Illegal Immigration and our Elections
What impact will it have in 2024 and beyond? Plus election news from ID, MI, WI, NV, TX and across the US.
The Bee’s image above so powerfully and humorously comments on the issue. But all kidding aside, illegal immigration is impacting so many aspects of our society and elections are certainly one of them - even in Idaho!
Polling at our caucus had illegal immigration as the top concern of voters, more than four times more important than the next issue (inflation/economy). This past weekend, I was part of a survey exercise asking registered Republicans for their views on a variety of topics. Illegal immigration was clearly the top concern.
No doubt, the heart wrenching stories of those killed by illegal immigrants, tragically symbolized by Laken Riley, are getting more and more coverage. Whether intentional murder or unintentional negligence, the friends and families of those lost are forever traumatized. And all of this trauma stems from something that should never have happened.
2024
My focus here is on our elections and specifically, what impact could the estimated 10 million (or more) new illegals since the 2020 election have on the 2024 election?
I recently met with an Ada County election official and asked about the training of those tasked with verifying citizenship. He informed me that the citizenship check has two steps. The first step is the original person registering the voter. Even though older licenses did not have indication of citizenship (whereas newer ones do), he indicated that they are still very different for non-citizens and should be recognized by the worker. But even if not, he said there is a secondary process of checking all new registrations against two separate databases to confirm citizenship. He explained that it was an area they had worked on because there have been issues relying on data checks in the past, but it was more an issue of ‘false positives’ than with non-citizens trying to register.
He acknowledged that in the case of same-day registrations, where people show up at the poll to register and vote at the same time, there is not the time to do the secondary check until after the vote has been cast. To impact an election, that would require a lot of people to register same-day illegally and make it past the worker.
One thing that citizens can do is look for any spikes in registration of the voter rolls and see if any pattern emerges. We can probably make enough hay if anything appears out of sorts to get attention on it.
But this is for Idaho. In other states with mail-in ballots being sent all over and with proven issues of absentee ballot fraud or places like Maricopa, Fulton County, Wayne County, etc… I am much more concerned. The Secretary of State in Arizona, for example, has indicated that non-citizens can register as ‘federal only’ voters and potentially vote in the 2024 election.
So far, there is little change in election law since 2020. Also, there has been no real accountability over all the issues that have caused a loss of confidence in our elections. To the good, there is more understanding now of how elections work and there will be more of those eyes on the process, but will that be enough to make a difference?
Long Term
All of the above will, if the numbers of illegal immigrants is not addressed, continue to be a problem in the future. In addition, we see several municipalities pushing legislation to give non-citizens the right to vote in local elections. These are being challenged with mixed outcomes. Washington DC, for example, is slated to allow non-citizen voting.
Perhaps an even bigger issue is the fight over electoral votes. Central to that battle is whether illegal immigrants will be counted in the next census. This article covers the sitrep on that battle, and currently, it appears they will be. This can move upwards of 20 electoral votes to blue states, which would be a travesty.
ID: GOP Primary Fight - Precinct by Precinct - A few years ago, I did not even know what a PC (Precinct Committeeman) was. An awakening and focus on the PC role has since been happening all over the country and has largely been championed by Daniel Schultz who has sought to educate Republicans via his Precinct Strategy website and social media appearances. It has been successful enough that state level GOP control has flipped in several states, including Idaho. The new leadership has railed against the corporate influence over the party and has further sought to remove legislators for not supporting the party platform through their votes. This has prompted a response. In the letter below circulated on social media, former IDGOP Chairs Tom Luna and Trent Clark are leading an unprecedented fundraising effort to put upwards of $2 million into the upcoming PC races to be held on May 21st. Which side wins the chairmanship this June depends largely on the outcome of the PC races. The PCs elect county and district leadership which in turn defines the process for selecting delegates that attend the state convention to elect the chair.
US: Report Highlights Google’s Interference in US Elections - The research done by the Media Research Center (MRC) itemizes 41 times that Google has altered search results to favor certain candidates over others. This research complements the work of Dr. Epstein, which I wrote about earlier. Recommendation? Stop using Google for searches, among other things.
MI: Election Attorney Arrested - I am hoping Tucker Carlson interviews attorney Stephanie Lambert because her story needs to be heard more broadly. She has been in the whirlwind of election cases in Michigan, which I have written about a few times. It seems attorneys are being targeted most severely for challenging the ‘most secure election in history’ narrative. Why? Again, if there really was nothing to all of the ‘election conspiracies’, then air them in court and rub the noses of everyone that espouses them with the facts and data that show the cases are meritless. Instead, almost all such lawsuits have been dismissed for lack of standing or timing (laches) and/or lawfare has been brought against those who dare stand up, like Lambert. She was recently arrested in DC where she was defending former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne on a defamation suit brought by Dominion, the voting system company. Lambert recently released documentation showing internal communications of Dominion. She provided the documentation to Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County Michigan who apparently has an open investigation going on into Dominion. Curious timing? You can hear her talk about it on this podcast.
WI: Kimberly Zapata, Whistleblower or Felon? - I do not know what to make of this story. Headlines focus on this election official being convicted of vote fraud for falsely applying for 3 military ballots. Her attorney claims she was trying to show the vulnerability in military voting. As well, she sent the ballots to a state legislator who has been looking into election fraud in the state. Thoughts?
US: AG Garland Targets State Voter Suppression Laws - Maintaining the narrative that voter suppression of minorities is an on-going problem, the US Attorney General recently renewed his vow to contest states that are making laws to limit mail-in voting, implementing voter id requirements, and prohibiting the use of drop boxes. All of these just happen to be areas where voter fraud and election fraud is most easily accomplished.
MI/NV: RNC Sues Over Dirty Voter Rolls - With the resignation of Ronna McDaniel as chair and with Lara Trump assuming the role of vice chair, there is a change of focus in the RNC, seeming to boost efforts to secure elections. Some of the first acts have been to file lawsuits against the Michigan and Nevada Secretary of States to clean their voter rolls. The fight over clean rolls will certainly be a major battleground as the 2024 election draws near. Additionally, Lara Trump vowed to pursue ballot harvesting operations everywhere it is legal.
TX: Gillespie County Hand Count Results Mixed - Those that oppose hand counting, like the organization that wrote the linked article, saw a lot of problems with the process. Those for hand counting, like those that oversaw the operation, said it was a rewarding experience. What is rarely provided is the basic stats, which should be fairly consistent everywhere hand counting is done - how many people, how many ballots, how many races, how much time, and what error checking was done? From what I could glean, there were 8000 ballots, about 250 people counting, 6 or 7 races, and they finished about 6 hours after the polls closed. The errors reported in the Votebeat article seem to have come not from the actual counting but from summing up the tally sheets.
What is Luna talking about when he mentions the "dark money lobby firm"? I have never I came across any lobbying groups for the "extremist" groups. Luna et al has taken the mantra of the leftist - accuse the opposition of what you are doing.