Hypocrisy check: Those Republicans fighting Newsom on vote-by-mail? That’s how they vote
Remember how the California Republican Party joined in a lawsuit seeking to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom from giving every Californian the option of voting by mail in the November general election?
Remember how CRP essentially jumped on the President Donald Trump train of voter suppression by joining the suit, along with the Republican National Committee?
Trump has been sputtering about “voter fraud” since he first ran for office, even though he offers no real proof and the data show that voter fraud is rare. And yet, even though Trump is wildly unpopular in California and state Republicans only lose when being associated with him, here we are.
CRP is suing to stop statewide voting by mail, claiming that only the Legislature can make this change. The action defies description, particularly when you consider that almost every major member of CRP votes by mail and has for years.
CRP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson? Voting records show that she is registered as “Permanent Vote By Mail.” She has voted absentee in 15 consecutive election cycles dating to 2006.
CRP Vice Chairman Peter Kuo? He’s registered “Permanent Vote By Mail.”
State Sen. Ted Gaines of Roseville? Same. He hasn’t cast a ballot at a polling place since 2004, according to state voting records. The same goes for state GOP stalwart, Jim Brulte. A former state senator and chairman of the state GOP, Brulte hasn’t voted at a polling place since 2001.
Honestly, we could be here all day with this. Rep. Doug La Malfa of Richvale? He’s “Permanent Vote By Mail” and hasn’t voted at a polling place since 2002. Darrell Issa, the former representative who joined the suit? He votes by mail.
Huge Trump fan Melissa Melendez, a Southern California Republican who was just elected to fill a vacant seat in the state Senate, has actually been a consistent voter at polling places for years until the March primary, when she voted by mail.
On Friday, a superior court judge in Sutter County temporarily blocked part of Newsom’s executive order after two GOP assemblymen sued Newsom on the grounds that he is abusing his powers. The suit did not address vote-by-mail.
And wouldn’t you know that one of them, James Gallagher, is registered as “Permanent Vote By Mail.” Kevin Kiley is not registered that way, but his voting record shows that he has voted absentee several times. The same goes for Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove.
Voter fraud myth
Get the point?
State GOP leaders vote by mail, but they are suing to stop other Californians from doing so.
Why?
“The issue isn’t vote by mail,” said CRP Senior Advisor Cynthia Bryant in an email to me. “It’s sending ballots to every name and address on the inaccurate California voter rolls when it is a simple and easy process for anyone who would like to proactively request one. It’s easy, which is why millions of Californians already do it.”
She added: “The voter rolls in California are poor. There are duplicates, dead people and moved people sprinkled throughout. So we start with a poor foundation.”
Which brings us back to the assertion that California voting rolls are inaccurate to the point of being illegitimate. This is simply not factual. The non-partisan Brennan Center has studied the notion of dirty tricks in voting and found the problem to be “minuscule.”
Pandemic and the polls
The thing is: In-person voting will still be possible in California this November but we’ve been dealing with this little thing called COVID-19. Newsom’s executive order was made with the idea that Californians must be able to vote safely.
“No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote,” Newsom wrote in his May 3 order.
Coronavirus infection rates are spiking again in several California counties. Who knows what the pandemic will look like on Nov. 3, election day. And no data show that voting by mail helps either party.
Both political parties benefit
Rob Stutzman, one of the best GOP operatives around, argues that older Republican voters are probably more predisposed to voting by mail than young progressive Democrats.
“Older people use mail, young people lose mail,” Stutzman said.
And, oh yeah, California Republican leaders vote by mail already.
Mike Madrid, the former political director of CRP who is now a staunch anti-Trump Republican, says the move by CRP to sue voting by mail says that is the only strategy state Republicans have to depress the vote.
“We will not remain quiet when our years of work to bring more voters to the polls is undermined by a new strategy of disenfranchisement and disinformation led by the president and implemented by a subjugated Republican Party,” Madrid wrote in a commentary with consultant Jimmy Camp.
And you know, Republicans just flipped a Congressional seat from blue to red with a strong vote-by-mail turnout. Stutzman wrote about it in the Washington Post.
So let’s review: We’re in the middle of a pandemic, we have no proof of widespread voter fraud, the data show no advantages in vote-by-mail to either party. But the biggest state win in the GOP in years was greatly helped by voting by mail. And California Republicans vote by mail, yet they are suing to stop it in California.
Are they carrying Trump’s water because they must?
“We don’t agree with the premise of the question,” Bryant said to me by email. “But we also don’t speak for the president. We participated in the lawsuit because it is an important issue. “
If you say so. Enjoy voting by mail this November. It works.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
