Vote-by-mail boosts turnout + CCPOA makes nice with Kiley + Gun magazine ban gets support

Andrew Sheeler
·6 min read

It’s Thursday! The end of the work week is in sight. Now if only the end of these wildfires was in sight...

CALIFORNIA VOTING REFORMS COULD BOOST TURNOUT

The election might feel like it’s forever away, but it’s less than two months from now. And according to a new report from Public Policy Institute of California, there’s reason to be optimistic about voter turnout

“This November, mail-in ballots and other alternatives to in-person voting on Election Day will be key to California holding an election that is not only fair, but is safe for voters and election workers,” said Eric McGhee, senior fellow at PPIC and one of the report’s authors. “Our research points to the prospect of boosting turnout through increased vote-by-mail but also shows the importance of strategic outreach to groups that may have a hard time with the transition.”

PPIC analyzed voting behavior under the Voter’s Choice Act passed in 2016, which has been adopted by 15 counties and which “significantly increases mail voting, reduces and consolidates in-person voting options, and mandates certain early-voting alternatives.”

The study’s authors looked at voter behavior in the counties both before and after the Voter’s Choice Act passed, compared to voting behavior in California’s 43 other counties, according to a PPIC statement.

The report found that turnout increased by 4 percentage points on average among those who prefer to vote in person and 1 percentage point among those who prefer to vote by mail.

However, certain groups, including foreign-language registrants, renters, new voters, younger voters, and Latino and Asian American registrants, did not see higher turnout.

The report also found that vote-by-mail does not appear to offer any partisan advantage.

You can read the report for yourself by visiting here.

CCPOA WARMS TO KILEY

Clearly, there are no hard feelings at the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley.

Kiley in 2018 was among a handful of Republicans who voted against the union’s final contract with then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration. ThT one-year pact provided correctional officers a 5% raise. The Legislative Analyst’s Office was critical about the contract at the time, writing the administration had a “weak justification” for the “large pay increase.”

The powerful state worker union then supported Kiley’s opponent, Republican Brian Dahle, in the 2019 special State Senate District 1 race. Dahle won, and moved from the Assembly to the Senate.

This year, the union looks to be on board with Kiley’s reelection campaign.

The CCPOA, through its political action committee, cut a check for $2,000 to Kiley’s campaign on Aug. 27, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Kiley’s former legislative director, Matthew Easley, registered as a lobbyist representing CCPOA in April.

Reached for comment, Kiley said “there really isn’t much of a relationship” between him and the union.

“I’ve spoken to Matt once since he left my office and I’m not sure I could name another person with their organization. The only other contact I can remember is I think their contract lobbyist was present at a meeting I had with someone from Folsom prison at some point last year. They did contribute to my last event (which I didn’t ask for) as they did sporadically before last year’s race, and there are other groups like the realtors that were on the other side of last year’s race that have since contributed as well,” Kiley said.

Easley could not be reached for comment.

SUPPORT FOR HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINE BAN

The battle over California’s ban on high-capacity firearm magazines isn’t over yet.

On Wednesday, 18 state attorneys general filed a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of the state in the ongoing litigation Duncan v. Becerra, which seeks a full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals review of the court’s three-judge panel decision to strike down the ban on magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition last month.

“The Constitution allows states to implement reasonable gun safety laws to keep their residents safe,” said Karl Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia. “Restricting large-capacity magazines is a common-sense reform that California, the District of Columbia, and other states have adopted to reduce the number of injuries and deaths resulting from the gun violence that plagues our nation. Our coalition of state Attorneys General will continue to defend the right of states to make public safety decisions that protect our residents.”

That coalition includes attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

And it’s not just those states siding with California; the court also received letters of support for the ban from the cities of San Francisco, Alameda, Calabasas, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Santa Monica, Sunnyvale and West Hollywood.

Also submitting letters were the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, March for Our Lives Action Fund, Team ENOUGH, California Chapter of the America College of Emergency Physicians, the American Academic of Pediatrics, California, the California Academy of Family Physicians, Pride Fund to End Gun Violence, Equality California, and Gays Against Guns.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“6am grocery run, 8 am Latino Caucus Zoom, 3 kids distance learning, 2 media interviews, 6 sausage patties & 5 hot dogs cooked, 1 watermelon cut, 12 emails, countless texts, a meeting interrupted by kids wrestling during lunch...and all I can think about today is climate change.”

- Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

  • The Trump campaign is promoting videos that have been manipulated to show Kamala Harris laughing and appearing sympathetic to violent protests as images of rioting flash in the background. Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, did not laugh at protesters. The laughter in the video was taken from a 21-month-old appearance on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that had nothing to do with protesting, via David Lightman.

  • California has registered a record-high of 21 million voters this year, recording the highest rate of registration since the election of 1940, according to a report from voter data firm Political Data Inc., via Lara Korte.

  • State prisoners are providing a key source of labor on the out-of-control Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera counties, as well as dozens of other fires around the state. Inmate “hand crews” have for decades been used to fight California’s wildfires, but, lately, they’ve become controversial as the nation debates criminal justice reforms. Some critics call them a form of slave labor since the inmates earn just dollars a day doing the dangerous work, via Ryan Sabalow.