Los Angeles County Tells the Tale
In the November 2024 election for Los Angeles County District Attorney, Nathan Hochman, former GOP candidate for California Attorney General, defeated woke, liberal incumbent George Gascon. Though labeled as non-partisan election, the reality is Los Angeles County elected a Republican prosecutor in the heart of “deep blue” California. How did that happen? A short history:
2024 vote: Hochman 1,421,207; Gascon: 891,264; Total votes: 2,312,471
In 2020, Gascon defeated two term incumbent, Jackie Lacey with 2,002,865 votes to Lacey’s 1,738,617. Total votes in 2020: 3,741,482
The 2024 votes were 1,429,011 less than 2020, with Gascon getting 1,111,601 fewer votes.
Gascon’s woke policies were crucial to his defeat. However, vote totals bear a peculiar relationship to a lawsuit by Judicial Watch enforcing National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) roll maintenance mandates.
In December, 2017 Judicial Watch sued Los Angeles County for failure to follow the NVRA required voter roll maintenance. Asa result of the lawsuit, by February, 2023, Los Angeles County had removed 1,207,613 ineligible voters from its rolls.
Gascon’s vote decrease mirrors the ineligible voters removed from the Los Angeles County rolls.
The NVRA, passed in 1993, is known as ‘motor voter”. NVRA mandated state driver license facilities to provide voter registration services. Other registration mandates include military recruitment centers and state benefits offices. Registration had traditionally been the work of county clerks.
Congress also required regular maintenance of the voter rolls. Maintenance includes immediate removal of certain registrations: deaths, incapacity judgments, written voter notice and if state law requires, felony convictions. There is also a detailed process to remove non-voters failing to respond to queries who continue to not vote.
Private citizens may enforce aspects of the NVRA. This provision permitted Judicial Watch to sue Los Angeles County. Such lawsuits have resulted in the removal of more than four million ineligible voters in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, and elsewhere. United Sovereign Americans, is also pursuing court actions against nine states for failing to properly maintain voter rolls. Political parties and others have filed private actions. (I filed an action on behalf of the Illinois Conservative Union in 2020.)
There are challenges for private NVRA enforcement. The prerequisites, notices and timetables before filing a case are detailed. Private NVRA action is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive.
Unlike a private party, the Attorney General has nearly plenary authority to enforce all aspects of the NVRA via a civil suit. There can be criminal charges. The Justice Department website, lists 34 NVRA lawsuits or settlements since 1993. Only four have involved state failure to maintain clean voter rolls.
The Supreme Court has acknowledged the voter roll problem: “It has been estimated that 24 million voter registrations in the United States—about one in eight—are either invalid or significantly inaccurate…. And about 2.75 million people are said to be registered to vote in more than one State.” HUSTED v. A. PHILIP RANDOLPH INSTITUTE 138 S. Ct. 1833, 201 L. Ed. 2d 141 (2018)
Justice Alito’s Husted opinion cited 24 million registration problems. United Sovereign Americans has completed detailed analysis of 21 states from the 2022 election. Those 21 states had29 million apparently ineligible registrations which cast 10 million votes.
Since 2016 I have been very involved in elections. The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) deployed me that year to Broward County, FL for Trump/Rubio. I discovered tens of thousands of mail in ballots illegally opened in a locked room before being brought into public for processing.
In 2020 RNLA sent me to Allegheny County, PA. At a warehouse mail in ballot processing facility I organized 70 observers who were corralled into a small space unable to conduct meaningful observation. We did observe ballot envelopes had been slit open before arrival in the warehouse processing area. We also investigated voter registrations and votes cast from condemned buildings. I and three other lawyers visited these buildings personally.
In 2024 I worked with Bob Fioretti, the Republican candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney. During the campaign I spent three days at the county processing facility. Hundreds of thousands of ballots were processed there. Those days I was literally the only outside person observing (besides hypothetical “Republican” election judges).
The centralized processing of mail in ballots under the control of a few people provides opportunity for the unscrupulous to take advantage of inaccurate voter rolls and defeat the consent of the governed.
Jerry Stocks, a veteran Illinois attorney experienced in election law, including five RNLA deployments, concurs that questionable voter roll integrity increases lack of election confidence. Stocks contends that U.S. Attorneys must enforce the NVRA to restore confidence in our voter rolls. Non-existent or stale registrants are place-holders for proxy or ghost voters which manifests in the absence of a voter appearing at the polls with identification.
There has been joy in President Trump’s 2024 victory. Since January 20 the President and his team have amazed: Panama, Greenland, USAID, DOGE, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, Patel, RFK Jr., Musk, female sports, DEI, Gaza, J6 pardons, Canada, Mexico, ICE and more. Bureaucracy draining actions such as offers of early retirement, terminations and the spending pause contribute to long term reform.
Los Angeles County demonstrates how cleansing voter rolls makes a difference in electoral outcomes. Private citizens have limited resources to do the work needed to address the estimated 24 million voter registration issues. States have taxpayer funded lawyers to oppose citizen lawsuits. (The Los Angeles County result required five years of litigation to achieve.)
The United Sovereign America data shows it’s a national issue and only the Justice Department has the resources to address the issue of failure to properly maintain voter rolls on a national scale.
Preserving the fruits of President Trump’s victory and work requires election protection into the future. Ultimately, the security of our elections is necessary for America’s future. The value of voter roll maintenance is seen in the 2024 outcome in Los Angeles. When real voters vote, real representatives are elected.
