Thread by @Sam_Mahood

THREAD: Postcards explaining No Party Preference voters' presidential primary options has led to some wild headlines speculating about "DMV glitches" changing voters' political party. The conspiracy left and right are revving up.

Let's take a look at what really happened...

Earlier this week Contra Costa elections issued a press release saying that voters' political party preference was overwritten. This misrepresents an initial bug in motor voter that was fixed long ago. But more on that in a second.
cocovote.us/wp-content/upl…

Unfortunately this press release led to some sensational headlines: "Computer glitch wiped out tens of thousands of California voters' party preference"

No actual voters mentioned in this story. No context from elections officials outside the release.
sfgate.com/politics/artic…

And let's take this @nbcbayarea story. Two voters are presented as being lifelong Democrats who had their party changed. It is suggested that the DMV is to blame. However, these voters' records were never presented to Contra Costa or the SOS for review.

nbcbayarea.com/news/local/eas…

After review of the @nbcbayarea voters:
One is and has been Dem, so the issue being alleged isn't even accurate. The voter last registered using a paper form--selecting Dem--in 2018.

The other has been NPP since 2013! The voter even selected NPP when re-registering at DMV.

But back to that press release saying that voters may have had their party overwritten. I believe it is a claim based on this LA Times story from 2018: latimes.com/politics/la-po…

But let's provide some context on that issue...

As noted there was a bug when Motor Voter first launched in 4/2018. Voters who selected NPP at DMV had their records sent to SOS with a blank value for party. Instead of updating these voters to NPP, they were reverted back to their previous party registration (if they had one).

This bug was caught and fixed soon after launch. But what about those voters who had selected NPP? SOS re-sent their records to the counties--this time with the proper NPP selection. This caused accusations of duplicate registrations--when in fact they were merely corrections.

But what about other voters who visited DMV and claim they got changed to NPP? It is certainly possible that the original Motor Voter party preference screens confused voters, causing them to inadvertently register NPP. These screens were updated in 2019 for greater clarity.

For more on this, read @paulmitche11's work in @CA_120 detailing the change in political party registrations through DMV over the past two years: capitolweekly.net/ca120-surprise…

So what can voters do?
Verify voter registration at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov

If you need to re-register, you can do so easily at: registertovote.ca.gov

Not sure about presidential primary rules? Visit:
howtovoteforpresident.sos.ca.gov

And elections officials are here to help! If a voter is concerned their registration is not accurate, the county or SOS can review their record.

But assigning blame to some nefarious computer glitch is irresponsible without the proper evidence and research.

And to clarify, I don’t believe Contra Costa was trying to misrepresent a bug, but rather that the line in their press release was used in media coverage without providing broader context and research from elections officials.

County elections officials work hard to make sure every voter is registered accurately and receiving the proper ballot, so that the election process is a smooth as possible.