[CAVO] Fwd: FW: 55.2% of the Voters

Thu Aug 4 04:44:13 UTC 2016

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Mulholland <chicobob at msn.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 9:20 PM
Subject: FW: 55.2% of the Voters
To: Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com>

On May 26, 2016, at 6:18 AM, Bob Mulholland <chicobob at msn.com> wrote:

May 26, 2016

To:              Secretary of State Alex Padilla

                   Fax: 916-653-1458

From:         Bob Mulholland

                    chicobob at msn.com

CC.              Legislative Election Committees

                   Media

I am writing to state my opposition to SB 450 - a bill that would close 90%
of our polling places. If there are some election "experts," telling you
that the reason that 10.3 million registered voters did not vote in the
November 2014 election, was because there were not 1,151 Voting Centers,
ask them - well how did 13.7 million in 11/08; 10.3 million in 11/10 and
13.2 million voters in 11/12 cast ballots without Voting Centers?

California has almost 25,000 polling sites and over 50% of the ballots are
voted on or dropped off at those polling sites. Most voters finalize their
ballots in the last 5 days. The 25,000 "Voting Centers" are in their
neighborhoods. You close 90% of them and what do people do? Use a GPS
system to find a drop off site 10 miles away, with sunset before 5PM? And
if a person walks to their polling place? In urban areas, sending thousands
of cars to a Voting Center on Election Day, should require an EIR.

Starbucks has over 2,000 sites in Ca. They would never think of closing 90%
of them.

My suggestion - the SOS office should focus on expediting and improving the
data from the DMV office to the County Election offices. It has had
problems since Motor Voter was implemented in 1995. Also, the SOS office
should figure out why some counties validate over 90% of Provisional
ballots while other counties are in the low 80% and some in the 70%. What's
up with that?

See memo below with additional information. And I have my surveys from many
November General Elections from the 58 counties about VBM, Provisionals and
where and when ballots are dropped off or arrive in the mail.

April 6, 2016

*55.2% of the Voters, November 4, 2014, Went to the 24,435 Polls on
Election Day but Democrats Planning to Close over 23,000 of them, Which
Will Reduce Turnout of Minorities *

*Who Don't Have a Uber Driver or a Google Driverless Car to Take them to a
Voting Center*

This is an updated memo that I had sent into the Capitol on June 23, 2015.

SB 450 SHOULD BE TITLED- AN ACT TO CLOSE 24,000 VOTING SITES ON ELECTION
DAY!

In the election of 11/4/14, 55.2% (4,148,670) of the total voters
(7,513,972) went to a polling station on Election Day.  That includes the
2,966,267 precinct voters and 1,182,403 voters (26% of the total VBM) who
dropped off their VBM ballot at their polling site. For example, 96,442
ballots were walked into polling sites in Los Angeles County on Election
Day and millions of others arrived in the mail in the final 5 days.

For comparison, November 2012 had a total of 13,202,158 voters, including
6,448,470 precinct (48.8% of total) and assume the same 26% of VBM voters
dropped off their ballot at their polling site, that means 1,755,959 for a
total of 8,204,429, meaning on average, 335 voters went to each polling
site (24,491 total), thus, 62.1% of the voters went to their polling site.

There were 24,435 polling sites in California in November 2014, so on
average 170 voters went to their local polling site.

In November 2014, on average, a CD had 461 polling sites in California, a
SD had 611 polling sites and an AD had 306 polling sites.

If the whole state created Voting centers at 15,000 registered voter per
site, it would mean 17,259,413 registered voters, divided by 15,000 = 1,151
Voting Centers which breaks down to 22 per CD, 28 per SD and 14 per AD.

In reality, Senator Kevin de Leon's SD 24, with just 363,498 (1/5/16)
registered voters would have only 24, where people could either vote or
drop off their VBM ballot. At the same time SD 26 (Ben Allen, coastal
district) with 592,504 registered voters would have 40 Voting Centers.

CD 21 (Valadao) with only 204,713 registered voters would have 14 spread
out over 4 counties, while CD 33 (Lieu) with 457,242 registered voters
would have 31 on the west side of LA.

AD 32 (Salas Jr.) with only 131,272 registered voters would have 9 while AD
50 (Bloom) with 304,809 would have 21.

LA County (4.9 million registered voters), in November 2014 had 5,027
polling sites. Reducing it to 327 Voting Centers, would reduce the already
low turnout. Remember, that November 2014, 55.2% of all votes cast were at
the election day polling sites.

The high registration districts are mostly higher educated, higher income,
majority white and with cars, while low registration districts have large
minority communities and fewer vehicles.

Is the proposed law going to provide free parking or valet parking in San
Francisco and Los Angeles? In urban areas with almost no parking, many
voters can walk to their polling site. If 90% of polling locations are
closed, how do 55% of the voters get to a polling site on Election Day?
Will this bill provide funding for 100,000 plus Uber drivers?

Think of November 6, 2018, sunset is about 4:45PM and millions of
Californians go to their regular polling place, after work and might see a
sign- Your Poll Closed- drive 3 miles to XXX Main St., on the other side of
the freeway to vote and with Murphy's Law there would not even be signs up
at many locations. Never assume 100% of voters will conclude one week out
where to vote or that every voter has a car with a GPS system. This would
be discriminatory against hundreds of thousands of low income (many
minorities) and lead to many of them just going home.

And does this legislation, that allows only one polling site per 15,000
registered voters, possibly create a situation where 2 polling sites with a
total of 30,000 registered voters would be at the same location?  Take the
extreme of CD 21 with 14 polling sites on Election Day in 4 counties.

Have these bills been run by:

A. Voting Right experts                   D. Attorneys for the Disabled
communities

B. Civil Rights attorneys                  E. The US Justice Department

C. Political consultants

No one should depend just on the Capitol "review process." They missed the
property tax explosion in 1977-78; missed the Three Strikes movement; voted
unanimously for electricity deregulation (concocted by Maggie Thatcher,
Pete Wilson, Enron, Steve Peace, Jim Brulte etc.) costing CA consumers over
$20 billion and gave us the Top Two,which has added millions of dollars to
campaigns and given many voters a choice of only two candidates from the
same Party, leading to 3rd Party registered voters dropping out from voting.

If the Republicans introduced a bill to reduce the number of polling sites
in minority districts by 90%, most of us would be blasting the Republicans.

And once California starts closing thousands of polling sites, we will not
be able to go back, since many of the experienced poll workers will be hard
to bring back.

Let's be clear about the technology at a Voting Center that would allow a
voter in LA County to walk into one of 327 Centers (with multiple options
of languages?), it will break down. The Federal government with billions of
dollars and top "experts" did not realize for almost a year that allegedly
the Chinese military had hacked into their computers. The Federal
government had well over a year to set up the computer programs for the
Affordable Care Act (broke down immediately). The US Visa program to allow
foreigners into the US for jobs, weddings, etc. - hardware problem for
weeks last year crippled the program and the Feds have millions of dollars
and the "Best & Brightest" running  these programs.

The private sector, Target, big banks etc. have all been hacked into. When
vendors show the latest technology, it is with the guys who built the
system. Take that same system and hand it over to "Volunteer" poll workers
and imagine what happens when a glitch (Murphy’s' Law) happens. In Orange
County they were handing out the wrong Access numbers with an Assembly race
for another district from 7AM till early afternoon, when someone finally
"noticed," (LA Times March 6, 2004). Last year, United Airlines shut down
all flights for a couple of hours- computer glitches. Go to VotersUnite.org
to see voting mistake after voting mistake.

California should focus on making sure CalVoter is fully functionally and
operating, develop some helpful hints for the new VBM law (postmark by
election day and received by Friday, except this November, it will be
Monday, 11/14/16) and counting VBM and Provisional ballots and election day
registration, without radically changing the election day infrastructure.
For years, people have been asking - can't the SOS Office have more than
one person to investigate and prosecute those who fill out voter
registration cards with phony names or tricking Democrats to reregister as
Republicans (sign the initiative scam). Let's reduce that criminal activity
and hire some "Sheriffs."

Bob Mulholland

Chico, CA

chicobob at msn.com

cell 916-996-8666

P.S. -- We were all against that Texas case at the US Supreme Court, that
would only count citizens or registered voters for redistricting, which we
just won, so we can't turn around and say it is okay to limit polling
locations, because a lot of immigrants, who became citizens, but not yet
registered to vote, should not be counted in allocating polling sites.

P.P.S. -- New Hampshire, the first Primary in presidential races, has
Election Day registration (as a result of that, they got grandfathered out
of Motor Voter). As important, there are many polling places at schools and
some are closed for Election Day and others that are open, gives the
parent, picking up a child at school, the option to vote then. The schools
have big parking lots and NH is a rural state so most voters have vehicles
to get around. That is not the case in California with limited parking and
many without a vehicle.

*Turnout History in California*

The turnout in the November 1918 Governor election was only 59.4%.  It was
never that low again till the Governor race in November 1942 (59.3%) but it
was a war then, like in 1918. The next Governor race that was that low was
in November 1986 (59.4%) and the pattern has continued with: 1990 (58.6%);
1994 (60.5% - Prop. 187); 1998 (57.6%); 2002 (50.6%); 2006 (56.2%); 2010
(59.6%) and in November 2014, a record low with only a 42.2% turnout. From
1986 thru 2010 the turnouts were between 56.2% to 60.5%, except the 2002
election between Governor Davis and Bill Simon with a 50.6% turnout - a
boring race.

So while the number of people voting by mail increases, it has not led to
increases in turnout. VBM has moved some regular precinct voters to VBM
ballots.

In the presidential election of November 2008 there were 13,743,11 votes
cast with 41.6% by mail (79.4% turnout) and in November 2012, there were
13,202,158 votes cast with 51.6% by mail (72.4% turnout). People voted for
a "Cause."

According to the County reports, not only were 26% of the VBM ballots
dropped off at polling locations (11/14) but about half came in during the
last week. The roughly 50% of VBM voters who mailed their ballot in, before
a week out, used a stamp. The 50% who wait till the final days, use the
time to decide on those final races (local candidates and measures, etc.).
None of these people needed a Voting Center and certainly the 08 and 12
voters, 13 million plus each time figured it out. And 74% of VBM voters
already have a "Voting Center," it is a 49 cent stamp.

In June 1978 the turnout was 68.9% (Prop 13 was the motivation) and that
November the turnout was 70.4%

The US Census updated for 2014       Hispanics

California                                                 14,589,740

Colorado                                                     1,108,664

Oregon                                                           457,147

In November 2010 and in 2014, Colorado had very competitive Governor and US
Senate elections.  The turnout in November, 2010 was 73.5%. In November
2014 , with Voting Centers, the turnout was 56.9%, a drop of 16.6 points.
In California the turnout in 2010, with Governor & US Senate elections, was
59.6%. In November 2014, with no US Senate election and not really a
Governor election (11/2/14 poll - 42% of likely voters did not know that
Jerry Brown was running for reelection), the turnout was 42.2%, thus a drop
of 17.4 points. So both states had the same drop off.

And oh yes, Colorado, unlike California, had candidates from 6 political
parties on the ballot.

These massive change proposals of automatic VBM ballots, automatically
registering residents as Declines, eliminating 90% of our 25,000 polling
locations, Sample ballots by email instead of in the regular mail, creating
Voting Centers, many without free parking should not be adopted based on
Colorado.  Put them out for study around the state, ask Community Leaders
if they want 9 out of every 10 polling locations closed, meet with people
who do elections on the ground, etc.

California residents are not Ozzie & Harriet!
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