Californians, don’t let this Republican’s conspiracy theory discourage you from voting

Shame on Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, for spreading falsehoods designed to scare and confuse California voters.

Last week, Melendez took to Twitter to wrongfully accuse California Secretary of State Alex Padilla of conspiring against Republicans. Specifically, she accused Padilla’s office of changing some Republican voters’ registrations to “no party preference,” or NPP.

“We’ve had a flood of registered Republicans in SD28 receive notification that they’re now NPP,” Melendez declared, tagging an ABC News affiliate in her tweet. “They did not change their party. The Secretary of State appears to have done it for them anyway.”

Her claims don’t hold up, according to a fact check by The Sacramento Bee’s Bryan Anderson. Anderson found that Melendez was “echoing inaccurate sentiments spread within conservative circles across the state that California elected officials are purposefully disenfranchising Republican voters by switching them to no party preference without consent.”

In reality, though some California voters have reported surprise at being registered as NPP, the changes appear to be accidental. The voters in question likely declined to designate a party preference when re-registering to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles and then forgot. The changes may also be due to clerical errors or other mistakes.

But there is no evidence of any effort to deprive voters of their party preference. Many of the voters complaining about the issue have received postcards informing them of the steps they must take to vote in the presidential primary. If the government wanted to disenfranchise them, why would it send postcards reminding them to make sure their votes get counted?

In fact, it was the California Republican Party that decided to exclude NPP voters. “Under rules set by the state party, Republicans must be registered with their own party in order to vote for President Donald Trump and other Republicans in the March 3, 2020 primary,” wrote Anderson.

When asked for evidence to support her accusations, Melendez failed to produce. Instead, she referenced unsubstantiated reports from constituents, seemed to slightly backtrack on her claims – and kept tweeting. We don’t know whether Melendez is making these fraudulent claims out of malevolence or ignorance. Either way, her behavior falls short of what’s ethical.

At a time when the spread of disinformation has become epidemic and threatens to undermine democracy, elected leaders must take care to avoid spreading lies and baseless conspiracy theories.

We have been highly critical of the state’s Motor Voter debacle and Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s role in rushing ahead with a flawed system. Any problems with the voter registration forms and prompts must be fixed immediately. Yet, by all accounts, California is trying to make voting easier and more accessible for everyone. Despite its bungled roll-out, Motor Voter is clearly an effort to make sure every eligible Californian registers to vote – including Republicans.

Melendez should apologize for spreading fake allegations. As an elected leader, she must find a way to critique Padilla’s work without resorting to baseless conspiracy theories. After all, there’s no reason for any Democratic official in California to try to reduce the number of registered Republicans when GOP numbers have been shrinking steadily for years. If leaders like Melendez want to know who to blame for that, they can look in a mirror.

California makes it easy for voters to change their party preference and vote for the candidate of their choice. In fact, you can even change parties at the voting center on Election Day. Check your voter registration status at registertovote.ca.gov.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Californians, don’t let this Republican’s conspiracy theory discourage you from voting."