A Weird Email I Got About My Voter Registration
And a response you aren’t gonna hear from most election integrity folks
I received this inaccurate email yesterday from the California Secretary of State claiming that I attempted to register to vote again.
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From: "noreply@sos.ca.gov" <noreply@sos.ca.gov>
To: "noreply@sos.ca.gov" <noreply@sos.ca.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 08:47:21 AM PDT
Subject: California Voter Registration Notification
This is an official message from the California Secretary of State regarding your voter registration.
Our records indicate that you submitted a voter registration application. Your registration is complete, and your county elections office will mail you a Voter Notification Card.
You may check your voter registration status using the Secretary of State’s My Voter Status website at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov.
If you did not register to vote or believe this email was sent to you in error, please immediately contact the Secretary of State’s office at elections@sos.ca.gov.
For more information regarding California elections, please visit the Election and Voter Information website at https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/.
This notification is a service of the Secretary of State to help protect your voter registration. The Secretary of State will never ask for your voter information by email.
This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
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Well, do you know what my immediate response was?
It wasn’t to ignore the email.
It wasn’t to say “Yes, I’m paying attention, I did not request that. I know someone did something shady just now with my voter registration.”
No. Complying with nonsense certainly wasn’t an option.
It wasn’t to write back “Yes.”
It wasn’t to write an all capital letter response that starts “WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!?!? I KNEW YOU ILL-BRED FELLOWS WERE TRYING TO STEAL THE ELECTION AND NOW I FINALLY HAVE PROOF!!!…”
Instead, because I understand the principles taught in Project Accountability, my answer was this:
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Dear Sir or Madam,
I am submitting a public records request for the following documents:
1.) All documents, physical or electronic, created in relation to the voter registration mentioned in the email below sent to (my email address redacted in this article) from noreply@sos.ca.govern October 4, 2022 at 8:47 am Pacific.
2.) All emails sent to or from state accounts related to this registration.
Thank you.
Allan Stevo
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Do you know why I did that?
Several reasons
1.) Because it is a neutral response. I’m less likely to be sent to the trash.
2.) Because it gets me more information before I rush to conclusions.
3.) Because it gets me more information before they get rid of the information.
4.) And my main reason for doing it in the form of a public records request —- because it’s impossible to ignore.
A bureaucrat can ignore your letters all day long. A bureaucrat can’t ignore your public records request.
Do you know why?
Not because there are some official public records police who are likely to get after them, but because you might just be unhinged enough to be an informed citizen who understands the law and demands that government follow the law.
And in many places the public records laws allow for this:
1.) remedy in the court
2.) attorneys fees paid if a government agency didn’t follow the laws
3.) embarrassment to the bureaucrat
4.) a $5,000, $10,000 or even $20,000 legal bill that needs to be paid by that government agency and which the secretive government operative is going to have to do some explaining over.
5.) possible criminal enforcement and media attention to follow once the documents that were hidden come to light, as well as a level of scrutiny that otherwise would not have occurred.
The act of getting caught hiding something always seems to attract more eyeballs than the act of just complying.
Lots of bureaucrats know this and are more likely to just follow the law (as well as they know it) rather than break the law.
The thing is, most bureaucrats don’t know public records laws very well.
That is why it sometimes comes down to informed activists like us to assert those rights under the law and explain them to others, including the bureaucrat who you would like to think knows better.
Project Accountability exists to make you into a public records warrior. That skill will make your better in every single area of activism. I promise you. The power of being able to write a letter like that makes you impossible to ignore. That can be very effective in the right circumstances.
And you don’t need Project Accountability to learn this stuff. There are plenty of fine resources out there. But when you join Project Accountability you get three things 1.) teaching on this topic, 2.) a community of people doing the same, and 3.) me to bounce ideas off of.
I have lost count of how many public records requests I have done or been involved in, but it is likely in the thousands. So Project Accountability is a pretty amazing way to learn about this effective and little known technique.
You will know about it better than about 99% of journalists and you will know about it better than about 99.9% of lawyers.
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For the rest of today you can join Project Accountability for $15 a month — you can quit any time.
Compared to what you are getting, that price is low.
To become a superhero in this area will take only one thing from you once you join — about 30 minutes a week of your time. If you can give me 30 minutes a week of your time, I can make you a warrior who is proficient in public records requests in less than 8 weeks. That will cost you a mere $30.
If the group is not your thing leave at that point and take your learnings with you. If the group is your thing, stay. The community we are building there and the work we are doing to achieve accountability for the ills of 2020 is impressive.
This vision of mine for a group like project Accountability has finally started to come together and now we are opening the doors to welcome you — the first time the doors have been open since the founding members joined, but if this feels like your kind of thing, get in before the doors close Thursday night.
Tap here to join Project Accountability.
Allan Stevo