This morning, the Orange County Register had a story that I pulled for the main page. Its about a bill authored by Senator Jim Battin (R-Palm Desert, pictured to the left) to tackle voter registration fraud that was signed by the Governor yesterday.
The Register, out of all the papers in the state, chose to run this story because there were incidents of registration fraud that popped up in the county earlier this year. A canvassing business employed by the Orange County Republican Party deviated from instruction and the law and improperly re-registered people from their chosen party affiliation. It looks bad for Repubicans at first glance, but let me tell you why I think we gained ground from it.
Historically, Democrats have been loath to enact tougher registration and voter fraud regulations. FR friend John Fund wrote a whole book about Democrat Party efforts to loosen state restrictions on voting. Remember same-day registration? Remember no ID? It takes Republican association with wrongdoing for Democrats to consent to any common sense protections of the age-old American act of voting. That’s what we had. That’s what we received.
SB 1348 (which LegInfo still has as "Enrolled" and not "Chaptered") would, "make it a misdemeanor for any person … to knowingly misrepresent himself or herself as having helped register another to vote on a registration form, and would impose a fine not exceeding $10,000, imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or both, for a 3rd or subsequent conviction." That’s good. I seriously doubt there would have been unanimity in both the Senate and the Assembly for the measure if this year’s events had not transpired.
UPDATE: Since posting, I have been informed (thanks AT!) that Secretary of State Bruce McPherson sponsored SB 1348. He certainly deserves proper respect for passage of the bill as well.
In a release from his office, McPherson said "I commend the Governor for signing this bill. My office has a zero tolerance policy for voter fraud and this measure will further protect the rights of voters. We aggressively pursue all evidence of voter fraud in California as part of my effort to ensure our elections are conducted with integrity.
"It was a pleasure to work with Senator Battin to move this legislation forward. As California’s Chief Elections Officer my top priority is to protect the integrity of the vote and I am pleased with the step we’ve taken today."
**There is more – click the link**