On Nov. 4, Californians will vote on Proposition 50, a project of Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed by federal Democrats. A “Yes” vote transfers redistricting from an independent citizens’ commission to legislators. A “No” vote keeps redistricting in the hands of citizens, but Californians in multiple counties noted a potential problem. A “No” vote showed through a hole in the ballot envelope, a possible breach of security.

“When anyone can literally see through the envelope and tell how someone voted, that is not democracy,” Steve Hilton, the former Fox News personality now a Republican candidate for governor, told reporters. “That is rigging the system in plain sight.” For election officials, it was much ado about nothing.

“There are a couple of reasons that we have the holes on the back of our ballot and one on the front,” explained Ken Casparis of the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters. The holes help verify when the ballots are removed and gives visibly impaired voters “something to feel so they know where to sign their name.” If it remained a concern, Casparis recommended folding the ballot so nothing shows through the hole. As voters should know, the same issue surfaced in the 2021 election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In the run-up to that recall election, CalMatters, a “nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization,” ran a piece headlined, “Recall fact and fiction: What you need to know about the election fraud rumors you’re seeing.” Some Californians were concerned that their vote could be seen through holes in the envelope. Los Angeles County officials said the holes were to help vision impaired voters and ensure that no ballot was left uncounted.

CalMatters turned to the California Voter Foundation (CVF) a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working through research, oversight, outreach and demonstration projects to improve the election process.” According to CVF president Kim Alexander, “It does raise a concern that we need to address, but that doesn’t mean it’s a sign that someone’s trying to steal your vote.”

That was supposed to settle it, but the people also had concerns about stolen ballots, early ballots, Dominion voting machines and such. Calmatters denied that these posed any threat, but failed to mention the most serious fraud—California’s imported electorate of false-documented illegal aliens.

In 2013 California Assembly Bill 60, authorized those illegals to get driver’s licenses. In 2015, Assembly Bill 1461, the “California New Motor Voter Act,” registered to vote everyone who gets a license, adding millions of illegals, passed off as “California citizens,” to the voter rolls. Secretary of State Alex Padilla wouldn’t say how many voted in 2016 and declined to participate in a federal probe of voter fraud.

In 2018, Gavin Newsom won the governor’s race with 61.9 percent of the vote. His draconian COVID regime and general mismanagement prompted Californians to demand a recall election of the coifed governor. In 2021, Newsom prevailed by 61.9 percent—a margin identical to his percentage in 2018. When the vote was in Newsom said:

I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state. We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to the people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future. We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things that we hold dear as Californians, and I would argue as Americans, economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. Our values where California’s made so much progress. All of those things were on the ballot this evening.

Note how Newsom is heavy on the “we,” or as Louis XIV put it, “L’état, c’est moi.” Like the self-stimulating Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) in Being There, the governor reveals himself to himself, and he is purged.

Although Calmatters reported that the recall failed by a margin of 61.9 percent it did not bother to gauge the odds of a count identical to 2018, right down to the decimal point. Also escaping scrutiny was the number of votes cast by non-citizens registered to vote by the DMV. For the “nonpartisan” CalMatters, it was all about saying “yes” to vaccines, diversity, and so forth. In October 2025, internet ads for “Yes” on Proposition 50 feature Sen. Alex Padilla, who hasn’t lost a step.

When Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris for running mate, Gov. Newsom replaced her with Padilla. The senator nobody voted for now seeks to register “limited English” people to vote when the Treasury Department does their taxes, “at no cost to them.” The Los Angeles Democrat wants to replicate California’s “motor voter” scheme across the nation, fearful symmetry on full display.

Squads of politiqueros already bribe and threaten illegals to vote for Democrats. They will be working three shifts, along with government union goons. Don’t forget those handy “provisional ballots” that in 2010 made Kamala Harris state attorney general by less than one percentage point, three weeks after the polls closed. And remember, polling places require no identification.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday police found 100 stolen Proposition 50 ballots at a homeless camp in Sacramento county. Last week in Woodland, a city near Sacramento, police found dozens of Proposition 50 ballots stolen from a cluster mailbox and affecting 135 voters. Move along people, nothing to see here. As Kim Alexander said of the envelope holes, it doesn’t mean somebody is trying to steal votes. On Nov. 4, as Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.