Disarming California’s criminals + Newsom’s top priorities + Upgrading old voting machines

Good Thursday to you all. Apparently there’s a wild turkey thing near the Capitol that everyone besides me seemed to know about.

DOJ’S ARMED PERSONS REPORT

The Department of Justice is scheduled to release its final Legislature-mandated report tomorrow on the status of the Armed Prohibited Persons System. Initially launched as a first-of-its kind database under the Bureau of Firearms in 2006, the system cross-references criminal history, mental health records and restraining orders with individuals who had previously purchased guns legally.

Special agents within the DOJ are then tasked with the potentially dangerous responsibility of physically removing firearms from the hands of people who possess them.

It’s been a contentious topic since, considering how many people are stacked in a growing backlog that the DOJ has yet to find a solution for.

In 2013, then Attorney General Kamala Harris secured $124 million from the Legislature to tackle the list of more than 20,000 people within three years. But as of last year, the department documented a near 9,000-person backlog.

Advocates for the program point to obstacles outside the department’s control. They say there are thousands of individuals added to the list each year and that the DOJ has struggled to hire and keep agents responsible for confiscating the weapons.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra maintains that the DOJ’s efforts are effective.

“We are constantly looking for ways to retrieve these weapons as quickly as possible,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a press conference this week, continuing that the impending report would address a number of concerns.

“I think on a wholesale basis, [it’s] bipartisanly agreed that this was a good program,” Becerra said. “The only one in the nation, again, California leads the nation.”

Others remain unconvinced.

The Senate Republican Caucus issued an unsparing letter to Becerra last year, in which the senators questioned the attorney general’s leadership and department priorities.

Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Red Bluff, told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that recruitment challenges were “just a hail Mary, lame excuse if I’ve ever heard one,” continuing that the slow progression was due to the DOJ’s “lack of will.”

TIME TO RETIRE

Not me. That’s decades to come.

But California’s old voting machines are scheduled to soon pass peacefully into a life of leisure.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that county elections officials must implement up-to-date technology in compliance of a secure voting standard by the March 3, 2020 presidential primary election.

Last year’s budget authorized $134 million for counties to modernize antiquated voting equipment and to institute the Office of Elections Cybersecurity and the Office of Enterprise Risk Management.

Padilla’s office said that 20 of California’s 58 counties have purchased new systems and that several more are in the process. But the secretary raised concerns over some counties’ lack of progress.

“Throughout California, many counties are using voting systems that are at or near their life expectancy,” Padilla said in a statement. “Some counties use machines that are so old that vendors no longer make replacement parts. Some counties utilize operating systems that are so old that they are no longer supported and security upgrades are not available. While county officials have worked diligently to keep equipment up and running, our democracy faces increasingly sophisticated threats from nefarious actors, both foreign and domestic.”

NEWSOM’S PRIORITIES

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff, Ann O’Leary, offered some insight into the governor’s priority list yesterday while speaking with Public Policy Institute of California’s president and CEO Mark Baldassare.

In case you didn’t know, Newsom has high ambitions.

According to O’Leary, California’s leading man hopes to pump “serious investments” into affordable housing, healthcare, education reform and earlychildhood initiatives.

And despite his confusing execution while announcing updates to high-speed rail during his State of the State address, O’Leary said the governor is committed to the project.

“The most good I can get done is make sure let’s get this train built in the Central Valley because we will get from north to south, but we’ve got to get something done,’” O’Leary said of Newsom’s thinking. “So that’s what he was trying to say. We take all the blame that we may not have said it as artfully as we could, but we certainly think there’s a lot we can get done.”

Sophia Bollag contributed reporting

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.”

- Michael Cohen speaking of President Donald Trump in his opening statement while testifying before the House Oversight and Reform Committee yesterday.

TWEET OF THE DAY

California House Democrat @RepDeSaulnier

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