In California, Democrats are ringing in the New Year with a new push against voter identification. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been hammering Huntington Beach because the city recently amended its municipal laws to require basic voter identification. While voters overwhelmingly support voter identification, Democrats in California recently passed a law making it a crime to ask for voter identification at polling places. Now, Bonta is asking for an appellate court to intervene to prevent Huntington Beach from asking for IDs before people vote.
After Huntington Beach passed Measure A requiring voter identification in 2026, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning voter identification requirements. Bonta then sued the city but the California Superior Court ruled it too soon for a lawsuit. California Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas wrote that “this matter is not ripe for adjudication, as [the change to] the City’s Charter is permissive and discretionary in character, and thus currently presents no conflict with state elections law.”
Bonta, however, wants a ruling to prevent voter identification before the 2026 elections.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber insisted that California residents are already required to verify their identity when they register to vote, but the city argues that it does not mean that the person voting is that same person.
Democrats have continued to block voter identification laws and policies despite Gallop and other polling showing as much as 80 percent of Americans support voter identification laws across party lines. The Biden Administration was widely criticized for its effort to prevent Virginia from removing the names of people who previously stated that they were not U.S. citizens.
Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls.
While Weber denounced the laws as a form of voter suppression, there is no evidence that such laws have had any such material effect. Indeed, President Biden and Democrats widely denounced voting laws in states like Georgia as “Jim Crow 2.0,” but under these laws, Georgia and other states set records in the turnout of voters.
Bonta’s actions show that Democrats will not yield on the effort to prevent voter identification at polling places. Instead, they seem to be doubling down with less than a third of Americans supporting the effort.
So much for political resolutions to realign the party after the election losses in November.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Very quickly, almost immediately, in fact, when the polls close a digital list of registered voters can be generated, which would include whether they voted in that election or not. Those who voted can very easily be filtered out, leaving you with a list, by affiliation, of those who did not vote. These votes are, of course, ripe for “harvest” by the dirty Democratic Party Machine. This is all public information, and includes your mailing address and other public information data. It is very easy to use the list to print out ballots, envelopes, etc. Why do you think it takes them a month to count the ballots in California? They don’t know how many they’ll need until the poll close, and it takes time to harvest them ballots.
Cheaters gotta cheat.
Greedy gotta greed
I process these posts from JT by trying to consider all angles. I can usually find a reason someone would support a viewpoint that I don’t naturally agree with. Even our High Speed Rail boondoggle has a possible reason for support…barely. But this issue is the one that boggles the mind. I’ve got nothing. This one is purely an FU to our citizens…period.
Xo, this hardcore lefty wants to proclaim to the adults in the room that he only wants to illegally skew all elections in favor of illegals and undocumented workers so that he can continue to purchase his job as governor. And, yet, he still has delusions of that Resolute desk.
In CA as all other states, printed ballots are bar-coded to the individual voter. So, ID is crucial during voter registration. We have that in CA. As to in-person voting, what specific scam risks weigh in favor of showing ID? If you vote another citizen’s ballot, unless you know that person will not attempt to vote, you risk getting caught and punished.
There is nothing wrong in theory about in-person voter ID — the devil is in the details, which is not slowing down or impeding any legal voter. What type of ID? If it’s Real ID, what % of legal voters are equipped with Real ID? If the number will reach 100% by 2026 or 2028, then that’s when in-person voter ID should kick in, not now.
Whatever Voter ID is required at the polls, the same security should be required for mail-in voting. This could be done by mounting a camera on ballot drop boxes, and requiring the voter to swipe their Drivers License (or Real ID), and have their picture and that of their signed ballot envelope recorded.
You said, “If you vote another citizen’s ballot, unless you know that person will not attempt to vote, you risk getting caught and punished.”
Uh, how are you going to get caught if you don’t show your correct ID???
Really, the cheating problem is immense, and the system does not leave a practical audit trail. In one election alone, in Chicago, there were 100,000 phony ballots. There were 73 conspirators, and the only reason it got caught was that one of them did not get the job he was promised, and ratted the rest of them out.
Here, look at some of the crap that goes on:
https://electionfraud.heritage.org/
There is the misnomer that there simply isn’t anywhere close to the election fraud that some maintain, simply because the number of cases don’t support it. That is like saying a store doesn’t have a shoplifting problem simply because there were only two arrests made during the entire month, yet the manager can tell you with certainty that they lost hundreds, if not thousands, of products, due to theft. Just because the thieves aren’t caught doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
You are correct. Fraud is a crime that very often gets undetected.
If printed ballots are bar-coded to the individual voter, how is that a secret ballot? I could understand if the envelope containing the ballot has a bar-code, whether when being sent or turned in, but not the ballot itself. I was always under the impression that, when received, the bar-code would be scanned to verify that there was a legitmate ballot enclosed, which was them segregated and put with other ballots to be counted together. In other words, there should be no way for anyone to ever know how any individual voted. (By virtue of signing the envelope containing the ballot, one would be certifying the legitimacy of their ballot. Anyone else doing so would be breaking the law.)
A reporter in NY walked down the street and questioned people about having an ID. Every single person he asked had an ID and could point him to the BMV closest by to get an Id. All races and ethnicities answered correctly and with ease. Moral- voters are smarter than politicians and most of the media.
Did he ask the DMV, “By what election year will every eligible voter have Real ID?” That’s when Voter ID should kick in, and not before.
You’re injecting the “real ID” issue into this. Nobody else has mentioned that as a requirement. Government ID’s that are not at that standard work just fine for voter ID. Real ID didn’t even exist until recently and somehow society survived with regular old driver’s licenses or their equivalent for any number of things.
@pbinca Did he ask the DMV, “By what election year will every eligible voter have Real ID?” That’s when Voter ID should kick in, and not before.
WTF?
The “what year” is a sophomoric and superfluous non sequitur for various reasons. Where that response came from is a real head scratcher.
First, as voting regulations are a state matter they might AGREE to use Real ID… or a passport if they wish. Maybe a state’s concealed carry license. Or a state resident ID card that has one form for citizens and another for those present as legal aliens i.e. permanent resident aliens who are not yet citizens, work visas, student visas.
Federal Real ID may become a format states decide to CHOOSE to trust as voter ID, but many other forms of ID can be also trustworthy.
The last thing most here would want would be more federal government screwing around attempting to control state voting regulations.
Second, the concept that voter ID should kick in at some point in the future, rather than it should already be mandatory to secure elections is something like a weird idea blowing in from the west coast, somewhere in Newsom’s California.
Old Airborne Dog
I rank Joe Biden as the most personally corrupt President in American History, easily more so than Richard Nixon. For most incompetent, I would put Joe at second, behind Woodrow Wilson (who was practically braindead toward the end). Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson (both drunkards) could give Joe stiff competition for second place. Pierce might bump Joe from second, but that’s a big maybe.
When a President with the CV of most corrupt and highly incompetent tells us that voter ID is bad, just know that we need voter ID to protect us from pols exactly like him.
Correction: Arthur Link wrote that Woodrow Wilson’s “recovery was only partial at best. His mind remained relatively clear; but he was physically enfeebled, and the disease had wrecked his emotional constitution and aggravated all his more unfortunate personal traits.”
This is good news for Joe. He still has a shot at most incompetent.
Diogenes,
I am waiting to see people who have been put out by the Biden admin come out in tell all books, interviews etc. of how corrupt, incompetent, and how long did they know Biden had dementia. Will the DNC turn on him too and throw him under the bus? They need a scapegoat to blame for their failures.
It will be hilarious, Upstate. It will make “Succession” look like Romper Room.
Diogenes: I do not mean to be disrespectful toward the presidency (but I have never had any respect for Biden),
but (neither of us probably old enough to remember the show),– yet I can picture black and white film reruns of kids romping around in a circle on broomsticks, with little Joey Biden riding a dog-faced pony soldier….
😉
Lin, I hope I haven’t defamed Romper Room. It’s a cruel comparison. After all, those kids on Romper Room grew up. The Whitehouse staff never did.
George’s mommy must not have fixed him his oatmeal yet.
Good ‘Ol George will show up soon, probably comparing Voter ID with Jim Crow laws, or something like that. Whatever the DNC Party spin is.
Can you believe this? Yesterday, the goober said that you can change your sex by removing your genitals! Gee, I guess with women with breast cancer and hysterectomies become men! Who knew?
Stupid Democrats will twist themselves into logical pretzels to ameliorate the cognitive dissonance! If George is a real person, and not a Parody Puppet, I feel sorry for the poor idiot.
Every democracy on this planet uses voter ID except us. The UK most recently instituted it. That leaves the US. Even India with 1.5 billion people has voter ID. It does not eliminate cheating but if you require all voters to present themselves with voter ID at a polling place you will minimize cheating. No mail in except military. All voting in person on the same day. To quote Men in Black, “be there or be square”. Or left out.
* handicapped, too…
Not at all surprised. There isn’t going to be a turnaround for the American democratic party; they are fully captured and have been long enough any vestiges of sense or sanity were burned and left behind long ago. They cannot walk a lot of things back, but in particular they and their minions’ actions of the past five or so years. None of them. They shouldn’t even waste their time.
If any of those moderate ‘classical liberals’ even still exist and have the courage to call out their peers they could fracture off and form another party I suppose, but I’m still never voting dem again. I have generational elections still to go and that is how long it will take to fix their madness. They really are an aristocracy, and they aren’t simply going to change into meritorious people overnight, or after one or two election cycles. Be prepared for them to continue to lie their a$$es off, as they think they are the chosen ones (huh. Where have I heard that before?).
James,
Just read this, Among Democrats, 45% of those surveyed said they consider themselves a progressive Democrat and 44% said they consider themselves a traditional Democrat.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/most-gop-voters-consider-themselves-trump-republicans-new-poll-shows
As long as nearly half of the Democrat party is part of the woke progressive mind virus, we can expect the Democrat party to continue to fail.
How marvelous!
@Upstate
Yes, and that 44% are too chicken to speak up out of fear of ‘looking bad’, or ‘hurting feelings’. There is no hope for modern dems. 🤷🏻♂️
Leave it to the Democrats running the failed state of CA to ignore their own people. And they wonder why so many people are leaving the Democrat party.
Failed? Has a GNP greater than a majority of countries in they world. How is that a failure?
How many have left the D-Party?
California says it lost $2 billion in state income taxes from earners leaving
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/california-says-it-lost-2-billion-state-income-taxes-earners-leaving
The obvious motivation behind California’s bizarre policy against voter id is to allow or encourage non-citizens (read illegals) to vote. This pernicious California position not only erodes the rights of all citizens but also undermines the basic fabric of our Constitution.
OK, but then explain why California requires proof of ID when REGISTERING to vote? That pretty much destroys your theory that the goal is to make it easy for illegals to vote. You have to be registered to vote.
Silly Rabbit! John Smith registers to vote. Jose Herrera shows up to vote.
TO Anonymous: Registering to vote is a good first step but it doesn’t prevent the alluring invitation for fraud that no voter ID encourages. Note, there are thousands of registered dead people in California, any one of whom can be impersonated. If a voter can present ID to register, then it should be no problem to present that same ID in person to vote. Perhaps Mr/Ms anonymous can articulate a cogent reason for not having voter ID?
“New voters may have to show a form of identification or proof of residency the first time they vote, if a driver license or SSN was not provided when registering.”
https://covr.sos.ca.gov/
Time to END Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits and schools. Also Ban Public Unions
Stop rewarding Democrats for Failure!
End aid? Now how do you figure to do that?
“End aid? Now how do you figure to do that?”
Is that rhetorical, or do you really misunderstand the structure of the Republic that profoundly? There is absolutely nothing in the Constitution that authorizes the Federal government to fund the expenses of the States at any level, for any reason, much less use that funding to attempt to exert control over decisions that are rightfully in the sole domain of those States. The simplest “how” would be to pass legislation revoking all previous laws authorizing those subsidies. It might also be useful to selectively supplement that process with executive orders and court decisions.
Time to JAIL the people organizing ILLEGAL voting
A state that cheats invalidates a state that doesn’t cheat.
TIME TO PUNISH Democrat Criminals…this is a Conspiracy to COMMIT Treason against America!
Treason? The only crime would be that a foreigner votes. Rounding them up to do so, is not. But how ,would you punish those people – what law?
(ret.) Why do Politicians overtly keep taking Us for Fools?
(California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Cal Legislature, Cal Congress Del)
The behavior is a corruption, a violation of -political-moral-turpitude, contravening the basis of a sound Constitutional basis.
These Politicians are the ‘Broken Arrows” of Our social contract [K].
Who in this day and age is not already ‘identified’ (Seriously Cal. is the Surveillance State), hence providing Official Identification should not be the issue, other than to measure the Dissidents whom do-not want to provide (resist) Identification. The act of ‘resistance’ itself is identifying. What will the Citizens do when California, the Big Tech State rolls out Facial Recognition in the Polling Booth and Polling Area. In many places (Public Blds.) Video Surveillance (one step away comes Facial Recognition) is already in place.You can’t enter & exit a Walmart without being on Camera. So ‘It’s-Over’ They have lost the War on Identification before it even starts.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is deliberately making the Huntington Beach Measure an ‘issue’, just to induce Rage and target Dissidents.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Released: April 2nd 1968 (57 years ago)
Your point?
Tomorrow is Today – , The Future is Now!
At the Expo 67 (World Fair – Montreal Canada) the Telephone Pavilion featured the technological state of what’s to come. Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (68) showcased it, Bell Telephone Co. also had a spot in the film when Dr. Floyd ‘phones home.
The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has had a Bell Telephone (communications) exhibit for decades, Ditto the The Henry Ford Museum – Greenfield Village, They have been telling you what’s to come and now it’s here.
Proof: Today we have Hand Held Cellular Computers the size of a Chocolate Bar, We have Elon Musk’s Space Network connecting People around the Globe. Free Speech is anytime everywhere. We have Facial Recognition in many corners of everyday life. The Communications technology has become ‘saturated’ and it will continue to saturate our lives more and more.
YOU HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED, Voter ID is passe and stands only to confirm your compliance with the Authorities. (BTW: Did you get that Covid-19 Shot(s) – No, you did not comply …Hummm you made ‘The List’)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_Pavilion_(Expo_67)
It’s Over … Yesterday
“… The government’s been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the ‘ s.
They’ve infected everything. …”
Enemy of the State (1998 – 27 yrs. ago)
Good night Jonathan
So if you want to preoccupy your worries about Identification, then worry about: How A.I. is identifying You, not just the surface (your carcass) but You. How you think, how you feel, how you do things, how you live Your life.
Your ‘being human’ is being cataloged. the saturation has begun.
A quick look at the current state and future of AI Agents
“… The AI Agent framework currently plays the role of a glue, gluing together clients (Twitter, Discord, Telegram, etc.) and various plug-ins (chains, etc.). The framework then provides a basic library (memory storage, session isolation, context generation), etc., and then connects to various AI platform interfaces. …”
By: PA荐读 ~ 2024-12-29
https://www.panewslab.com/en/articledetails/q2az1t46.html
So then the question becomes: If A.I. knows how you’re going to Vote, then why even have an Election?
The tabulation is completed upon the raised Issue(s). We don’t need US.
Not exactly on topic… but I wonder how many congressional seats would Democrats lose in CA if they couldn’t count illegals?
@OldFish: A lot.
Can you please quantify that?
Can you please quantify that?
Why do you ask that vague question. Out of actual interest?
Or is that your special, unique form of ‘resistance’ to the fact normal Americans know that Democrats hold seats in the House only because Illegal Aliens are counted for the purposes of allotting seats?
Would you prefer to step forward and say that there are no congressional seats in California that exist due to the numbers of Illegal aliens?
Maybe 4 or 5 seats. It’s been estimated that 10% of CA population is illegal immigrants. CA has 53 seats.
It’s been estimated that 10% of CA population is illegal immigrants.
There is no such thing as an “illegal immigrant”. That is an oxymoron. The term is a deliberately pushed invention of the Democrat-Media Propaganda Complex. The proper, historical, accurate term is ‘Illegal Aliens’. We do not have to give them what they want, putting lipstick on the pig that is Illegal Aliens by using the terms they want us to use.
Immigrants, by definition, are all legal. To win approval to be an immigrant they have followed through with all the procedures, background checks, and verification that takes place as required by the government before arriving in that country as immigrants.
These Illegal Aliens have deliberately and with forethought pretty much done the opposite of what immigrants do. And they do so in order to avoid being vetted by the immigration process.
About one million new immigrants complete that legal process each year, proving that the system isn’t “broken” – except for those not wanting to either wait their turn and/or are fearful they will fail the criteria to be accepted as an immigrant.
Some of the reasons they criminally enter as Illegal Aliens is due to a history of previous criminality, inability to support themselves and likely to become dependent on government taxpayer support, etc.
Immigration is supposed to focus on being to the advantage of the admitting country and its citizenry by who it chooses to allow in.
NOT to be to the advantage of those wanting to come live here whatever their background, nor to advance the political objectives of a political party, with the best for the country and citizenry running last as to who should benefit.
Old Airborne Dog
The last I heard the number was about 15.
Election fraud is an artform, broadly and skillfully developed over the years by the Democratic party. The voter ID requirement cancels their fraudulent efforts instantaneously. Must be frustrating for them after all their efforts. But don’t fret – they are a persistent and pesky group.
Sadly, it does not cancel their cheating – it just makes it a little more difficult. A crooked poll official can still run the same ballot multiple times, for example. And ballot harvesters can still pay people for votes, and do other shenanigans.
The reason why so little voter fraud is prosecuted is not necessarily because there is so little voter fraud. It’s because the laws in nearly all states make it very hard, bordering on impossible, to prove and prosecute. A case is not ripe before a fraudulent ballot is cast, and after the election it is too late. Someone in a position of authority practically has to catch the fraudster at the moment the fraudulent vote is cast. How do you do that will mail in voting; “ballot harvesting” and so many of the other innovations Democrats have concocted in the past 30 years – after losing three consecutive presidential elections in 1980, 1984, and 1988?
And there are people who are sooo stupid that they continue to support the Democrat Party, while they will try to gaslight us that it is about anything except cheating at the ballot box.
I would say, dress up as Adolph Hitler when you go to vote. They can’t ask for ID right?
To make what point? Hopefully when you try that stunt, the voters of both sides beat the sh!t out of you. I would.
In 2020 the Democrats were trying to pass, as their first piece of legislation, a law to FEDERALIZE elections and one of the laws provisions was to BAN voter ID. The Dems even tried to end the filibuster so they could pass this law, as well as pack the Court and add two states.
Two things come to mind:
Why would a party want to actually ban voter ID when 80% of the populace supports it? The question answers itself.
Tangentially, why haven’t the Republicans at least threatened to end the filibuster now that they control the senate? I do not support ending the filibuster, but at least use the threat to get fascists like Schumer and Warren to actually have to come out in favor of the filibuster.
Harry Reid famously ended the filibuster for judicial nominees which was followed by the Republicans ending it for Supreme Court nominees the minute they took over.
The Democrats were screaming from 2020 to 2022 about ending the filibuster, it is now time to play a little game I call FAFO.
I’m kinda thick. What is FAFO?
Fvck around and find out.
“F*** around and find out.”
Fool Around and Find Out.
It will be magical, watching GOP lawmakers quote Democrat scholars on why we should end the filibuster… now that Republicans control Congress. Even if the vote fails–which it should–I just want to see Democrats make fools of themselves, trying to explain away everything they said before about ending the filibuster.
@Hullbobby Tangentially, why haven’t the Republicans at least threatened to end the filibuster now that they control the senate?
As foul-tasting as that is to think about, I can’t think of a rational reason why they should not do just that. And once that’s done, go into hyperdrive to reverse much of what corrupt Soviet Democrats have done since Obama first set foot in the Oval Office.
If anyone believes that if the Democrats had cleaned up in the last election by winning the presidency, the House, and Senate, that the Democrats then wouldn’t have killed the filibuster to first pack SCOTUS, and then add states and new senators in order to become a Washington hegemony, I would be interested in hearing why they feel assured Democrats would NEVER do that.
Democrats have been talking about packing the courts and ending the filibuster as they did for judges since Trump won the 2016 election. Many of their major leaders spent the last election cycle talking about doing that when they believed Trump could not win.
When somebody tells you they want to destroy you, there should be a point where you start to believe them and act proactively in your defense to prevent them from doing that.
As I see it, as fugly as ending the filibuster is, I would like to see the Republicans be first past the post on that to make future abuses by Democrats with the filibuster removed a lot harder to carry out after Republicans hopefully make SCOTUS, the number of states, etc a much harder target. Inevitably, at some point in the future the conditions today will be reversed; it will be Democrats holding the Senate, House, and Presidency.
A senate can’t bind a future senate. But perhaps Republicans can get Democrats to agree to a restored and codified filibuster agreement that Democrats will feel will be more damaging if they remove it again in the future.
I have no idea of how they could do that. But the Democrats will almost certainly fulfill their stated intent to eliminate the filibuster when the conditions are there for them to do that. Republicans for the future of our system of government had better do that first to make malicious acts without a filibuster much harder.
Old Airborne Dog
Unfortunately, by cheering Republicans on to use the Variant Golden Rule (“Do unto others… then split”) on Democrats, you give up on our Republic. I am not yet ready to make that concession.