Secretary of State Alex Padilla addressing the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, June 1, 2019. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
CA Secretary of State Padilla Pays Stealth Dem Activists to Manage ‘Non-Partisan’ Mail-in Ballots
Election observers anticipate plenty of problems
By Richard Stenger, August 20, 2020 2:53 pm
As the state of California prepares to send mail-in ballots to more than 20 million registered voters ahead of the general election, concerned citizens have raised questions about the role of hired experts with ties to partisan Democratic groups.
One South Bay voter expressed her concern this week on KSCO’s Charles Freedman Show after she received a letter from the Democracy Fund with details about her mail-in ballot.
The Democracy Fund, hired by Secretary of State Alex Padilla in May to oversee the mail-in ballot program in California until January 15, 2021, purports to be a non-partisan organization. In California, the state’s top election monitors for the general election includes Jennifer Morrell, head of the Democracy Fund’s Election Validation Project since 2018, and Noah Praetz, the former director of elections in Cook County, Illinois, which has a reputation of voter fraud going back decades.
However, the Democracy Fund’s primary sponsor, billionaire Pierre Omidyar, has given millions of dollars to leftist causes and media outlets and Democratic Party candidates and groups. Omidyar was one of the biggest donors to the NeverTrump Political Action Committee (PAC) during the 2016 election.
Since 2016, Omidyar, an eBay founder who attended the University of California, Berkeley, and groups associated with the Democracy Fund have given more than $700,000 to organizations opposed to the Trump campaign and administration, according to the watchdog group InfluenceWatch.org.
Moreover, Omidyar and partners have funded the left-leaning news site PolitiFact some $500,000 over a two-year span.
The Democracy Fund and Democracy Fund Voice are non-profits and as such face certain prohibitions or regulations related to political donations. However, Omidyar has donated millions to the liberal press through less constrained philanthropic organizations.
He’s personally pledged more than $250 million to First Look Media, an umbrella group that funds progressive media platforms, including ProPublica, which is connected to major Democratic political donor George Soros, a leading critic of President Trump and the Republican Party.
But even the Democracy Fund seems to be pushing the election envelope these days, so to speak. In a June blog post, fund President Joe Goldman said the foundation is no longer bipartisan but independent and “advocates for an open and just democracy.”
“We believe a just and equitable political system must eliminate structural barriers to ensure historically excluded communities have meaningful influence in our democracy.”
What that means for California voters remains to be seen. However, election observers anticipate plenty of problems. In the March primary, more than 100,000 mail-in ballots were rejected, most of them for being mailed back too late.
In general, critics of mail-in ballots have noted that logistical limitations or intentional interference with the postal service or its workers or so-called private ballot harvesters could disrupt the election.
All registered voters will be mailed a ballot no later than 29 days prior to election day, which is Tuesday, November 3rd. Early voting and in-person voting locations will also be available. Ballots may be returned by mail, in person, or to a drop box.
KSCO’s Freedman vowed to take his ballot directly to the election office. “I’ll be damned to the darkest depths of hell before I mail in a ballot,” the Navy veteran said.
The article was updated 8/22/2020 to note Jennifer Morrell, head of the Democracy Fund’s Election Validation Project since 2018.
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Wow, this is HUGE. But I guess it shouldn’t surprise us given what California’s SOS Alex Padilla has said and done — and continues to say and do — with regard to voting protocols and thus our election integrity.
Alex Padilla has refused to clean up bloated voter rolls although court-ordered to do so, has denied that there is voter fraud in the state, “voter fraud throughout California and throughout the nation is virtually non-existent” he said when he spoke at Pitzer College in 2016, and has been uncooperative in turning over DMV motor-voter records that would separate the wheat from the chaff in an effort to ensure honest and clean elections in California.
Thank you so much for this article which brings Padilla’s suspicious partnership with the shady Democracy Fund to light.
Not a peep about this corruption in the main stream. Thanks for confirming what I always suspected about elections in California.
This is akin to hiring Al Capone to run the ATF.
No kidding.
“the state’s top election monitors for the general election includes Jennifer Morrell, president of the Democracy Fund since 2018, and Noah Praetz, the former director of elections in Cook County, Illinois…”
I see he’s bringing in the “A-team” of political corruption…
But seriously, this knucklehead is the biggest existential threat to free and FAIR election oversight in California and in actuality, should be brought up & convicted of Federal election fraud.
Newsom is the focus of our recall efforts but we also need to pursue recalls and jail time for election fraud for Padilla and Becerra.
Both are complicit in election fraud at a Federal level…
what could go wrong with decades and decades of one party rule?
While mail in is convienent, we need to go back to in person only except for military stationed where that is there only way to vote. And require photo ID. Also a choice to mark no vote on indiviidual choices on the ballot. Needed to stop ballot handlers from marking ballots when no selection is made.
Edit – their not there.
It is an obvious plan to cement their party eternal future in California by the use of institutional fraud.
The current absentee system is fairly good, except for the million voters who are dead not being taken off the rolls. So there is that.
Why bother? They enemies tried to get kids to vote. What next? Dogs and cats?
I am trying to get a legal petition started to impeach governor Gavin Newsom and have it filed with the secretary of state and anyone else I can. He is destroying our lives, businesses and any hope of being able to rebuild our economy. If we don’t get him out and soon, i’m afraid California residents will lose everything they have worked for. Any and all suggestions and help would be extremely appreciated.