LA County Trains Poll Workers to Bypass State Election Law

A training video for poll workers in Los Angeles County appears to contradict California law requiring voters to identify themselves and their addresses before getting ballots — and sets up conditions that could help illegal voters cast ballots.

The election-integrity group True the Vote learned about the video from a Los Angeles poll inspector who reported concerns using the organization’s voter-fraud phone app, VoteStand.

“You may allow the voter to look for his or her name if you have trouble finding it.”

The video describes how roster clerks can assist voters. It instructs the roster clerk to ask the voter’s name and address and then locate the voter in the roster or the blue supplemental roster page attached to the back cover.

“You may allow the voter to look for his or her name if you have trouble finding it,” the narrator says as a voter in the video points to a name on the voter registration sheet.

Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, said the practice runs counter to state law and invites fraudulent voting. Unlike many states, California does not require voters to show identification at the polls. That means the only safeguard is requiring voters to provide a name and address.

“All — all — that California is asking is to come in and say your name and your address,” she told LifeZette. “That’s why these front-end safeguards are so important.”

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True the Vote has sent a letter to officials but so far has not received a response.

Brenda Duran, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles Register-Recorder’s Office, told LifeZette that officials believe their training complies with the law. She wrote in an email that the roster of voters is publicly available for review and can be seen by anybody requesting to do so on Election Day.

“Further, anyone signing the roster is attesting to their qualifications and compliance with voting regulations under penalty of perjury,” she wrote.

Engelbrecht noted that Election Day is next week and that Los Angeles has 5.1 million registered voters.

“Time is of the essence,” she said, noting that Election Day is next week and that Los Angeles has 5.1 million registered voters. “It’s the largest voting bloc in the country … Our goal is just to get the problem fixed.”

Here is the regulation governing voting in California:

“Any person desiring to vote shall announce his or her name and address in an audible tone of voice, and when one of the precinct officers finds the name in the index, the officer shall in a like manner repeat the name and address. The voter shall then write his or her name and residence address or, if the voter is unable to write, shall have the name and residence address written by another person on a roster of voters provided for that purpose, whereupon a challenge may be interposed as provided in this article.”

The proper procedure for a voter who cannot provide a name and address that match the rolls is to provide that person with a provisional ballot that is counted separately if his eligibility can be verified later.

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“But that’s not what they’re training for in LA County,” Engelbrecht said.

But Duran wrote: “The referenced requirement for voters to audibly state their name and address without viewing the roster is not a requirement for voting that our counsel deems enforceable.”

True the Vote officials said they compared training materials on the subject from other counties, including San Diego, Fresno, and Alameda, and found no allowance for voters to “assist” poll workers in finding their voter registration.

Letting someone pick a name from a list not only could result in a fraudulent vote but cause major headaches for a genuine voter who already has been marked as voted.