Gavin Newsom's Call for Ballot Curing to Pass California's Proposition 1
What is "Ballot Curing" and What is Gavin Newsom Asking Volunteers to do?
On Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched an effort to ballot cure outstanding ballots in California’s primary election in the hopes of ensuring victory for Proposition 1, a ballot measure for mental health treatment facilities that he sponsored on the March 5, 2024 ballot.1
Proposition 12 has been a top priority for Governor Newsom, who pushed the California State Legislature to make it the only ballot initiative on the primary ballot, prominently featured himself in television advertisements for it, and had a campaign committee spend well over $20,000,000.00 on its passage. He also had the support of most major business groups, labor unions, and elected officials.
For its part, the main opposition committee to Proposition 1, raised and spent less than $2,000.00. The largest groups opposing Proposition 1 - the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association - lacked financial resources to support them.
Thus, Proposition 1 was expected to pass easily.3
However, as of Saturday night, March 16, 2024, the current lead statewide for Proposition 1 is just 20,001 votes (50.1%-49.9%) with 250,000 ballots remaining to count.4 And while Proposition 1 seemingly has the advantage to pass, its passage is still far from guaranteed.
Now, you may be wondering, among many other things, what is “ballot curing”? And what exactly is Governor Newsom asking for?
When a voter votes by mail, their sealed vote-by-mail envelope must contain their signature.5 In past elections, vote-by-mail ballots were tossed out whenever a voter forgot to sign their sealed vote-by-mail envelope. This meant that a simple mistake would deprive a voter of their fundamental constitutional right to vote.6
However, California made a wise and enlightened change to its election laws. If a voter forgets to sign the back of their sealed vote-by-mail envelope, their ballot can now be counted if:
The voter signs their envelope at their election official’s office during normal business hours by 5 pm two (2) days prior to the certification of the election.7
The voter submits an unsigned envelope identification statement to their county elections official by 5 pm two (2) days prior to the certification of the election.8
The voter submits an unsigned envelope identification statement at a polling place or at a ballot drop box by 8 pm on Election Day.9
The unsigned envelope identification statement has to be substantially similar to the following:
UNSIGNED IDENTIFICATION ENVELOPE STATEMENT
I,_____________________________, am a registered voter of __________ County,
State of California. I declare under penalty of perjury that I received and returned a vote by mail ballot and that I have not and will not vote more than one ballot in this election. I am a resident of the precinct in which I have voted, and I am the person whose name appears on the vote by mail ballot envelope. I understand that if I commit or attempt any fraud in connection with voting, or if I aid or abet fraud or attempt to aid or abet fraud in connection with voting, I may be convicted of a felony punishable by imprisonment for 16 months or two or three years. I understand that my failure to sign this statement means that my vote by mail ballot will be invalidated.
Voter’s Signature
Address
If the voter properly follows one of these procedures, the elections official is required to count the ballot.10
Another change has been made to California’s election laws to further guarantee the right to vote.
When a voter votes by mail, a county elections official must determine that the voter’s signature on the sealed vote-by-mail envelope matches the voter’s signature in their voter registration file.11 If the elections officials determine that the signatures do not match, the vote-by-mail ballot will not be counted.12
Under the old system, county elections workers, who are not trained forensics experts educated in how to spot forged signatures, would evaluate a voter’s signature in secret, without the voter present or the voter’s knowledge. And if, through their untrained eye, they made a determination that the voter’s signature on the sealed vote-by-mail envelope didn’t match, they would throw out the ballot.
Signatures can change over time, especially as people get older. And signatures may not always look alike, particularly when a voter is rushed or thinking about other things. And again, county election workers are not trained forensics experts.
California has thus changed our system to protect our democratic rights. For example:
There is now a presumption that a signature on a vote-by-mail envelope is valid.13
Exact matches in signatures are not required so long as there are similar characteristics in between them.14
A voter’s race, ethnicity, and political party registration cannot be used to determine the validity of a signature.15
The use of one’s initials to sign does not invalidate a signature.16
An identifying mark such as an “X” qualifies as a valid signature.17
More importantly, if a signature on a sealed vote-by-mail envelope does not match, on the next business day, a county elections official is now required to notify a voter of their signature not matching and offer the voter the opportunity to verify their signature by including an unsigned ballot statement and a postage pre-paid envelope addressed to the county elections official.18 The notice must also be translated into all languages required in the electoral jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.19
The signature verification statement has to be in substantially the following form:
SIGNATURE VERIFICATION STATEMENT
I,________________________, am a registered voter of __________ County, State of California.
I declare under penalty of perjury that I received and returned a vote by mail ballot. I am a resident of the precinct in which I have voted, and I am the person whose name appears on the vote by mail ballot envelope. I understand that if I commit or attempt any fraud in connection with voting, or if I aid or abet fraud or attempt to aid or abet fraud in connection with voting, I may be convicted of a felony punishable by imprisonment for 16 months or two or three years. I understand that my failure to sign this statement means that my vote by mail ballot will be invalidated.
Voter’s Signature
Address20
A voter with a signature mismatch will now be counted as long as both of the following conditions are met:
The voter delivers a signed signature verification statement to the county elections official no later than 5 pm two (2) days prior to the certification of the election or the voter completes and submits a signature verification statement to a polling place within the county or ballot drop box no later than the close of polls on Election Day.21
The signature on the signature verification statement matches the voter’s signature on the vote-by-mail envelope.22
Here is a campaign trade secret.
After an election is over, it is possible for a campaign to obtain the list of all voters who have signature mismatches or have forgotten to sign their sealed vote-by-mail envelope (a far more common occurrence).
If a political campaign has been running a robust field program, the campaign has identified voters who are voting for their candidate or in favor or opposition to a ballot measure. Political campaigns have long compiled lists during a the course of a campaign and use this as the basis for get-out-the-vote programs to win the election.
A political campaign can cross check the list of voters who have either mismatched signatures or forgotten to sign with their own database of supporters. A campaign will then reach out to those voters, get those voters to fill out signature verification statements or unsigned ballot statements and ensure they are delivered to the county elections office.
This process is what is known as ballot curing. In a close election, ballot curing could make the difference in an electoral outcome.
In some ways, ballot curing is slightly obsolete with a change in the applicable law. County elections officials are now required to notify voters that they have forgotten to sign their vote-by-mail envelope and offer the voter an opportunity to cure their ballot by including an unsigned ballot statement and a postage pre-paid envelope addressed to the county elections official with the notice.23 Similarly to notifications for signature mismatches, the notice must also be translated into all languages required in the electoral jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.24
Nevertheless, a smart campaign will identify these voters as soon as possible to ensure the voter cures their ballot. After an election is over and a voter is no longer paying attention, a voter might not realize what the notice from the county elections office is and either ignore it or toss it in the garbage. A voter might be out of town when they receive the notice and not be able to do anything until it is too late.
Moreover, a voter might not care, not realizing that an election outcome still hangs in the balance. This is especially true if a voter had more important races on their mind that are now over and settled. This type of voter will be far more likely to fill out an unsigned ballot statement or a signature verification statement if a political campaign personally reaches out to them.
Thus, Governor Newsom’s strategy is not nefarious; it’s a perfectly valid campaign tool.
That said, Governor Newsom’s strategy is a bit odd. He publicly has called for volunteers to help cure ballots of registered Democratic voters.
To ballot cure effectively, a political campaign doesn’t seek out every single voter. It seeks out voters who it has previously identified as having voted for their campaign.
In the context of non-partisan races or top two general elections between candidates of the same party, targeting voters belonging to one political party doesn’t make any sense because you cannot guarantee that a voter has voted for your candidate simply based upon their party registration. Moreover, you might miss voters who have voted for your candidate because they’re not registered with your party.
This is even more true in the context of a ballot measure campaign where large segments of voters will break with their political party and political candidates. Voters will often simultaneously vote in favor of a ballot measure while electing a candidate who opposed that ballot measure. Conversely, voters will vote against ballot measures while electing a candidate who supported that ballot measure.
Thus, if the Yes on Proposition 1 campaign only looks to ballot cure Democrats, they will almost certainly cure the ballots of registered Democrats who voted against Proposition 1 while ignoring registered Republicans and voters of other parties who voted in favor of Proposition 1.
There’s another reason that Governor Newsom’s strategy is odd.
A number of political campaigns don’t employ ballot curing because their highly paid campaign managers and campaign consultants aren’t actually aware of it. It’s one reason that campaigns that aggressively ballot cure tend to do so quietly. If the opposition isn’t doing the same thing, it’s best to not make them aware that they should be doing the same thing too.
In the case of Proposition 1, the opposition does not seem to have been aware of ballot curing as a campaign tactic. By making a big public announcement, Governor Newsom has let the No on Proposition 1 campaign know about ballot curing and they may start doing it themselves.
While the No on Proposition 1 campaign is at a severe disadvantage, Governor Newsom has helped them by letting the public know that they may need to cure their ballots in an election that is still uncertain. He has motivated those who voted No and would otherwise not have had their votes counted to now cure their ballots.
Regardless of how you voted on Proposition 1, what can you do if you’re wondering whether your vote-by-mail ballot has been counted in this election or if you have friends who are concerned about whether their own ballot was counted?
Check here: https://california.ballottrax.net/voter/
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/15/newsom-rescue-mission-rejected-prop-1-ballots-00147379
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/01/california-mental-health-care-policy
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https://electionresults.sos.ca.gov/returns/maps/ballot-measures/prop/1