Bill to Ban Ballot Hand Counts Passes California Assembly
AB 969 is response to Shasta County Board of Supervisors hand count decision earlier this year
By Evan Symon, September 9, 2023 2:30 am
A bill to end the manual hand count of ballots in elections with more than 1,000 voters passed the Assembly on Friday, moving directly to Governor Newsom’s desk for his decision.
Assembly Bill 969, authored by Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz), would specifically prohibit an elections official from performing a manual vote count in a semifinal official canvass held on an established election date where there are more than 1,000 registered voters eligible to participate in that election, or in any contest held on a date other than an established election date, where there are more than 5,000 registered voters eligible to participate in that election. The bill would also only allow an elections official to conduct a manual vote count for a semifinal official canvass in a precinct if the count is approved by the Secretary of State, with state approved machines being utilized to do all county in elections above the minimum voter threshold.
In addition, AB 969 is an emergency statute, meaning that it would go into effect if passed.
Assemblywoman Pellerin’s bill is in response to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voting earlier this year to do away with machine counting and instead move back to hand ballots. The decision was divisive, passing 3-2 in March. Supporters cited cyber threats as the major reason for wanting to return to hand counting, to avoid any possible electronic miscounts or cheating. However opponents fought back that hand counting would be even more prone to error and at risk of possible cheating, as well as being more expensive. The fight in Shasta County has been ongoing for months, all the while with AB 969 advancing through the legislature and threatening to make a state law on it.
“Hand counts are complex, imprecise, expensive and resource intensive,” said Pellerin this week. “Research has consistently shown that humans are poor at completing rote, repetitive tasks.”
AB 969 moves to Governor’s Desk
AB 969 has largely passed on party lines. In April, the bill managed to pass in the Assembly 62-9 with 9 abstaining; the Senate vote earlier this week with a 31-6 with 3 abstentions conclusion. Due to multiple amendments since May, the bill was then sent back to the Assembly earlier this week for a final Assembly vote, where it passed on Friday.
“The bill, if it becomes law, would make it very clear in our elections code that counties are to use state-certified, federally qualified voting systems for tabulating their voting results,” said Pellerin on Friday, adding that Newsom still has not indicated which way he would go on the bill. “We are definitely going to be reaching out to our supporters, getting letters to him, that we experienced a rogue board of supervisors that attempted to derail elections and that is something we can’t tolerate and accept in the state of California.”
Meanwhile, in Shasta County, the bill has remained largely divisive. Shasta County Board of Supervisors Chairman Patrick Jones said this week that the county would sue to block AB 969 if the bill is signed into law. “We’re going to have free and fair elections in Shasta county,” said Jones. “Apparently money seems to be more important than making sure our elections are fair. State officials cannot guarantee that these machines haven’t been manipulated. The state is now attempting to block us from being able to have a free and fair election without any outside influence.”
Others in the County support the bill, with Shasta County Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen adding, “We very much appreciate the work that’s been done in Sacramento to protect Shasta County voters and we hope the governor signs this bill quickly.”
Voting experts told the Globe that many counties across the country are watching what happens with AB 969, specifically if it is passed and if the courts wind up ultimately blocking the bill from going into effect.
“AB 969 is a very interesting possible law that both sides of the vote counting issue want some sort of political or legal precedent to go on,” said Ronnie Schaefer, an elections setup consultant. “Some want a law to present that it is possible to stop hand counting elections, and others want a legal precedent so that states can’t pass laws like this. It’s a lot more complex than people realize.”
Governor Newsom has until October 14th to sign or veto AB 969.
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Ban walking to vote too. Ban using hands to vote. Ban breathing while voting.
Why not?
No kidding, why not?
Wow, just when you think you’ve heard everything we get this preposterous bill. And it passes?
And by the way, this seems tantamount to an outright admission-confession by the state Dem/Marxists that they are cheating in elections. That they are commandeering election outcomes with the help of many of the County Registrars. Will we eventually find out that these registrars are on the state payroll? The “underground” state payroll, that is? What else are we to think?
Look at Democrat Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin smiling smugly for the camera with her coifed hair while wearing her expensive powder blue power suit accentuated with pearls? She previously served as Santa Cruz County Clerk from 1993 until her resignation in 2020 before being installed into the 28th Assembly District–probably with Democrat voter fraud and rigged voting machines? It’s expensive living in Santa Cruz and no doubt Gail Pellerin’s deep-state Democrat masters will reward her handsomely for pushing Bill 969 so that they can continue to steal elections with rigged voting machines? She probably had little integrity and no ethics to begin with, so it was probably easy for her to sell her soul to her deep-state Democrat masters?
TJ you crack me up. And no kidding, the fishy-ness here is pretty self-evident, isn’t it? Not only Asm Pellerin but the County Registrar with three names ‘Cathy Darling Allen’ thinking this is good sure as heck seems to tell us all we need to know about what she would probably do even without a “law” such as this in place. After all it’s been common knowledge for some time now that ballot-harvesting of the most crooked kind was going on even BEFORE the Dem/Marxists themselves cemented it into law.
Just goes to show that making this crap legal doesn’t magically make it right. Sort of like the phony Gov executive order — under cover of phony Covid hysteria — for all vote-by-mail, then quickly cemented into law by the cooperative Dem/Marxist majority legislature, may now be “legal” but is still wrong and very very crooked, with ridiculous still-bloated voter rolls shooting out millions of ballots ripe for the cheat, like counterfeit (or now Fed-printed) hundred-dollar bills injected into the money supply, cheapening the dollar. Your hard-fought precious vote is continually under attack by these conscienceless scoundrels. As you know.
They saw the flaw in there plan. They could make their mandates at the state level but they couldn’t force compliance at the local level. Now they will work on controlling local elections. City councils, county supervisors, county sheriffs, and school boards will be filled with union members and activists. This is what they were doing years ago to control statewide elections. When will it end?
More evidence that the cheat is real.
The supermajority rushed this bill to counteract the awakening happening at the local level. If they were so sure that their Democrat candidates were the true winners then why do they feel so threatened by a secure hand count?
Answer: it is difficult to add malware to a human hand and human sight!
Makes ya wonder!
Please wake up my fellow citizens, the time is now!
No kidding, CG. Last time I checked it would probably be impossible to send an army of big-city purple-shirted SEIU public employee union members into Shasta County for a dirty hand count without attracting notice. So this legislative action had to happen. Meanwhile with urgency features and immediate enactment and the rest of their nonsense going off like alarm bells! Seems like not a good sign that legislative Dems apparently think subtlety is no longer necessary. But they’re not too bright so I guess we’ll see..
Good point ShowandTell. The SEIU purpleshirts would stick out amongst the multigenerational, salt of the earth, residents of Shasta County!
Yes, they have to force people with legislation to comply with their dirty deeds.
Where have we seen this before?
According to the left voting is a threat to democracy. No joke.
Rush Limbaugh said a few years ago that the left would try to eliminate elections and he added his coined phrase: “Do not doubt me on this!”
We probably should just ban tabulating votes as well. We can settle these matters in a battle royale – a purge, if you will. We will let criminally insane violent survivors of adverse childhood events and brain damage free to loot and murder and their opponents will be masked, vaccinated, middle class and above LA Times readers and NPR donors. Winners will get to literally consume anyone doing productive work in this state.
Go buy a gun. Buy a lot of guns. Ammunition. Train to with some friends. Get in shape. Store some fresh water and food. This is only going in one direction and “Patriots on the inside!” is not it.
In the last presidential election, Georgia machine-counted the votes, audited the count, and then hand counted the votes. The biggest variance was under 300 votes (if I remember correctly) between the 3 methods. That’s good enough for me but it does require a hand count. Without it, I would be suspicious.
Clearly the intent is to eventually eliminate paper ballots entirely. This would make it impossible to determine if your vote was actually counted correctly. Using paper ballots is the only way to assure that an audit trail can be established after the fact, provided that the ballots are kept secure and chain of custody is maintained. Electronic voting is inherently suspect and open to manipulation during the entire voting process, from start to finish….in spite of what Dominion says.
https://www.bbb.org/us/wi/madison/profile/political-organization/the-voter-participation-center-0694-1000028399/customer-reviews
If you look at the website you will see comments about Voter Participation Center (The also have a sister organization named Center for Voter Information.) They are busy right now registering folks to vote in select/targeted areas of California (mainly in close elections so that they can tip the balance of absentees sent out). They have cart blanche access to the SOS and are acting as an arm of the SOS. This is quite a racket and one that needs to be defeated if we are to retake out State back. If you have the time at look at enough web pages you find that they are affiliated with Dems in DC and have worked extensively to register 6 million democratic voters in battleground areas.
Most likely backed by Zuckerbucks.
You cannot control the outcome without removing all areas to challenge the vote — Road to dictatorship/communism
Democrat making sure they can rig the system without fear
CD 14 only one commenting who understands; the balance simply can’t comprehend what is happening. God help the J6 freedom fighters. Their actions identical to those of our founders yet never a mentioned. Think not the injustice imposed on them couldn’t happen to you; it could and probably will. Heed the warnings issued to each and every one of us who would every challenge election results; twenty plus years imprisonment?
The New Mexico Governor has capriciously suspended the Constitution thus the protocol for martial law has been established; be assured more of this coming from many and different venues and soon to be universal; (https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1700334945992847588) How can it be the people not rise up against this exhibition of blatant tyranny? Does anyone realize what we have lost? Proof the propagandizing and metal neutering of Americans compete. Those coming for us not only ignoring the rule of law but mocking it too.
Elections now nothing more than a diversion while the destruction of America concluded. Those who continue to believe voting is actually the protocol for the selection of those in positions of dominion over us
The time has come for the populous to come to grips with their pending finality and what if anything they are going to do about it given the rule of law non-existent and how to counter the government imposed criminal forces that have been brought to bear against us.
Democrats are so into propaganda why don’t we just create an accurate headline: “Bill to banish fair elections”.
FYI Everyone:
“Democrats’ 2024 Magic Bullet – Mass Mail-In Voting”
https://themessenger.com/opinion/democrats-2024-magic-bullet-mass-mail-in-voting