Quick Take
A proposed federal overhaul of voter registration rules could force all Santa Cruz County residents looking to register to vote or update their registration, to do so in person, with proof of citizenship. Local officials warn the measures risk disenfranchising voters and exposing election workers to criminal liability.
Last year, about 45,400 people registered to vote in Santa Cruz County, but only 12% did so in person, at the county clerk’s office.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, in tandem with two Republican bills making their way through Congress, would require 100% of those registrations to occur in person, at the elections office, with proof not only of identification, but of citizenship, in order to vote in federal elections. That means presenting passports, or certificates of birth or naturalization.
These obstacles to registration on the front end are bolstered with sticks on the back end: the Department of Homeland Security would be given carte blanche to review local voter rolls and remove any names they believe violated registration rules. And criminal penalties loom for those registrars who allow these voters on their rolls.
This last point has Santa Cruz County’s top election official worried. In a Tuesday briefing before the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, County Clerk Tricia Webber told the representatives that these changes, if they survive court challenges, would place barriers before one of America’s most essential rights.
“That makes me very nervous,” Webber said. On Election Day, the county sends officials to voting locations to help people with same-day registration, and Webber said those officials can also be held criminally liable if they mistakenly register a person without due diligence.
The bill working through the House of Representatives, HR 22, submitted by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, would also diminish the effect of registration drives, and mail-in or online registration. Prospective voters can still fill out an application through these methods, but would still be required to show proof of citizenship, in person, before the registration is legitimate.
Trump’s executive order could also end a feature of California elections that has increasingly rankled voters and candidates who want quicker results: postmarked ballots. In California, clerks accept mail-in ballots up to a week after Election Day, as long as the post office marks them as received before the close of the polls. This has extended the counts, particularly for close races, to longer than a week.
The order directs the U.S. attorney general to take “necessary action” against states that include “absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day in the final tabulation of votes” for president or members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Any counties or states that do not comply risk losing federal funding.
Webber told supervisors that she worried the changes would “disenfranchise certain demographics,” and then pointed to married people who have changed their last names. Webber referenced her own situation, in which her proof of citizenship does not match the name on her license, creating a discrepancy that could result in registrars turning people away.
District 3 Supervisor Justin Cummings called the bills, and the executive order, “appalling.”
“This is really going to have negative consequences on people’s ability to vote,” he said.
At the urging of Webber, the supervisors voted unanimously to sign onto a letter to Congress opposing the changes.
“It’s a bold action,” Supervisors Chair Felipe Hernandez said. “This is the direction I would like to see our board go into.”