Trump’s bogus election claims threaten California wildfire assist


California has an issue with its elections.

Not the way in which they’re performed or administered, although there’s actually room for enchancment.

The downside is with a sure pouty president who can’t recover from the very fact California voters just aren’t that into him.

Donald Trump misplaced the state by a whopping 4.2 million votes in 2016. He nursed his bruised ego by suggesting the end result was tainted by “millions and millions” of fraudulent ballots — regardless that there’s zero evidence supporting that declare.

In November, Trump won back the White House, however nonetheless misplaced California by practically 3.2 million votes. Not precisely a nail-biter, however positively higher than his showings in 2016 and 2020. Apparently, although, a gold star for progress wasn’t sufficient to spice up our needy president’s vanity.

“I think we would’ve won the state of California,” Trump instructed supporters at a post-inauguration celebration, “if the state had stronger voter identification laws.” Another assertion that’s not remotely grounded in actuality, however Trump’s gonna Trump.

Yes, it’s grown tiresome. But all that whining may very well be written off as simply more gaseous venting had the president not threatened to withhold desperately wanted assist to fire-ravaged Southern California.

“I have a condition,” he instructed reporters earlier than touring the charred remains of Pacific Palisades: Voter ID laws to treatment what Trump falsely described as “a very corrupt” state election system.

(He additionally reiterated his demand that California change its water policies, however possibly that’s been solved by the troops Trump supposedly sent to activate the water circulation from the Pacific Northwest. There had been no troops and there’s no such circulation, however no matter.)

Predictably, House Speaker Mike Johnson chimed in with his own false election claims, asserting that Republicans misplaced three California House seats in November due to vote-counting chicanery. “Inexcusable,” he huffed, echoing Trump’s suggestion there could also be political phrases for wildfire aid.

There is a lot mistaken with these sorts of threats, together with the very fact they’re morally reprehensible and completely with out precedent within the American annals of pure catastrophe — that’s, till Trump got here alongside. But we’ll save these lamentations for an additional day.

There’s additionally a fantastic deal that Trump, Johnson and their California-bashing allies get mistaken in regards to the integrity of the state’s election system.

For starters, repeated nationwide research have proven that voter fraud “is vanishingly rare and voter impersonation is nearly nonexistent,” because the Brennan Center for Justice, a legislation and coverage suppose tank at New York University, has famous.

That leaves us — let’s rapidly do the maths — tens of millions and tens of millions shy of the supposedly fraudulent votes that tipped California away from Trump.

As for the state’s notoriously prolonged vote-counting process, it could be a supply of vexation. (Including to many inside the state.) But there’s nothing nefarious occurring there, both.

Over the years, California lawmakers have enacted insurance policies aimed toward encouraging the greatest voter turnout possible, which is a commendable purpose in a consultant democracy. Once votes are solid, the state makes each effort to make sure they’re correctly tabulated. And there are a fantastic many to be counted. The variety of presidential ballots solid in California final November — practically 16 million — exceeds the inhabitants of all however 4 states.

It takes time to make sure that every of these ballots is respectable. (That’s the way you stop fraud.)

That could require verifying a person’s deal with or checking his or her signature towards the one on file. Or transport a mail poll that was dropped off on the mistaken location to the county the place it ought to have been solid.

A substantial variety of provisional ballots additionally must be processed. For occasion, if somebody exhibits up on the mistaken polling place they’re allowed to solid a poll, which then should be scrutinized.

All these steps maintain up the ultimate rely, which, sadly, has invited disingenuous claims about vote-switching and stolen House seats. There is a simple, completely harmless cause why Democratic candidates typically pull forward after trailing in early returns: Election day balloting has skewed Republican in recent times whereas mail ballots, that are counted later, have tended to favor Democrats.

If you need faster outcomes, the state ought to shell out more cash to pay for it. Counties are chargeable for tabulating ballots, however get nothing from Sacramento for that accountability. Let the state pay to rent extra staffers. Also, lawmakers might do extra to assist election workplaces in rural California, which are cash-starved in contrast with these in large city areas.

Another change value contemplating: Would shifting from county-managed voter registration databases to a state-managed system increase effectivity?

Those are all comparatively small modifications, nevertheless, in a system that wants no main overhaul.

“For eight years, Trump has cried wolf, pushing claims attacking the integrity of California’s elections,” Sen. Alex Padilla, the state’s former elections chief, mentioned in an electronic mail. “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and Trump’s actions are an attempt to sow distrust in California’s elections because he doesn’t like the results.”

It’s mentioned, fairly rightly, that elections have penalties. So does mendacity about elections.

Bogus claims solely serve to undercut religion in our democratic course of and insult the many individuals working diligently to make sure the honesty and effectivity of our election system. They achieve this below increasingly stressful and sometimes dangerous circumstances.

There’s no hurt contemplating whether or not issues will be executed higher.

But not by holding hostage tens of 1000’s of individuals whose lives have been devastated by wildfire. “They deserve support from their president,” Padilla rightly said, somewhat than “political gamesmanship.”

And not by looking for useless fixes for a nonexistent downside conjured up by a president who’s not simply a sore loser however a sore winner, as properly.



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