California Politics: Dominion voting machine conspiracies sow chaos in rural California

Mike Lindell — chief govt of MyPillow and a distinguished pro-Trump election denier — is happy about what’s happening in Shasta County.

Swept up in unproven voter fraud claims, the hard-right majority on the agricultural Northern California county’s Board of Supervisors has canceled its contract with Dominion Voting Programs and is contemplating requiring votes to be counted by hand.

“Each county ought to do this,” Lindell advised Occasions reporter Jessica Garrison in an interview. “I believe that’s nice that they’re main the way in which in California.”

At a board assembly this week, Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye advised his colleagues that he had reached out to Lindell in regards to the county’s election system and that the pillow govt provided to offer “all of the sources vital” to combat any potential lawsuits.

Additionally this week, Kern County supervisors heard hours of testimony from residents who have been satisfied the county’s Dominion voting system was rigged, Garrison stories.

The episode left Shasta County’s clerk and registrar of voters unhappy and speechless: “My focus is that we don’t have a voting system,” Cathy Darling Allen stated. “That truth, it’s very regarding to me.”

Dominion is among the largest suppliers of voting machines and software program within the U.S., and presently runs voting machines in 41 of California’s 58 counties. The corporate turned the goal of baseless conspiracies after President Trump misplaced reelection in 2020 and his supporters, together with Lindell, spent months propagating false accusations that Dominion machines have been used fraudulently to elect President Biden.

Fox Information personalities perpetuated these allegations by giving important airtime to election deniers — though proof surfaced in Dominion’s lawsuit in opposition to the community exhibiting they privately advised each other the claims of voter fraud have been false.

Shasta County’s determination to dump its Dominion voting machines is “yet one more instance of how lies about Dominion have broken our firm and diminished the general public’s religion in elections,” the corporate stated in an announcement.

It affords a main instance of what occurs when propaganda drowns out actuality, argues Occasions columnist Anita Chabria.

Lindell is pitching “a softer, gentler — and extra harmful — model of the ‘Huge Lie’ that vote fraud stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump,” Chabria writes.

“And we want it about as a lot as his Giza Desires™ bedsheets.”

To be taught extra about how voting conspiracies are shaping actuality in patches of rural California, learn Garrison’s report right here and Chabria’s column right here.

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, the Occasions’ Sacramento bureau chief, and right here’s what else occurred this week in California politics:

Will extra Californians go hungry?

Almost 3 million households in California will cease receiving further federal meals advantages granted in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a squeeze on budgets that comes as individuals proceed to wrestle with the rising value of dwelling, writes Occasions reporter Mackenzie Mays.

Since March 2020, low-income Californians have seen a rise in CalFresh advantages, the state’s model of the federal Supplemental Vitamin Help Program previously referred to as meals stamps. However that emergency reduction ends this month as a result of Congress voted to terminate the additional advantages as a part of the federal omnibus spending plan.

Now, the stress is on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to fill the gaps as consultants warn of worsening meals insecurity and meals banks are scrambling to arrange for an inflow in purchasers. Whereas New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a invoice final month to extend the state’s SNAP minimal advantages in mild of the federal cutback, Newsom has to date suggested in opposition to any massive ongoing spending guarantees, because the state faces a projected $22.5-billion finances deficit.

Learn the complete story right here.

A combat over jail labor may come to the poll

Right here’s one other instance of deep-blue California lagging different states in methods you wouldn’t count on:

Final yr, voters in Vermont, Oregon, Tennessee and Alabama permitted historic poll measures that eliminated slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime from their state constitutions, which may result in limitations on pressured jail labor. They joined a rising checklist of states that handed comparable initiatives in recent times, together with Nebraska, Utah and Colorado.

However in California, writes Occasions reporter Hannah Wiley, voters by no means bought the prospect.

Months earlier than the Nov. 8 election, lawmakers killed a proposal that will have requested voters to eradicate an exception within the state Structure that permits for involuntary servitude for legal punishment.

The emotional debate pitted arguments that in contrast jail labor to slavery in opposition to considerations that eliminating work necessities would undermine rehabilitation and jeopardize restitution funds to crime victims. Division between reasonable Democrats and progressives, together with the worth tag related to the plan, finally tanked the laws.

However now Democrats are attempting once more, hoping that passage final yr in different states may assist sway extra help in California.

Be taught extra in regards to the measure referred to as the “Finish Slavery in California Act” on this fascinating article.

Maintaining with California politics

DeSantis makes California pilgrimage to woo influential Republicans

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, presently considered as the best GOP menace to former President Trump’s 2024 White Home marketing campaign, is visiting Southern California this weekend to advertise his new guide and curry favor as he raises cash for Republicans in conservative strongholds.

Newsom rescinds California’s COVID-19 state of emergency, marking an finish to the pandemic period

California’s COVID-19 state of emergency formally ended Tuesday, bringing a symbolic near one of the difficult chapters of state historical past and of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political profession.

Newsom will get good marks in new ballot however faces take a look at with finances disaster

Gov. Gavin Newsom is California’s hottest high-profile politician, however that might be examined by voter considerations over his skill to deal with the state’s estimated $22.5-billion deficit, in line with a brand new ballot. The findings present a “warning sign” to Newsom in regards to the fragility of his political standing amongst California voters.

Feinstein hospitalized with shingles

Hospitalized in San Francisco, Sen. Dianne Feinstein stated she hopes to return to work within the Senate later this month. She is certainly one of two Senate Democrats presently out with sickness, prompting Vice President Kamala Harris to interrupt three tied votes this week.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass endorses Rep. Barbara Lee in Senate race

Bass, a fellow Democrat who served in Congress with Lee for over a decade, endorsed her former colleague and good friend within the contest to exchange Sen. Dianne Feinstein, additionally a Democrat, who introduced in February that she would retire when her present time period ends in January 2025.

Barabak: Trump tormentor, whiteboard wizard — it’s the model that issues in California Senate race

It was that Home members like Adam B. Schiff and Katie Porter spent their days toiling in relative obscurity, writes Occasions columnist Mark Z. Barabak. However by the point they arrived greater than 350 miles from dwelling to handle a big Democratic membership in Northern California, each have been family names with well-established political manufacturers and movie star standing minted in viral movies, nationwide TV appearances and numerous clicks on social media.

Two males who plotted to bomb California Democrats’ headquarters sentenced to jail

Two alleged militia members in Northern California who plotted to bomb the state Democratic headquarters in Sacramento and “go to warfare” over former President Trump’s loss within the 2020 presidential election have been sentenced to jail. The pair admitted that after the election they started to debate a plan to destroy the Democratic headquarters, utilizing cans of gasoline to burn down the constructing.

Chabria: After a person burst in with a gun, a San Francisco synagogue confronts hate

Such incidents have turn out to be so widespread that this one barely made headlines exterior San Francisco. Simply one other alleged hate crime in a surging tide of them, unremarkable with out deaths to rely, writes Occasions columnist Anita Chabria. In our polarized nation the place extremism is being mainstreamed, we have gotten desensitized to something however essentially the most egregious acts of hate.

New ballot reveals most California voters worry gun violence, however Democrats and Republicans are divided

Following two high-profile mass shootings in California, nearly all of voters surveyed in a brand new statewide ballot stated they fear that gun violence will have an effect on them or somebody near them. The survey additionally revealed a stark political divide over worry about gun violence amongst Californians, and of the disproportional concern amongst ladies, metropolis residents and folks of shade within the state.

Skelton: Hydrogen vehicles needs to be a much bigger a part of California’s battle in opposition to carbon emissions

Some legislators need the state to make investments more cash into nurturing the usage of hydrogen automobiles, simply as California is pouring funds into plug-in electrical vehicles. Nobody is arguing that hydrogen automobiles are preferable to plug-ins, writes columnist George Skelton. It’s that motorists ought to simply have a second choice.

Legislators suggest adjustments to California’s conservatorship legislation

With help from a coalition of mayors, psychological well being advocates and California legislators, state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) unveiled two payments Wednesday that will carry adjustments to the state’s behavioral well being system. They’re meant to handle the cycle that many people with extreme psychological sickness face between homelessness and remedy, filling emergency rooms and exhausting suppliers, whereas operating the danger of incarceration, overdose or loss of life.

Skelton: Newsom cares extra about almond growers than California’s salmon fishery

Gov. Gavin Newsom payments himself as a protector of wildlife, so that you wouldn’t assume he’d take water from child salmon and provides it to almonds, pistachios or alfalfa — particularly when California was simply drenched with the wettest three-week sequence of storms on file, writes Occasions columnist George Skelton. However Newsom and his water officers nonetheless contend we’re struggling a drought.

Julie Su, who oversaw California unemployment company amid fraud wave, nominated U.S. Labor secretary

President Biden has nominated Julie Su to be his subsequent Labor secretary, organising the previous California labor chief to turn out to be the primary Asian American to run a Cupboard division throughout his presidency. Su may face a troublesome affirmation combat: Republicans have raised considerations about her position overseeing California’s unemployment insurance coverage workplace in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the state paid out billions in fraudulent claims.