On Tuesday, the California Republican Party and its Chairperson, represented by former RNLA President and Board of Governors member Chuck Bell, filed an emergency petition for a writ of mandate in the California Supreme Court, challenging California's new law requiring presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns prior to appearing on California's presidential primary ballot.  As we wrote on Tuesday, this law is a blatantly political maneuver to keep President Trump off the ballot, and a federal lawsuit against it is also pending.

Today, RNLA Vice President for Communications and RNC Committeewoman from California Harmeet Dhillon’s firm and Michael Best & Friedrich filed a lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom seeking to enjoin California Demorats' illegal attempt to keep qualified candidates off the Presidential ballot.  The lawsuit says in part:

As demonstrated by the legislative history and Governor Newsom’s public comments, the Act is a naked political attack against the sitting President of the United States.  The Act subverts the franchise for cheap political gain, creates an extra-constitutional qualification for the office of President, and effectively disenfranchises voters by denying their right to associate for the advancement of political beliefs and effectively cast a vote for the otherwise qualified candidate of their choosing.

Many residents in California are voting twice and it’s time for Secretary of State Alex Padilla to stop ignoring the problem. This flaw in their system has been an issue for years and the integrity of our elections is at stake.

Lawyers Democracy Fund's board member Joanne Young published an op-ed today cataloguing the many problems with California's automatic, or mandatory, voter registration system, which is especially relevant as the House debates and votes on H.R. 1 this week.  H.R. 1 would require all states to adopt automatic voter registration (AVR) according to the bill's requirements, regardless of each state's existing laws.  It would also require a massive data dump from various government databases in the states' voter registration systems, which would introduce errors in the voter registration databases that would only be exacerbated by the new required AVR systems.

California has agreed via settlement to investigate its DMV's latest mishandling of voter registration information:

On Dec. 14, DMV officials revealed that staff members had not transmitted voter registration files for 589 people whose applications or updated applications were filled out before the close of registration for the Nov. 6 statewide election. At the time, state officials could not confirm whether any of those voters had been turned away on election day, or if any had cast last-minute provisional ballots that were rejected in the final tally.

Monday’s settlement raises the possibility that a full investigation of the delayed voter registration documents could reveal races in which the outcome might have changed had those voters been allowed to participate. State officials now have 60 days to complete an investigation into the identity of those voters and why DMV staff members failed to transmit the files in a timely fashion.

President Trump has started 2019 by continuing his success of nominating excellent, well-qualified judges. This was the first major test of new White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and he has passed with flying colors.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board raised initial concerns that an unnecessary compromise might be in the works with the California Senators. They explained:

RNLA’s Vice President for Communications hit a home run for free speech on college campuses on behalf of her clients, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and the UC Berkeley College Republicans.

Boom! Deeply honored to have been selected as the lead plaintiffs’ counsel in this landmark 1st Am. lawsuit, which today resulted in a settlement allowing free or nominal access to campus facilities at UC Berkeley, and no security fees for the types of events our client hold. 🙌🏽 https://t.co/3n2kez7YBD

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) December 3, 2018

The RNLA is pleased to announce that Harmeet Dhillon has been named the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year:

The Board of Governors of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) has named Harmeet K. Dhillon of California the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Dhillon was selected as the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year in recognition of her outstanding professional accomplishments and years of service to the Republican Party and its ideals. She will be honored at a reception and luncheon at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, November 14.

Election Day 2018 is just a week away, and already there have been reports of serious election administration problems around the country.  Here are a few examples.

As Election Day comes closer, it is worth noting the many problems facing election officials.  These “problems” are often a combination of election official incompetence and bad actors.   What’s worse is they do not increase turnout, their stated purpose. 

One example is the left's push for automatic or mandatory voter registration.  This process has the effect of disenfranchising voters from party primaries (thus helping establishment candidates like Hillary Clinton over insurgent candidates like Bernie Sanders) whether intentionally or unintentionally.  Mandatory registration cannot select a party for a person and serves to disfranchise more casual voters who only vote every four years in party primaries for President or the like.