Hundreds of Californians are upset about changes made to the voter registration without the knowledge or permission. About 600 complaints have been received by election officials in several counties, according to a Sacramento Bee report.
The county officials are reportedly blaming the Department of Motor Vehicles and state's troubled Motor Voter program. The idea behind the program was to automatically register eligible voters when the do business with the DMV, but it's been plagued with problems since it was first rolled out in 2015.
Republican Senator Shannon Grove of Bakersfield is among those in the California Legislature who want to suspend the program. Grove's daughter reportedly was registered as "not party preference" after a visit to the DMV, though she claimed to have registered as a Republican.
Not everyone who reported problems with their registration had done business recently with the DMV. Officials are not sure what happened in those cases.
This latest news also has Senator Patricia Bates, a Republican from California's 36th Senate District, is renewing her call for suspension of the Motor Voter program.
"Today's news offers additional information as to why the DMV should not be involved in voter registration. The DMV is already dealing with many other problems and having people question the integrity of our election system should not be one of them. It's time for the Legislature to make voter registration at the DMV an opt-in process to safeguard against errors and fraud."
Senator Bates authored a bill-- SB-57-- that would make voter registration an opt-in process at the DMV, which she said would prevent some of the problems reported by media outlets over the past year. The Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee will consider the bill after the first of the year.
DMV officials noted that improvement have been made to the Motor Voter program since it was introduced. The agency is working with the California Secretary of State's office clean up remaining glitches prior to the next election.
To check your registration status click here https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov/.
Report: Hackers Attacked Troubled DMV "Motor Voter" Registration System
By John and Ken Staff