Tillis accuses California of being ‘guilty’ of ballot harvesting: ‘They have a system there that is ripe for abuse’
Tillis calling out California's ballot harvesting practices gets to the heart of how differently the two parties see election rules. The senator looks at the state's system and sees a wide open door for abuse. California's officials would say they built it to make voting easier for more people. Both sides are talking about the same machinery and reaching opposite conclusions.
What I'd want is the evidence beneath the rhetoric. How many noncitizens are actually on those rolls, and how often does ballot harvesting lead to a fraudulent vote? The DOJ suit is the backdrop here, and these questions deserve numbers, not just labels. With tens of millions of registered voters in California, even a tiny error rate becomes a big talking point.
I land somewhere in the middle. Election integrity deserves genuine scrutiny, and states ought to clean their rolls carefully. But a phrase like "ripe for abuse" is a charge, not a finding. I'd want to see the facts before siding with either version of this fight.