Dismissive Media Crows Following Judge’s Order Suspending Gov. Newsom’s Mail-In Election Decree

Hooray for the Separation of Powers

On Friday, Sutter County Superior Court Judge Perry Parker granted a temporary block on Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order that requires all registered California voters to receive a mail-in ballot for the upcoming November election, California Globe reported.

Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay) were granted a Temporary Restraining Order against Governor Gavin Newsom suspending the Governor’s Executive Order N-67-20 regarding the conduct of elections, and further restrains him from “exercising any further legislative powers in violation of the California Constitution and applicable statute, specifically from unilaterally amending, altering, or changing existing statutory law or making new statutory law,” Kiley explained in a Facebook post.

“Among other things, the Governor’s unlawful Executive Order deprived Californians with disabilities of their statutory right to participate in election planning through a publicly noticed meeting. A legislative process will let us hear from the disability community. This is a victory for separation of powers. The Governor has continued to issue orders without public input and without the deliberative process provided by the Legislature. Today the judicial branch finally gave him the check that was needed and that the Constitution requires.”

Monday, the Sacramento Bee published a column titled, “Hypocrisy check: Those Republicans fighting Newsom on vote-by-mail? That’s how they vote.” The beef by the columnist is that Assemblymen Kiley and Gallagher vote-by-mail. That apparently makes them hypocrites for suing the governor over his order forcing every California voter to vote-by-mail.

Despite numerous reports replete with data from Election Integrity Project^® California showing 458,000 likely dead or relocated persons will be mailed ballots; 24,000 will be mailed two or more ballots, as the Globe recently reported, the Bee article claimed, “the non-partisan Brennan Center has studied the notion of dirty tricks in voting and found the problem to be ‘minuscule.’”

It’s not miniscule.

“Overhyped allegations of voter fraud are regularly made, but follow-up investigation almost always reveals that these claims were based on fundamental errors,” the Brennan Center says. The Brennan Center also is not non-partisan, as the Bee claims and the report reveals, dredging up the “Russia collusion” fake conspiracy as evidence of fraud against voters. “While fraud by voters almost never occurs, fraud against voters does occur, albeit rarely,” the Brennan Center says. “This type of fraud is committed by bigger players, with bigger weapons than an improperly filled ballot. Think Putin’s hackers or election workers stuffing ballot boxes. Importantly, the policies needed to address this kind of fraud are dramatically different than the policies proposed to address the specter of voter impersonation fraud.” (It was Special Counsel Robert Mueller who found no Trump-Russia conspiracy, and the only real Russian collusion was the Steele Dossier, with a source tied to the Kremlin who was a supporter of Hillary Clinton.)

Election Integrity Project^® California sent out an email to clear up the confusion:

• The court ruling against Governor Newsom’s Executive Order was a reprimand of the governor for overstepping the boundaries of his executive position. It was a win for balance of power–the system works.
• There is no Constitutional prohibition of all-vote-by-mail elections, as long as the mandate is duly passed into law by the state legislature.
• To summarize: the governor cannot institute election procedures through executive action, but the legislature can.
• AB 860 mandates exactly what Newsom’s executive order laid out. The court ruling will not affect the legality of AB 860.

Assemblyman Gallagher noted on Facebook, “Buried in 10th paragraph of this partisan attack published today by the Sacramento Bee, you’ll find the sentence ‘The suit did not address vote-by-mail.’ But heck, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good hit piece! The reality is that the Governor’s Executive Order actually REDUCES voter access in November because it closes down normal polling locations. Yet, the media and those playing political games are quick to somehow call this ‘GOP voter suppression’. When in reality, the Executive Order we challenged didn’t address the mailing of ballots, just the availability of in-person options.

When the governor signed the executive order requiring every voter in the state to vote-by-mail in the November 2020 election, he bragged that he was the first governor in the country to do this.

“Gov. Newsom boasts California is the “first state” to make this change,” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay) Tweeted. “Perhaps that’s because other states are still functioning democracies, where new laws need to pass a Legislature.”

Gov. Newsom boasts California is the "first state" to make this change. Perhaps that's because other states are still functioning democracies, where new laws need to pass a Legislature.
https://t.co/jOz3UL2nkW

— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) May 8, 2020

EIPCa’s report, which is based on its own analysis of California’s official voter registration file, includes evidence that the coronavirus-related proposal to mail ballots to all California voters has heightened the risks to the integrity of the November 2020 election:

• Over 458,000 California registrants who have likely died or moved will be mailed ballots. These registrants have not voted or updated their registrations since November 2008 or prior. Though likely deceased or relocated, they remain classified as “active” status.
• Almost 178,000 have never voted.
• Almost 2,000 have birthdates indicating they are 105+ years old.
• Over 38,000 Californians appear to have more than one voter registration.
• 24,000 of them will be mailed two or more ballots under an all-mail scenario, because they have more than one active registration each.