I’m going to educate folks about voter fraud. Yes, I do believe fraud exists, no I do not believe it’s hundreds of thousands or millions of ballots.
I know of one whack job who has said voter fraud is the reason California is not a red state. Folks, if you believe that, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. That is what I refer to as a hair on fire conspiracy theory. It also makes people think there is no fraud.
I do think fraud exists by both parties; I was told more people are registered to vote than there are people eligible to in just about every county in California. I do believe this to be true.
The problem I have with the Republican approach is they try too hard to prove something that could be proven far easier. The DOJ subpoenaed ballots from Fulton County (Georgia) for the 2020 election where Trump keeps swearing was ripe with fraud. Never has there been an indictment or a report verifying the fraud existed. Again, the lack of any reports tells me that fraud likely did not occur. Chad Bianco (sheriff running for governor) seized a bunch of ballots in his home county of Riverside. Nothing appears to be coming out of that either. In both of these examples, a reasonable conclusion would be “much ado about nothing” conspiracy myth busted.
Why not try a more reasonable approach.
The Republican Party should look to what the CRA did over a decade ago. (The following relates to the CRA statewide convention held around 2011.) The rumor was that there were a bunch of local units that existed only on paper. Said paper units existed solely to endorse preferred candidates of the political class/consultants every 2 years. The membership secretary, Peggy Mew, would not turn over the membership rolls. As a result, some of the officers went to investigate for themselves. When the units were confronted by Aaron and George Park at the convention, my goodness what a show that was. One unit president could not name what date they held their meetings. Another couldn’t name the meeting location. A check was shown from a political consultant paying the fees for several members of different units. Obviously, fraud was occurring. My understanding is the units were shuttered.
What is my point?
Fight the fraud the same way. Folks, I can tell you it exists. Want solid proof? Here in the town 20 or so minutes from me, a city councilman pleaded guilty to voter fraud. He had quite a few ballots, and registered voters living at his house.
Shakir Khan, in January 2024, took a no-contest deal for stashing 41 ballots at his home for the 2020 election. Investigators also found that he had registered 23 people at his home and that his email and phone number had been used to register 47 others.
Former Lodi City Council Member Shakir Khan sentenced for 2020 election fraud scheme
Folks Lodi is the town this occurred in. It is not very large. Let’s call it 47 ballots of fraud in Lodi, so how many does that equate to in say; Sacramento? San Francisco? Los Angeles? San Diego? I have been told stories of apartments that have numerous active voters registered at them. Maybe start there?
The Marin GOP claims 73 dead people voted in the special election we had a few months ago….
“I, along with others on our committee, have been dissecting Marin County voter rolls for over three years,” Turnacliff said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “ … And based on our analysis of the ballots that were returned for the Prop. 50 special election on Nov. 4, we found 73 people, 73 dead people had voted in that election.”
While some will say 47 and 73 amount to rounding errors, those were recently discovered. As I mentioned earlier, how many more exist? The apartment with 9 people registered to vote who are regular voters may be a place to start. It is not about accusing folks of fraud, it’s just asking a question. I bought my house 10 years ago; the couple I bought it from, I believe, have both passed away. If still listed as active and voting at my address, someone has some explaining to do.
My point is has been and always will be, try to crack the door open. Once it gets cracked open, use a pry bar and force it to be completely open. In my opinion, the Lodi city councilman had some smoke, which turned into a lot of smoke, then a lot of fire. It got to a point that it needed to be investigated and prosecuted.
I am sure there are a ton of these cases that could be made. Quit screaming hair on fire voter fraud conspiracies or waiting for Trump’s DOJ to prosecute or release a report on voter fraud. Sheriff Bianco seizing ballots? It’s a rough look, intentions may have started out being good, but it’s a bad look.
But, but, but our county has a Democrat DA, get the local paper involved. San Joaquin is a blue county; they prosecuted that Lodi councilman. It can and will happen. Crying about the 2020 election makes you sound like a bitter ex-lover. Move on. Yes, there were likely shenanigans, but Trump got elected again and moving on is good.
The Chief
Editor’s Note: I respectfully disagree with the Chief on this issue. I think vote fraud is a huge issue, especially in California. Here is an article from one week ago. Oregon was ordered by a federal court to remove 800,000 names from their voter rolls following a lawsuit from Judicial Watch. “Oregon and nearly all its counties had registration rates exceeding 100% of the eligible population, the highest inactive registration rate in the nation.” Ditto for voter rolls in many parts of the once golden state.