In the wake of public allegations that one in five OC voters couldn’t be verified and that dogs were voting in local elections, OC Registrar of Voters Bob Page rolled into Huntington Beach this week, taking tough questions from city council members intent on implementing their own voter ID system to combat fraud.
Page stood for about two hours straight, fielding repetitive questioning from Surf City leaders who openly talked about how they’d lost faith in election administration along with their desire to implement their own systems for ballot security.
It’s one of the longest public discussions between city leaders and the county elections chief about how voting works in Orange County as they look to shift the city to a voter ID system that’s currently in limbo after a panel of judges ruled it would be illegal.
[Read: Huntington Beach’s Voter ID Law Struck Down by State Appeals Court]
Page’s visit came a month after Unite for Freedom, a volunteer group, presented at a city council meeting claiming they found over 14 million illegal ballots that were counted throughout the United States, adding they couldn’t verify the identity of one in five Orange County voters.
Page disputed that claim on Tuesday night, saying less than .01% of local voters have not verified their identity, noting they are not able to vote in federal elections and any ballots they send in are flagged.
“I’ve asked them to show me your data,” Page said. “But they won’t give it to me, and my data doesn’t indicate that is a correct assessment.”
Councilman Don Kennedy asked Page if he was confident the county registrar’s systems were strong enough to catch every person trying to vote twice.
“They should be,” Page said.
“You can stand behind that?” Kennedy asked.
“Yeah.”
“Huh,” Kennedy said. “That’s a pretty strong statement.”
How Do Dogs Get Caught Voting?
City council members repeatedly disputed that the voting process was secure throughout the night, questioning what measures Page could take to protect voters under existing state laws.
Much of the conversation centered on one Costa Mesa voter who registered her dog to vote and successfully voted in the 2021 recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom. She was later charged with five felonies by OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
Page said former Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates played a role in catching her, and adding that the only reason the vote in the dog’s name was ever counted was that it was in a special state election, not a federal one.
While it’s possible to vote without producing any identification beyond a signature in purely state elections, it’s impossible to do when federal races are on the ballot because people have to provide some form of ID to register according to Page.
When she tried to vote under the dog’s name again in the 2022 primary election, the ballot was flagged and not counted.
“The second ballot she cast in the 22 primary election, which is a federal election, then falls under the Help America Vote Act which requires the voter…provide proof of identity,” Page said.
He also noted there is no evidence showing widespread voter fraud in Orange County, and highlighted that any attempt at submitting repeated false ballots would also require faked IDs.
“If I had proof someone was doing it I’d refer them to the district attorney,” Page said. “We’re talking about hypotheticals here.”
“Let’s agree it happens,” Kennedy said.
“I’m not going to agree to that,” Page said. “If somebody tries to cast two ballots, we refer them to the district attorney.”
Page said that while he’d referred over 700 ballots with potential issues to the district attorney’s office in recent years, he was only aware of two that led to any prosecutions.
He also encouraged voters concerned about their ballot to sign up for ballot tracking, which sends out notifications when a ballot is collected and counted.
Would Voter ID Beef Up Elections Security?
Councilman Chad Williams asked if voter ID would stop election fraud, noting that if they were just relying on signatures, there were numerous ways to manipulate the system like stealing or taking hundreds of ballots and sending them in under fictitious identities.
“It doesn’t take many people to influence and overthrow governments. It is not difficult to do,” Williams, a former Navy Seal, said. “I’m just saying it’s a way bad actors could get through at scale.”
Page refused to comment on if voter ID was a good idea, saying he wouldn’t weigh in on policy issues, but noted that if HB leaders tried to host a separate election requiring IDs on the same day as federal and state elections with different ballots, it could confuse voters.
“Different rules at different locations…with the city mailing out a ballot and we’re mailing out a ballot with all the other contests,” Page said. “I see the potential for voter confusion if the election stays on the same day.”
Williams also brought up concerns around “bad actors” harvesting ballots or submitting ballots under a false identity, questioning how the registrar would ever catch them.
“If they’re good at what they do they’re not going to have someone rat them out or get caught. Williams said. “Their only risk is they might not get as many votes through.”
Page noted that without an ID, those efforts would be dead in their tracks.
“The consequences are six years in federal prison,” Page said. “Under federal law, they’re required to give proof of identity.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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