Election 2016: Did the Democrats cheat in California?

Hillary Clinton won California by a lopsided 4.3 million votes over Donald Trump and at 61.5% she won 1.5% more votes than Obama did in 2012.  Trump responded with the charge that the “millions of people who voted illegally” had cost him the popular vote as Clinton’s popular margin now stands at 2.8 million more votes than Trump. The clear majority of Clinton’s popular vote emanated out of urban centers in California.

Did the Democrats cheat in California?

The online voter registration form on the website of the California Secretary of State appears to be based upon an honor system by which the site asks the applicant their citizen status and the applicant is expected to answer honestly. Driver license identification numbers, street addresses and phone numbers are optional. Essentially no proof is required to indicate citizenship other than the applicant simply checking off a box declaring citizenship under penalty of perjury.

There is no evidence to suggest that California has seriously investigated voter fraud and this might be tacitly understood by those who might be inclined to register illegally. In fact, with virtually no online requirements for identification, anyone could theoretically register to vote in California online under any name or under multiple names. The Public Policy Institute indicates that approximately 2.67 million illegal aliens resided in California in 2013 and evidence indicates an increase since then. The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders depended on non-citizen volunteers to conduct voter registration drives to pitch support amongst Hispanics with claims that Trump would engage in mass deportations.

While there is no hard evidence of a conspiracy to commit fraud by illegally registering non-citizens to vote in California, the registrations emanating from the California Secretary of State’s website call out for an investigation and for reform. Democrats have already used the 2.8 popular vote margin held by Hillary Clinton as a talking point to attempt to delegitimize the election. Many are arguing that California, due to this considerable vote margin, therefore has the right to cancel out the elections of the majority of states that voted for Donald Trump and to thus disenfranchise the voters in those states. Before countering that fallacious argument, an honest count of the vote would be in order in California.