Chronicle columnist and former SF Mayor and Speaker Willie Brown bills himself as a pragmatic politician and I mostly agree. I also like pragmatism--a lot. So when Willie goes against his natural partisan leanings it's refreshing and enlightening. With election day approaching and a number of important measures on the ballot, here's what he had to say on Sunday:
Most states require voters to ask for mail ballots, which is how California used to do it. That way, they know a real person is reaching out. The way it’s working in California this year, however, every active voter on the state rolls will be sent a ballot. No request required. What much of the public does not know is that it’s very hard to strike someone from the voter rolls. The rule is, if someone misses two consecutive federal general elections — a presidential election and a midterm — and then misses two more after failing to respond to a mailed query from county registrars, they’re supposed to be tossed off the rolls.
So, you can be gone from your registered address — or dead — for a long time before the state gets around to erasing you. Some estimates say that up to 10% of California’s 20 million registered voters aren’t where the state thinks they are. Nonetheless, ballots will be going to their listed addresses. So some people who have moved won’t get ballots. Residents at the old addresses will get ballots for people who are no longer living there or are no longer living, period.
With the COVID exodus from the big and not-so-big cities, that 10% estimate may be more like 15% or more right now. If that concern is a "cockamamie voter fraud conspiracy" to use Willie's term, so be it. But if some of the local races or measure are real close, the recount and challenges could take awhile.
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