No-confidence vote for DMV
California’s recent history of easing democratic participation could be a rebuke to politically motivated voter suppression in other states. Unfortunately, a key initiative to expand voter registration has been carried out so carelessly as to discredit such efforts and embolden those who would restrict participation.
After a series of errors culminating with some 1,500 improper voter registrations by the star-crossed Department of Motor Vehicles, the state’s Little Hoover Commission issued a justified call for an independent audit of the Motor Voter program, which is supposed to help eligible residents register to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license.
“In large part, the legitimacy of elections depends upon faith in the electoral process,” the watchdog agency noted in a recent letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature. “Government errors or other failures with the New Motor Voter Program may serve to shake, if not seriously undermine, such faith.”
True to form, the DMV is struggling with an old concept. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, signed by Bill Clinton, required most states to offer an opportunity to register to vote to those applying for a driver’s license. California didn’t exactly embrace the idea: It sued to overturn the law the following year, and in 2015, a coalition of advocacy groups sued the state for shirking its Motor Voter obligations, noting, “California has one of the lowest levels of DMV voter registration in the country.”
The state appeared to be off to a promising new start under a subsequent overhaul of the program requiring automatic registration of eligible residents obtaining a driver’s license unless they opt out. But problems surfaced soon after the DMV and Department of Technology rolled out the system in April.
The first error, affecting 77,000 registrations, produced duplicate forms for the same voter, forcing local officials to scramble to correct them. Another, affecting 23,000, caused errors in information such as party affiliations and vote-bymail options. Finally, last month, officials acknowledged the 1,500 mistaken registrations, including some who were not eligible to vote because they were noncitizens, younger than 18 or on parole.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections official, responded by removing the registrations from the rolls and calling for additional oversight as well as an independent audit. Republican lawmakers had requested an independent audit of the DMV in August based on its difficulty complying with federal identification standards, which caused interminable lines and delays. But Brown and Democratic senators blocked the request in favor of an internal audit, which was later expanded to encompass the Motor Voter pileup.
The Legislature should correct that mistake when it reconvenes in January by ordering an independent review by the state auditor. The DMV can’t be steered out of its ditch without an objective examination of how it got there.