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.
One of the excellent aspects of Fund’s book, Stealing Elections, is the way it revives the thought of voting as a civil right. Voting and registration fraud aren’t just harmless acts of politicking, but civil rights violations against the whole of the voting populace. Elections are the bedrock of our republican democracy. When their integrity is compromised, republican democracy is compromised. No fewer than nine (XII, XIV, XV, XVII, XIX, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXVI) of our twenty-seven amendments to the United States Constitution govern voting and elections. We put a premium on this civil right when it comes to ink and parchment. But we frequenly fail to put a premium on its maintenance and enforcement. Battin’s bill is a good start toward reversing that policy.
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."
Thank you for reading.
Respectfully,
Nicholas Romero
Managing Editor, The FlashReport
Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?
Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.