RNC Sues Gavin Newsom Over 'Brazen Election Power Grab'

The Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee and the California Republican Party are suing California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for his executive order overhauling the state's election system. Earlier this month, Newsom signed an executive order mandating every registered voter on the rolls be sent a mail-in ballot, postage paid, for the upcoming election.

"Democrats have seized on the coronavirus pandemic to push their long-sought partisan election agenda, and Governor Newsom’s executive order to send absentee ballots to inactive voters without necessary ballot safeguards is an illegal and brazen power grab ahead of November’s elections," the RNC stated in a press release.

Newsom's scheme clears the way for voter fraud, as countless ballots will be mailed to people who no longer live at the same address, have invalid registrations and even passed away. In Nevada, thousands of ballots are stacking up outside apartment complexes, trash cans and other areas across Las Vegas as the state nears it all-mail primary election on June 9. 

Voter rolls are notoriously messy, which is why the rolls need to be cleaned in order to prevent voter fraud. But many states won't clean their voter rolls unless ordered to do so. Due to a court settlement, Los Angeles County was forced to remove up to 1.5 million ineligible voters from the rolls after finding more people were registered to vote in the county than the number of adults living there.  

Republicans are also warning about the weaponization of ballot harvesting by Democrats and pointing to a recent report by House Republicans showing the practice is commonplace in California.

"The report emphasizes the lack of safeguards on ballot harvesting: there is no way to track who drops off ballots to polling locations, no way to track the quantity of ballots that are dropped off at once, and no way to determine the chain of custody of ballots – opening the door to fraud and inaccurate ballot counts. In 2018, ballot harvesting had a major impact on the midterm elections in California, when seven Republican candidates were leading on election night, but lost weeks later because of the delay in counting mail ballots – many of which were harvested," the RNC said in a press release.

Data shows voting in person poses very little risk of spreading the Wuhan coronavirus. South Korea recently held its elections and not a single case of coronavirus infection could be linked to in-person voting. In Wisconsin, around 750,000 people were involved in in-person voting, and, at most, 52 people may have contracted the virus at the polls. There were no deaths. Compare that to the two-thirds of patients hospitalized for coronavirus in New York who reportedly contracted the virus while staying home. 

"Democrats continue to use this pandemic as a ploy to implement their partisan election agenda, and Governor Newsom’s executive order is the latest direct assault on the integrity of our elections. Newsom’s illegal power grab is a recipe for disaster that would destroy the confidence Californians deserve to have in the security of their vote," said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

Assume Gov. Newsom was trying to steal the election. What would he do differently?