‘Loose-Goose’ Mail-In Voter Registration Hit

A top Immigration and Naturalization Service official charged that California’s “loose-goose” mail-in voter registration system has allowed many legal and illegal aliens to sign up unlawfully and cast possibly decisive numbers of ballots in recent elections.

Harold Ezell, the agency’s Western regional commissioner, wants the Legislature to repeal the 9-year-old mail-registration system because “it’s unacceptable that we continue to let such a precious right be so cheaply gotten by somebody who doesn’t have to prove anything but fill out a postcard and send it in and be registered to vote.”

Ezell, who broached the subject Thursday at a meeting of a Republican group in Newport Beach, said he was told by a precinct worker that as many as 20% of those who voted in one East Los Angeles polling place may not have been U.S. citizens.

“I think if it’s 5% it’s too high,” he said in an interview Friday.

Estimate Disputed

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Charles Weissburd, who said that perhaps 95% of the county’s 3.6 million registered voters sign up by the mail system, doubted that there are anywhere near that many unlawful voters.

“A voter file would be the last place an illegal alien wants to see his name,” Weissburd said. “It’s an open file, available to anyone and everyone, including INS and police departments and so forth. It’s used for jury duty. If you’re in the country illegally, you don’t want a high profile.”

Although the county cannot verify the citizenship of every mail registrant, Weissburd said the red-letter perjury warning on the registration card is a real deterrent. In the last five years, he added, his department has found perhaps half a dozen registered voters who were not citizens.

Oath Suggested

Ezell suggested that the state should mandate that prospective voters “swear in front of somebody that you are who you say you are, and you are a citizen. . . .”

“How much of an inconvenience is it for somebody to go in person and take the oath as they used to and become registered to vote?” he asked.

State elections chief Deborah Seiler said she is “not sure it would really make a great deal of difference.” Under the old deputy registration system, she said, “there was no requirement that a person prove citizenship, and they were not asked.”

Tom Cosgrove, who contacted Ezell about his concerns after working as a poll inspector in the Lincoln Heights area, said he noted a “substantial percentage” of those who came to vote were unable to speak English or write their names--both skills being required by law of naturalized citizens.

Close Races

Since his speech, Ezell said, some candidates who lost in recent close races have called and “want to know more about this.”

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who attended Thursday’s meeting, said she has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation “that would place greater accountability on registration efforts,” but it “would probably stand less of a successful chance now; it would be viewed as a partisan effort.”