SOS Issues Guidance to Counties on ‘Print-Your-Own Ballot From Home’ Program
Democrats’ ballot harvesting can still take place
By Katy Grimes, August 11, 2021 9:05 pm
The Globe reported Sunday that the California Secretary of State may have invented a “print-your-own ballot from home” program just in time for the September 14th recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom through the Remote Accessible Vote by Mail (RAVBM) system. We asked several questions about how the program is monitored and managed.
We discovered that the original Remote Accessible Vote by Mail (RAVBM) system was created to assist those who are disabled and confined to home or who may have difficulties getting to a polling station, which Attorney Meuser confirmed.
However, our research on the SOS website found that the program no longer specified that the program was limited to the disabled. That is because a gut-and-amend bill hastily passed by the Democrat supermajority in June 2020, RedState reported. “This legislative workaround was necessary because Newsom had had his Executive Order-loving wings clipped by a Sutter County Superior Court judge last fall after a lawsuit challenging those orders was brought by two Republican Assemblymembers: Kevin Kiley and James Gallagher.”
But Elections Attorney Mark Meuser said on Monday it now appears this is a new loophole in California’s ballot harvesting program, and we have the Legislature to thank for this.
Meuser was also concerned that there was no guidance coming from the Secretary of State to the 58 County Voter Registrars. He said he verified this with a couple of county Registrars of Voters who said they’ve not received any procedural guidance from the Secretary of State. This could mean with 58 counties, there may be 58 procedures.
Wednesday, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber issued guidance to the 58 County Registrars of Voters.
The SOS memo says:
A voter can contact a county election official directly to request RAVBM. Additionally, for voters requesting the delivery of an Emergency Ballot pursuant to Elections Code section 3021, RAVBM access can also be provided as a form of delivery of the ballot by the elections official.
Ahead of the Secretary of State’s new guidance, the Globe decided to try out the online process Tuesday with the Secretary of State’s Remote Accessible Vote by Mail (RAVBM) system. We were required to fill out an online form listing Name, address, California Driver’s License number, birthdate, last four digits of Social Security number, before we could send in the request.
So it appears that completing the online form securely directs the registered voter to the proper county Registrar of Voters to complete the process.
The Secretary of State further explains:
For the September 14, 2021, California Gubernatorial Recall Election, all registered voters in California are eligible to use this accessible vote-by-mail system.
I am a California registered voter, therefore I am eligible to use this accessible vote-by-mail system.
I understand that my ballot selections marked by this system must be printed by me and submitted to my county elections official, [insert local election jurisdiction name].
I understand that I must submit my printed and signed selections no later than 8:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on September 14, 2021, – Election Day – by either:
o Mailing it via U.S. Postal Service with a postmark on or before September 14, 2021; or
o Hand delivering it to the office of my county elections official; or
o Dropping it off at any polling place, vote center, vote-by-mail drop-off location, or drop box in the state.
o Returning by fax for military and overseas voters (UOCAVA) only.
o I understand that my ballot selections marked by this system and submitted to [insert local election jurisdiction name] will be transferred onto a ballot by an election official in order to be tabulated.
The Secretary of State’s guidance is terribly important so that California’s 58 counties do not have 58 different procedures for the “Print-Your-Own Ballot From Home” program.
However, this does not address the ballot harvesting issue. As the Globe explained Monday, “Imagine if a ballot harvester comes to your door and offers to take and turn in your ballot for you. You tell the ballot harvester that you don’t have it anymore, or threw it out. So the ballot harvester can now tell you that you can print a new ballot right off of your computer.”
If you threw your mail-in ballot out, that’s a pretty sure sign you did not intend to vote in the September 14, 2021 Recall Election. But this new guidance from the Secretary of State doesn’t stop a door-to-door ballot harvester from coercing you in person to print out a new ballot and hand it over.
The Globe will continue to update this evolving issue.
This is the Secretary of State’s Guidance to County Clerks/Registrars of Voters:
CA SOS Guidance
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Appreciate so much the followup on this! Will be tracking this story for any updates.
It’s amazing to me that we have to think like evil geniuses these days to try to figure out which way of cheating will have the most payoff for the villains and thus which one needs to be targeted most by honest citizens in hopes of getting a Clean-Enough election.
How about no votes received later than 8:00 Sept 14 will be counted. Here is a wild prediction; Newsom will be recalled Sept 14 at 8:00 PM but after two weeks of “counting late votes” he will not be recalled. Unfortunately our votes no longer matter because, as in many past elections, who the people voted for doesn’t matter. Also, will the 1.8 million extra voter we have in California be able to RAVBM?
That is why any ballots that are received or appear AFTER the election date that county registrars hope to count should be heavily scrutinized. The by-mail ballot only has to be POSTMARKED by Sept 14, after all. Any excuse the SOS comes up with that allows a delay in counting ballots should be rejected out-of-hand if at all possible while extra scrutiny on the registrars is taking place.
The L.A County Registrar and its machine-counting methods should get extra attention, because of 1) L.A. County’s huge population size, and 2) its surprising stellar showing in number of recall petition signatures collected — more than any other CA county which, it seems to me, serves as a poll of its own to statistically predict Recall Newsom votes.
The SOS has been put on notice (by EIPca, for one) and voters expect that the SOS will be accountable for any fraudulent-looking funny business. In addition, any voters who experience incidents of suspected fraud can report them directly to the EIPca:
https://www.eip-ca.com/index.htm
Urban Serfs
Why bother. Your futile mailed vote meets Mom’s Basement Print Shop with branches in many counties…the onslaught unmerciful…..full transparency though…..possibly.
Thank you Katy & CG team for TURNING AND KEEPING the kitchen light turned on HIGH on these cockroaches…
Perhaps a trip back in time on the Wayback Machine might show whether this was up & running for the November 2020 election, but it also sounds like they’ve got it buried on the site, too….
This article is misleading and only for “harvesting” fear. There is no proof that “ballot-harvesting” is happening anywhere in California. Just raising questions does not mean there is an issue at hand. Just stop the garbage reporting.
Mr. Waters: If you do not trust California Globe’s journalism on this topic, I encourage you to conduct some independent research. See, for example, the AP story, “Ballot harvesting under scrutiny in California elections.” Do you also characterize the Associated Press as “garbage reporting.” https://apnews.com/article/elections-campaigns-california-house-elections-political-parties-5164975b80132942d55cc2377e767fc0
Have a look Mr. Waters https://greatamericanrebirth.com/sacramento-ca/
You are so right. Knew they would come up to cheat.
Not to change the subject of the print your own ballot discussion but very important issue I discovered with my mail in ballot today. There are two holes in the back of the return envelope that if your ballot is placed in it with the first question on the ballot, whether you want Gov Newsom to be recalled facing the back your YES vote on that question can be seen through one of the holes without opening the envelope! Pay attention to first answer the question on the recall and second to put your ballot in the envelope so your yes vote can’t be seen through the hole in the envelope! No idea what the holes are there for but this stinks!