Because the polls closed in California on Tremendous Tuesday, Jim Hicks stood watch within the car parking zone of a group middle whereas election officers sporting purple vests retrieved ballots from a drop-off field.
He jiggled the deal with of the steel container once they had been finished to make sure it was locked and peeked his head into the white van holding containers of ballots that may be transferred to the San Joaquin County registrar of voters to be counted.
“We simply must have eyes on issues after all the pieces that’s been occurring,” Hicks mentioned as he rushed to his SUV to tail officers down darkish farmland again roads to extra drop containers the place ballots had been ready to be collected, all a part of his duties as a self-appointed election observer.
Hicks, an actual property agent from Lodi, believes California’s common vote-by-mail course of is fraught with fraud dangers, echoing unfounded messaging from the far proper that election officers nationwide have labored to fight since Donald Trump and his allies started blaming his 2020 presidential loss on claims of fraud which have been shot down by quite a few courts.
That paranoia is troublesome to dismiss on this a part of California’s Central Valley, although, after an area politician was arrested on allegations of a slew of crimes involving election fraud.
Former Lodi Metropolis Council member Shakir Khan pleaded “no contest” in January to felony prices, together with election fraud, after the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned it discovered 41 sealed, accomplished ballots in his house and about 70 folks registered to vote utilizing his deal with, telephone quantity or electronic mail.
The alleged scheme, which stems from Khan’s run for Metropolis Council in 2020, is only one piece of a fancy legal case wherein he additionally faces prices for unlawful playing, cash laundering, tax evasion and Employment Improvement Division fraud.
Officers appeared to foresee the potential fallout after the years-long investigation, reiterating that Khan, a 34-year-old “no social gathering desire” voter who has lived amongst Lodi’s vineyards since he was a baby, didn’t seem to have ties to any broader voter-fraud plot.
“I need to make it clear that this investigation has solely uncovered legal exercise in our county right here, in an area election,” San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow mentioned at a information convention final yr saying Khan’s arrest. “It has nothing to do with and has no affect on any state or federal elections that we all know of.”
Nonetheless, the case has drawn the eye of nationwide conservative commentators, supercharged a bunch of native right-wing activists, sowed voter mistrust in an already chaotic political setting and pushed the county to spend 1000’s of {dollars} on election safety measures akin to new poll containers and cameras to watch them.
For devoted skeptics like Hicks, Khan’s case is proof that “extra refined operatives” are gaming elections and going unnoticed. Khan is merely “an beginner who obtained caught,” Hicks mentioned, and there are “far more” like him.
“I imagine that what occurred to Mr. Khan solely solidified what we already severely suspected,” he mentioned.
For Olivia Hale, San Joaquin County’s chief election official, the timing of a uncommon case like Khan’s — as voter fraud conspiracies have proliferated throughout the nation — has been a nightmare.
“The narrative is constant it doesn’t matter what we do,” she mentioned.
Khan’s case isn’t like most of the unfounded conspiracies promoted by the far proper. There have been no “pretend” voters or lifeless folks registered to vote, in response to San Joaquin County deputies, who mentioned Khan’s focus was successful his personal election to the nonpartisan Lodi Metropolis Council, which oversees a inhabitants of about 67,000.
However the case alarmed officers and native Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Let in the present day’s responsible plea ship a message loud and clear, particularly as we enter 2024: Any try to change or undermine our electoral course of and our democratic establishments in San Joaquin County can be handled instantly and to the fullest extent of the legislation,” Dist. Atty. Ron Freitas mentioned at a press convention in January.
Whereas working for Metropolis Council in 2020, Khan pressured folks to vote for him, generally registering them to vote, filling out ballots for them, forging their signatures and amassing their info with out their data of his intent to illegally vote on their behalf, in response to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Workplace, which carried out the investigation that led to his arraignment final yr.
Khan’s “no contest” plea doesn’t embrace an act of contrition, and he has previously denied the allegations. Khan just isn’t in jail and is awaiting sentencing.
His legal professional didn’t return requests for remark from The Instances.
A few of Khan’s alleged fraud victims had been aged and, like him, Pakistani immigrants, unfamiliar with the American voting course of, in response to police.
California’s voting system didn’t instantly flag the ballots tied to Khan as a result of the folks being registered had been actual residents with legit info, in response to Hale, who was appointed in 2022 because the San Joaquin County registrar of voters.
Since Khan’s arrest, Hale has labored to assuage a seemingly infinite listing of issues about fraud from a small group of regulars at county conferences and a few Republican elected officers sympathetic to their calls for.
She has beefed up the poll signature verification course of; zoned in on a number of voters registered to single addresses, in instances akin to intergenerational houses; and opened her workplace to anybody with issues about so-called poll harvesting, a course of — authorized in California however allegedly abused by Khan — that permits voters to provide their ballots to different folks to show in.
Hale labored with the county sheriff’s workplace to launch a voter fraud hotline and makes use of an election advisory committee created by the San Joaquin Board of Supervisors to “reform the general public’s notion of the integrity of the electoral course of.”
She does so whilst she is staunch in her confidence within the county’s voting course of, reiterating that there isn’t a proof that Khan’s case was something apart from an remoted occasion that was stopped due to the system’s checks and balances. A few of the accusations circulating in her group are “nonsense,” she mentioned, however she welcomes skepticism and accountability as a part of wholesome authorities.
“I’ve an obligation to each single voter in San Joaquin County,” she mentioned. “I imagine a lot in what we do in elections and the way secure and safe it’s, and the way onerous we work to maintain it moving into the fitting route at each price.”
For folks like Molly Watkins, a self-described “farm spouse” from the agricultural metropolis of Linden, the county’s efforts will not be sufficient.
Watkins was at a warehouse close to the Stockton airport late into election evening this month, watching officers in color-coded vests figuring out them as “inspectors” and “supervisors” sift by way of yellow bins of bagged ballots. She was satisfied, although, that her monitoring wouldn’t do a lot good.
“That is all smoke and mirrors,” she mentioned as she stored an eye fixed on the motion of ballots. Steps away, Hale gave a tour to a bunch of equally involved residents. “There isn’t any transparency within the system.”
In 2021, California turned the eighth state to completely transfer to mail-in ballots following COVID-19 shutdowns — a transfer celebrated by Democrats, as analysis exhibits it elevated voter turnout in 2020, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.
However Republicans nationwide have alleged that the method is inferior to voting in individual and fewer safe.
Watkins, who ominously refers to “the deep state,” has attended quite a few native conferences since Khan’s arrest to demand modifications to the election system. She needs the county to struggle state legislation and get rid of poll drop containers altogether. She mistrusts voting machine expertise and is pushing county officers to revert to a system wherein ballots are counted by hand.
Not like in Shasta County, the place an identical motion is taking part in out, San Joaquin just isn’t a Republican stronghold, and voters right here elected President Biden over Trump in 2020.
Election fraud is uncommon, however skepticism of the democratic course of is usually a good factor, mentioned Kim Alexander, govt director of the California Voter Basis, a nonpartisan election watchdog group.
Alexander has seen a shift in her a long time of election work and mentioned that whereas “false narratives” about fraud shouldn’t drive the dialog, California officers mustn’t ignore them.
“There’s a cussed minority of voters which can be subscribing to election fraud conspiracy theories who’re very vocal, and although I don’t assume most of the people agrees with these theories, they nonetheless resonate,” she mentioned. “It’s positively taken a toll on voter confidence throughout the board.”
Alexander mentioned the Khan case isn’t proof of larger fraud however proof that anybody who makes an attempt it is going to be punished.
“It’s one instance of an election crime that’s being prosecuted. It doesn’t imply that it’s rampant; it implies that the method is working,” she mentioned. “That sends a message to anyone else who would possibly attempt to cheat the method that it’s a shedding proposition.”
San Joaquin County Supervisor Steve Ding, a Republican, says poll containers are “rife for mischief.” However he admits the problem has spiraled uncontrolled in his group, saying “everyone must take a breath” and “again off” Hale, who has confronted private assaults because the elections chief.
“It’s solid a shadow,” Ding mentioned of the Khan case. “Sadly, it’s change into a partisan difficulty reasonably than a superb authorities difficulty. It’s now not about whether or not it really works or doesn’t. Folks have drawn sides.”
At a San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors assembly final week, folks rose for public remark to voice issues concerning the March 5 major election, alleging that Hale was rigging votes to assist somebody who attends her church get elected to the Stockton Metropolis Council.
Hale denies the claims and identified that the candidate in query just isn’t projected to win the race.