Huntington Beach\u2019s Voter ID Law Struck Down by State Appeals Court<\/a>]<\/p>\nPage\u2019s 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\u2019t verify the identity of one in five Orange County voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve asked them to show me your data,\u201d Page said. \u201cBut they won\u2019t give it to me, and my data doesn\u2019t indicate that is a correct assessment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councilman Don Kennedy asked Page if he was confident the county registrar\u2019s systems were strong enough to catch every person trying to vote twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be,\u201d Page said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can stand behind that?\u201d Kennedy asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHuh,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty strong statement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
How Do Dogs Get Caught Voting?<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s name was ever counted was that it was in a special state election, not a federal one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s possible to vote without producing any identification beyond a signature in purely state elections, it\u2019s impossible to do when federal races are on the ballot because people have to provide some form of ID to register according to Page.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she tried to vote under the dog\u2019s name again in the 2022 primary election, the ballot was flagged and not counted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2026provide proof of identity,\u201d Page said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had proof someone was doing it I\u2019d refer them to the district attorney,\u201d Page said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about hypotheticals here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s agree it happens,\u201d Kennedy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to agree to that,\u201d Page said. \u201cIf somebody tries to cast two ballots, we refer them to the district attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n
Page said that while he\u2019d referred over 700 ballots with potential issues to the district attorney\u2019s office in recent years, he was only aware of two that led to any prosecutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Would Voter ID Beef Up Elections Security?\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take many people to influence and overthrow governments. It is not difficult to do,\u201d Williams, a former Navy Seal, said. \u201cI\u2019m just saying it\u2019s a way bad actors could get through at scale.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Page refused to comment on if voter ID was a good idea, saying he wouldn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent rules at different locations\u2026with the city mailing out a ballot and we\u2019re mailing out a ballot with all the other contests,\u201d Page said. \u201cI see the potential for voter confusion if the election stays on the same day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams also brought up concerns around \u201cbad actors\u201d harvesting ballots or submitting ballots under a false identity, questioning how the registrar would ever catch them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re good at what they do they\u2019re not going to have someone rat them out or get caught. Williams said. \u201cTheir only risk is they might not get as many votes through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Page noted that without an ID, those efforts would be dead in their tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences are six years in federal prison,\u201d Page said. \u201cUnder federal law, they\u2019re required to give proof of identity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org. <\/p>\n
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