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By Tim Hunt

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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...  (More)

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Mass vote-by-mail invitation to problems

Uploaded: Sep 24, 2020
There’s been justifiable concern about mass voting by mail in many states, including California. We have been permanent vote-by-mail people since Alameda County collapsed our precinct many years ago.

What is of great concern to me is the woeful job Alameda County has done purging its voter rolls. We received five mailings from the county registrar’s office—three were to people who live here and two for people who have not lived here for six and seven years. One was addressed to our daughter who moved to Memphis, TN in 2014. The other was addressed to our former youth pastor who rented a room until she got married and moved to Washington in 2013.

I recall how long it took the county to catch up with the deaths of my father-in-law and my wife’s aunt (2009 and 2008 respectively). I think that was at least 2012.

The non-profit public interest corporation, Judicial Watch, settled a 2017 lawsuit against Los Angeles County in 2019. The non-profit announced in a press release that the county had mailed 1.5 million notices to inactive voters. The secretary of state also was required to have other counties clean up their lists as required by federal law.

Obviously, Alameda County has not gotten much done.

The Washington Free Beacon reported a Tuesday study by the Public Interest Legal Foundation out of Indiana. The group conducted a nationwide study that determined as many as 350,000 dead people were still on the voter rolls. More than half were in just five states---New York, Michigan, Florida, Texas and California.


CalMatters columnist Dan Walters opined recently about the staggering cost of building government-subsidized “affordable housing.”

He cited his 2019 column in which he wrote about a $28 million project financed by the city of Sacramento that rehabbed 74 low-rent apartments at a cost of $378,000 each—way more than the median-priced single-family home in the area.

Walters then dug into a Los Angeles Times in-depth piece. The Times dug into a low-income project in Solana Beach that went from $414,000 put unit to more than $1.1 million before the developer bailed after trying to win approvals and obtain permits for nearly a decade. The Times also reported that a low-income housing project in Alameda cost $947,000 per unit.

It brings the Tiny Homes project at Goodness Village, being done for $97,000 per 120-square-foot unit (no land cost) into perspective.

I asked Pleasanton officials what the Kottinger Gardens project on Kottinger Avenue cost. Again, there was minimal land cost because the city already owned the project on the north side and the Pleasanton Gardens board (which I chaired at the time), gave the city our 1.95 acres. The two-phase project expanded 90 patio homes into 185 units affordable to low-income senior citizens.

The per unit cost was $391,696, better than other areas, but with the advantage of almost no land cost. The redeveloped units are a real win for residents—modern units with heating and air conditioning in place of units that were more than 40 years old.
Community.
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Comments

Posted by DublinMike, a resident of Dublin,
on Sep 24, 2020 at 8:58 am

DublinMike is a registered user.

Tim, "I recall how long it took..." was many years ago. Have you made any independent inquiries with Alameda county recently? At least you mentioned something more recent, such as the Judicial Watch lawsuit.


Posted by Magnus Back, a resident of Danville,
on Sep 25, 2020 at 8:17 am

Magnus Back is a registered user.

It's your opinion of course Mike but it's also as usual a bunch of nonsense. You getting some "malings" is not the same as you being able to vote fraudulently.
There is very little voter fraud in the US regardless of method.
This is trump failed to produce evidence of this to a court just a couple of weeks ago.

Not sure why the Danville San Ramon Express agrees with you publishing clueless lies and innuendo?

Voting fraud overall in the US is between 0.00004% and 0.0009%

Web Link


Posted by cookiefan, a resident of Dublin,
on Sep 25, 2020 at 11:38 am

cookiefan is a registered user.

Human Nature being what it is, people in this country forget to notify change of address, misspell information...etc. And this happens to most people regardless of political party. So extrapolate human errors and tampering with mail-in ballots, (We have already seen what happened with the USPS) It's not exclusive to democrats such as Fox would and similar news outlets suggests. Both parties have there issues with deranged people and no doubt will do what they do, whether voting in person or not. In the end I suspect it will be a wash and those legitimately voting will prevail in consensus.


Posted by DublinMike, a resident of Dublin,
on Sep 26, 2020 at 9:45 am

DublinMike is a registered user.

Magnus, I think you misunderstand my intent. Mr. Hunt was citing one source which is the right-wing Public Interest Legal Foundation. I want to see more evidence of vote mailing fraud. I too believe what fraud there is is minuscule, and will be used to justify the president's intent to stay in office if he looses.

(Removed)


Posted by Kevin, a resident of Castlewood,
on Sep 29, 2020 at 10:20 pm

Kevin is a registered user.

Here you go again, Tim Hunt, following your Proud Boy Trump friend spreading false information and fear. THERE IS NO WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD BYMAIL OR OTHERWISE. This is because the vast majority of Americans are decent people who would do the right such as putting the Mistaken mail-in votes in trash, or asking their daughter to change address or etc. perhaps you are thinking of being in the small minority and using these mistaken mail-in votes in a fraudulent way?. In which case you will be breaking the law.

I trust Americans, left or right or center, to do the right thing, you think liberals cheat and lie while Trump and his supporters are right to suspect mail-in voting. You are the type of Christian and American that we are ashamed of.


Posted by John, a resident of Birdland,
on Sep 30, 2020 at 10:36 am

John is a registered user.

I think many people miss the point here. It is correct that there is no widespread voter fraud currently. Most votes by mail are solicited by the voter, therefore they are expecting a ballot in the mail. As I understand what Newsom wants to do is mail every register voter a ballot. There are approximately 20 million registered voters in Cal. That is 20 million ballots mailed out. Voter turnout is approximately 60%. That means around 12 million ballots (40% register non voters out of 20 milllion) will not be used by the voter and just floating around someones home, in the trash, mailing errors etc. Where will they all end up. Real opportunity for a problems and that is just California. You don't have to be a Trump hater or lover to see this mess coming.


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