Court OKs constitutional challenge to new law affecting farm industry

Good morning. TGIT. Sorry we went dark yesterday — scheduling conflict. However, had we not been dark, we would have told you about how a federal appeals court last week had taken the highly unusual step of finding a U.S. constitutional cause of action in a challenge to a California state law, which is the latest wrinkle in a long-running and bitter dispute between a farm workers’ union and two large Central Valley fruit growers.

The California Legislature approved a law last year that was designed to protect the state’s businesses after two court decisions left them open to unforeseen liabilities regarding the minimum wage.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1513, which passed by solid majorities, was a sign of concern about broad economic harm if companies who had acted in good faith were forced to pay various fines for some commonly accepted payment practices.

This legislative overhaul of the state’s wage-and-hour law waived all penalties if, by this Thursday, the companies paid their piece-rate workers back wages for any unpaid rest periods.

The legislation would have been largely noncontroversial, except that it included carve-outs for two Fresno-based fruit growers – Fowler Packing Co. and Gerawan Farming.

In other words, the law apparently applied to every California business, except for these particular companies, both of which had run afoul of a union.

Check CalWatchdog to find out what happens next. 

In other news: 

• “Sharing in a new emerging consensus in favor of substantial infrastructure spending, California Democrats have teed up the policy for early action in 2017, triggering renewed debate over the wisdom of funding the effort through significant new transportation-related fees and taxes.” CalWatchdog has more. 

• “Contradicting claims made by President-elect Donald Trump, the state Assembly’s top Republican said Wednesday that he doesn’t believe there was rampant voter fraud in California on Nov. 8.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

• “In the weeks since Donald Trump’s election, Gov. Jerry Brown has promised to press forward with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and on Tuesday he said the state is “taking whatever steps we can to find allies and partners” in that cause. But in private meetings with Republican governors here Tuesday, Brown encountered some resistance to one major initiative — his effort to integrate California’s largest power grid with other states in the region.” Politico has more. 

• “Assemblyman Jim Frazier announced Wednesday an effort to combat recently approved federal legislation that would maximize water exports from the Delta to Southern California agriculture.” The San Jose Mercury News has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone till January. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events scheduled.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mfleming

New follower: @ByJudyLin

Leaders in the state party are concerned about local elections, particularly in one important Orange County state Senate race.

But President-elect Donald Trump fanned the flames by tweeting California was one of three states with “serious” voter fraud. His Sunday tweet followed another sent hours earlier claiming that he’d “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” 

Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016

So far, Trump has offered no proof to his claims, which were dismissed in great detail by PolitiFact California. Secretary of State Alex Padilla immediately sent a press release disavowing the claim: “It appears that Mr. Trump is troubled by the fact that a growing majority of Americans did not vote for him. His unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd.”

SD29

California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte told party officials in an internal email obtained by CalWatchdog that the state has a history of “anomalies” that “deserve further scrutiny.” Brulte added that he believed “most of the government officials charged with ensuring voter and ballot integrity are good people who want to do the right thing.”

Brulte cited several incidents throughout the years, but came back to a recent election in Orange County — which ultimately gave Democrats a legislative supermajority — where voter turnout “increased in some cases up to 30 percent over the 2012 election.”

The Orange County Registrar of Voters attributed the spike in turnout percentage to a cleanup of the voter roll. 

Orange County’s history

California Republicans point back to a 1996 congressional race in Orange County, were 624 non-citizens voted after having registered illegally, according to a congressional investigation. In that race, the Democratic challenger, Loretta Sanchez, defeated the Republican incumbent, Bob Dornan, by less than 1,000 votes.

“That was before online registration, late registration, a boom in illegal residency, driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, and other trends,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, a member of the Republican National Committee from California. “Logically, the numbers are much higher today and the state seems deliberately to make it difficult to verify eligibility to vote and also takes little to no interest in preventing fraudulent voting.”

Ways to improve?

Dhillon said Republicans are concerned that the current online voter registration system doesn’t track the computer’s ISP address, which helps detect fraud, and that users can self-verify citizenship with a driver license number, which are issued to non-citizens.

Dhillon said Republicans believe new voters should verify citizenship, not just check off a box. 

Nothing to see here

But the Secretary of State’s office holds that there’s no problem. A spokesman told CalWatchdog that the SOS “already conducts routine security assessments of our systems,” but declined to give specifics.

Many election law experts say there is no evidence of widespread problem voter fraud. Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, said Trump’s claims did not happen and “lack any evidence or grounding in reality.” 

An investigation into what happened in Orange County may be worthwhile, Levinson said, but added that increased turnout itself isn’t enough to allege voter fraud.

“There are plenty of reasons this election cycle as to why people in Orange County would be motivated to go to the polls.” 

If he ultimately prevails, he can thank a change in state law to accept late absentee ballots, a bill authored by — state Sen. Lou Correa.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, the Santa Ana Democrat is down by just two votes to Republican Andrew Do in the First District Supervisorial race. Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley estimates there are 6,105 late absentee, provisional and election day ballots left to count — more than enough to flip the result.

Correa also has another ace up his sleeve: those late absentee ballots not yet received by county election officials.

SB29: Correa bill to accept late ballots

For years, state law required that absentee ballots be in the hands of an official “no later than 8 p.m. on election day.” That has meant thousands of ballots that were postmarked on Election Day but delayed in the mail could not be counted.

Effective Jan. 1, 2015, a new state law, Senate Bill 29, took effect that expanded the window of time for receiving late absentee ballots. California became the 12th state to accept late absentee ballots after Election Day. That California bill was authored by Correa.

According to the State Senate’s floor analysis of the bill, the new requirements for a vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot to be considered “timely cast” are:

“If it is received by the voter’s elections official via the United States Postal Service (USPS) or a bona fide private mail delivery company no later than three days after election day and either of the following is satisfied:

“A. The ballot is postmarked or is time stamped or date stamped by a bona fide private mail delivery company on or

“before election day; or,

“B. If the ballot has no postmark, a postmark with no date, or an illegible postmark, the VBM ballot identification envelope is date stamped by the elections official upon receipt of the VBM ballot from the USPS or a bona fide private mail delivery company, and is signed and dated by the voter on or before Election Day.”

Although there was wide-ranging support for the first provision of the law, it’s the second provision, allowing ballots without a postmark, that concerned some state lawmakers and well-respected organizations.

No Postmark: Potential for Voter Fraud

Correa’s bill passed the Senate on a 21-11 vote and the Assembly on a 54-25 vote. Republican lawmakers in both houses echoed the concerns of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association that the bill would increase the chances for voter fraud.

“We sympathize with the author’s desire to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised,” the HJTA wrote in opposition to the bill. “It is over this latter provision that we must oppose the bill. … For instance, a ballot without a postmark leads one to question its legitimacy. How do election officials know it wasn’t filled out after the election?”

Despite that serious question, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Correa’s bill into law on Sept. 26.

Growing Number of Late Ballots

Correa’s bill was inspired by a 2010 incident in Riverside County, where 12,563 absentee ballots were discovered at a local post office after Election Day. At first, the ballots were disqualified. A judge later ordered the ballots be counted.

The change in the law was supported by the California Teachers Association, California Common Cause and California Forward. According to California Forward, “68,000, or 1 percent of all ballots cast by mail in California went uncounted in 2012.”

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, has previously said late absentee ballots are “the number one reason for ballot rejections.” According to the group’s analysis of Orange County’s absentee ballots from the November 2012 general election, 3,362, or 0.6 percent, were not counted in that election. Of those disqualified ballots, 65 percent were due to being too late to count.

A 2012 analysis by Political Data Inc., the state’s leading voting and elections data firm, estimated “that 30,000-plus voters statewide had their ballots invalidated because they were received too late to be counted. Nearly half of these voters were under 30 years old, 14 percent were Asian-American and 17 percent were Latino.”

2007 Special Election Redux

The close special election is the redux of a 2007 special election for the same seat. Eight years ago, Janet Nguyen defeated Trung Nguyen by just seven votes after lawsuits and a recount. According to the Orange County Register, “Janet Nguyen was up by 52 votes on Election Night, Trung Nguyen, 49, was declared the leader by seven votes after late ballots were counted.”

The 2015 race even featured a connected cast of characters. Do, who holds a slim two-vote lead in 2015, served as Janet Nguyen’s chief of staff at the county.

He modeled his campaign on her recent victory to state Senate and even hosted his election-night party at her favorite election-night hangout, Azteca Mexican Restaurant in Garden Grove.

After being termed out as a supervisor, last November Janet Nguyen easily won a seat in the state Senate — ironically taking Correa’s seat.

By Katy Grimes

The historic recall election underway in Colorado of Senate President John Morse is shaping up to be a template for other grassroots groups unhappy with elected officials. Morse is facing a recall for his support of controversial gun control laws, including expanded background checks and limits on the ammunition gun magazines can hold.

This is the first recall election of a Colorado legislator in the state’s history. Morse became the subject of the recall because of a bill he authored holding owners of assault weapons liable for damages caused by their guns, along with other anti-gun bills. While he eventually backed off on the liability bill, voters’ outrage morphed into a recall.

Don’t mess with the Second Amendment

What started as a group of Second Amendment supporters unhappy with a top Colorado Democratic lawmaker over the passage of strict gun control legislation has grown into a full-fledged, serious-as-a-bullet recall election.

Helping out the recall supporters, the Basic Freedom Defense Fund formed a committee for recalling Morse, representing state organizations, local businesses and many volunteers.

“He broke his oath to protect and uphold the Constitution by championing citizen disarmament legislation including a Draconian standard capacity magazine ban and a ‘universal background check’ bill,” BFDF said on its website. “Both of these are unenforceable without registration and even 55 of Colorado’s 62 sheriffs have filed a lawsuit to have these overturned.”

The group recently turned in double the signatures needed to force the recall election of Democratic state Senate President John Morse.

Who is helping Morse?

America Votes, a non-profit campaign group created to push progressive policies and candidates, of which New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a major backer, released a video in support of Morse recently. But a campaign finance report filed for the Morse supporters, “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse,” shows that America Votes is  funded by  every major left-wing special interest group in the country.

In addition to Bloomberg, America Votes supporters includes the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the SEIU, Emily’s list, Planned Parenthood, the National Education Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Progressive Majority, and many more.

I talked with Grassroots Radio Colorado host Ken Clark about the recall. Clark has been working diligently on the campaign to oust Morse, and told me they gathered more than 16,000 signatures, which await verification by the secretary of state’s office. Clark said if 7,200 of them are valid signatures from voters in Morse’s district, a recall election will take place.

However, Clark said they are up against a powerful political money machine, backed by Bloomberg. “It’s a national agenda, and Colorado is ground zero,” Clark said. The agenda plan is to kill off the Red States one by one, according to Clark. All told, these progressive-liberal groups have spent a great deal of money in Colorado, and managed to turn a solid red state into a blue state in only a few years, he said.

How a red state turned blue

In 2008, Colorado Democrats comprised 31.2 percent of registered voters; Republicans 34.14 percent, and Independents 34.19 percent, according to Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer, authors of “The Blueprint: How the Democrats won Colorado.”

According to the book, “Yet, in 2004 and 2006, the Dems took out the Republican governor, turned both state houses blue, as well as a U.S. Senate seat, and two U.S. House seats.”

Continuing with the plan, the Colorado Legislature recently passed bills to vote by mail, as well as allowing same-day voter registration. According to Clark, both bills were actively supported by America Votes, which claims to “help eliminate some of the confusion for voters at the polls.”

The bills also eliminate the category of “inactive” voters, which are regularly purged from the state voter rolls. But the most chilling aspect of the new law is citizen watchers of the elections will now be excluded by these new laws. Ballots will be handled exclusively by Colorado’s county clerks behind closed doors, out of the public eye.

CA going in the wrong direction

These are tactics used in California as well. As some states have enacted voter ID laws,  California has headed in the opposite direction. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a same-day voter registration bill, and an online voter registration bill. But many say online and same-day voter registration is a Democrat election guarantee, as it just makes it easier to commit voter fraud.

“Last November, Colorado had almost 10,000 attempted fraudulent votes,” a Washington Times story recently reported. “Half of those were late registrants. Of the other 5,000 ineligible voters, 700 had attempted to vote twice, 2,600 were not residents of the state, and 50 were felons not eligible to vote.”

This is reminiscent of the recent Senate District 16 Special Election between Republican Andy Vidak, and Democrat Leticia Valdez, which I recently wrote about. The immediate post-election results showed Vidak received 51.9 percent of the vote to Valdez’s 43 percent. But three days later, 6,500 provisional ballots appeared, taking Vidak’s share down below the needed 50 percent margin to avoid a runoff.

A provisional ballot is used when there are questions about a given voter’s identity, address or eligibility; or the voter’s ballot has already been recorded.

A Whole Lot of People For John Morse

The groups supporting A Whole Lot of People For John Morse all claim to be nonprofits. Yet Morse’s anti-recall campaign received huge cash infusions from three groups: Sixteen Thirty Fund, Citizens for Integrity, and Mainstream Colorado.

All three groups have ties to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization, now quite influential in Colorado politics, according to Clark.

“Yet isn’t it ironic there were 25 shootings in New York City last weekend, a gun-free zone,” Clark said.

Clark said there are other states in the crosshairs of America Votes and the Bloomberg groups, and he warned, “Texas is next.”