600 of the Vehicle Code:
(K) A notation that the applicant has attested that he or she meets all voter eligibility requirements, including United States citizenship, specified in Section 2101.
And what happens if someone does get registered by mistake?
2270.  The Secretary of State shall adopt regulations to implement this chapter, including regulations addressing both of the following:
(a) A process for canceling the registration of a person who is ineligible to vote, but became registered under the California New Motor Voter Program in the absence of any violation by that person of Section 18100.
  

Do Illegal Immigrants Get to Vote?
InfoWars says that “…the New Motor Voter Act… will automatically register people to vote through the DMV..”  

The actual wording of The New Motor Act states “a person shall not be registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration.” 

The LA Times explains the process:
When people go to the DMV to obtain or renew a driver's license, or to get a state identification card, they’ll be asked for the usual information in such transactions, such as their name, date of birth and address. They’ll also be asked to affirm their eligibility to vote and will be given the choice of opting out of registering at that time. Information about anyone who does not decline registration will be electronically transmitted from the DMV to the secretary of state’s office, where citizenship will be verified and names will be added to the voter rolls.
Although citizens are currently offered the opportunity to register to vote at the DMV under an earlier federal law, noncitizens are not. That will continue under the new registration process. People applying for the special licenses will not be asked about their eligibility to vote and will not be asked if they’d like to opt out of registration.
The DMV’s identification requirements are enough to determine who is a citizen, and who is not, but the Secretary of State makes the final determination. 

I have to find that InfoWars is wrong, because they misstate how the act actually works.  Their claim is predicated on a flaw in an automatic process, but in fact, while the DMV collects voter registration information, it is sending it to the California Secretary of State, who then processed the application like every other voter registration application. 

But InfoWars doubles down on its claim; they also state:
Brown and the California Democratic party know exactly what they are doing; as a Public Policy Institute survey showed, among unregistered adults, 49% lean toward the Democratic Party and 22% toward the Republican Party. Any bill permitting illegal immigrants to vote would cement the Democratic Party’s hold on California.
The Atlas of US Presidential Elections shows that Democratic turnout barely rose 1% in the 2016 election.  The overall turnout dropped from over 13 million in 2012, to barely 9.5 million as of the date of this post.
  
CA elections

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