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California has provided us a good reason that the federal system created by the Founding Fathers was a stroke of genius, because it limits the craziness that originates in the Golden State.
Certainly California, as our most populous state, has an enormous impact on the politics of the entire nation. After all, it has the largest congressional delegation of the entire country (53), giving it 55 electoral votes in presidential elections (about one-fifth of what is needed for victory).
Recent news from what has often been dubbed “the Left Coast” illustrates the benefits of limiting California’s political impact. A recent report indicates that over one million illegal immigrants presently residing in California have obtained a driver’s license. In California, a person receiving the license need only prove residency and identity, not immigration status, in order to obtain a license.
Why is that so important?
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According to California law, a person who is 18 years of age, or older, is able to register to vote by “completing a drive license, identification (ID) card or change of address transaction.” California’s law was adopted to comply with the federal “Motor Voter Act.” The National Voter Registration Act, also known popularly as the Motor Voter Act, went into effect in 1995. The law intended to make registering to vote easier by requiring states to offer opportunities for any eligible person who applies for or renews a driver license, among other things, such as applying for welfare benefits.
In other words, what California is doing is using compliance with this federal law as justification to make it possible for non-citizens, even those in the country illegally, to register to vote.
This system has led to predictable errors. According to a report released on Monday, an audit of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revealed that more than a thousand people may have been incorrectly registered to vote in the state.
“Approximately 1,500 customers may have been registered to vote in error,” the DMV explained to the secretary of state, according to the Sacramento Bee. “This error has been corrected and is separate from the processing error we notified you about in writing on September 5.” The agency claimed that none of those improperly registered were illegal aliens, and they offered assurances that the program has been updated to provide additional safeguards.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded that he was “frustrated and disappointed” to hear of the “persistent errors by the DMV,” arguing that it has “undermined public confidence” in their ability to collect and transmit accurate voter-registration information.
Taking Padilla at his word that he is truly frustrated and disappointed, it is still a fact that California’s Democratic Party has been able to flip the state from one that produced two recent Republican presidents to a state that is so blue that Republican candidates for president (and Democratic ones, too, for that matter) don’t even bother to campaign in the state, largely because of the influx of immigrants who vote overwhelmingly Democrat.
Fortunately, because of the federal system created by the Constitution of the United States, such shenanigans can only do so much to alter the outcome of American presidential and congressional elections. While California has 53 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, since every state is entitled to at least one House member there is somewhat of a limit in how many more House members they can get by ballooning their voter rolls with illegal immigrants. Likewise, because presidential elections are determined by the electoral vote, not a national popular vote, California’s growing immigrant population can only affect the presidential election up to the 55 electoral votes it has.
Otherwise, states such as California would be incentivized to increase their voter rolls even more, if the presidential election were determined by a national popular vote, rather than an electoral vote, determined by a state-by-state popular vote.
When Americans express concern about California’s outright support for even more illegal immigration, Americans are decried as anti-Mexican bigots and the like. But the reality is that were these illegal aliens lining up to vote Republican, rather than Democrat, the Democrats would be calling for shutting down illegal immigration.
After all, the only immigrant that Democrats wanted “sent back” was a little Cuban boy, Elian Gonazalez, the little boy who was returned to Fidel Castro and his totalitarian dictatorship.
Photo: Clipart.com
