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Dear Judicial
Watch Supporter,
I want to personally share with you a press release that was just sent to
members of the media yesterday. As always, Judicial Watch is fighting on
your behalf in Washington D.C. against government corruption and
abuse. Thank you for standing with Judicial Watch--you don’t want to
miss this!
Sincerely,
Amelia Koehn
Public Affairs Coordinator |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 202-646-5188
May 22, 2020
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Judicial Watch Sues to Stop California
Governor Newsom’s “Vote by Mail” Mandate
Plaintiffs Include Voters and Congressional Candidate Darrell
Issa
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced
yesterday it filed a lawsuit to
stop the special, statewide vote-by-mail mandate issued by California
Governor Gavin Newsom. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include former U.S.
Representative Darrell Issa (a candidate in the upcoming November election)
and individual California voters from across the political spectrum. The
lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento against Gov.
Newsom and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (Darrell
Issa, et al. v. Gavin Newsom, et al. (No. 2:20-cv-01044)).
The Judicial Watch complaint argues that Newsom’s Executive
Order N-64-20, requiring all California counties to conduct all-mail
ballot elections, violates the U.S. Constitution and California state law.
According to the U.S. Constitution, only state legislatures may determine
the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and
Representatives,” and only state legislatures may establish the manner in
which electors to the Electoral College are appointed. The lawsuit points
out that “[n]either defendant in this case is a ‘Legislature,’” as
required under the Constitution, and “[t]he California Legislature never
delegated to [Newsom] its authority under the Elections Clause or Electors
Clause to regulate the manner of conducting elections for senators,
representatives, or presidential electors.”
Judicial Watch also contends that Newsom’s mandate violates the
California Voter’s Choice Act of 2016, which grants counties the option
to qualify for and opt in to a system of mail-in voting. Judicial Watch
argues the law reflects the legislature’s deliberate choice to delegate
to each county the decision about whether to qualify and opt in to the
all-mail ballot system. During the March 3, 2020 primary election, only 15
of California’s 58 counties qualified and opted-in to the all-mail
balloting system.
The lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs will be harmed by Newsom’s mandate for
all-mail voting because it imposes an entirely new election system that
ignores the extensive qualifications required by California law before a
county can opt in to all-mail balloting. Judicial Watch argues its
plaintiffs will be at risk of having their votes thrown out or diluted by
invalid votes under Newsom’s illegal system, and that Mr. Issa will have
to expend additional resources to respond to the illegal mandate during his
campaign.
“Governor Newsom’s vote-by-mail mandate is unconstitutional and may
cause the votes of countless voters to be thrown out or not counted,”
stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “California law prohibits
blindly mailing out ballots to every registered voter in the state. This
scheme raises the risk of Election Day chaos as well as voter fraud.”
In 2018, California settled a
federal lawsuit with Judicial Watch and began the process of removing up to
1.6 million inactive names from Los Angeles County’s voter rolls.
Judicial Watch late last year sent notices to
11 additional California counties warning them of voting list maintenance
issues. Judicial Watch recently sued North
Carolina and Pennsylvania to
force them to clean up their voter rolls.
###
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