Today, the Saint did show up on Zoom (but not on video) for his own Voter ID campaign update.
He promised that the video would be loaded to his youtube podcast on Friday.
Here's the first minute of his opening. Notice the "If" statement. He's setting the stage for this best-thing-since-sliced-bread not to happen.
I'm chairman of reform California, California state representative and a proponent of the California voter ID initiative. And you are an important part of this campaign. I can tell you this right now that. We need you to activate in a way that you have never activated before.
If this is going to happen, and this is going to be an initiative, that's a game changer. We will look back on this initiative and point to it as a watershed event in changing the political forces in California and rebalancing our state's entire political system. So, I need you to consider everything you can possibly do.
For this campaign, we need you to volunteer. We need you to activate as a volunteer, but more importantly, we need you to get involved. Get other people to volunteer.
Why is it likely not to happen? Short on money, short on volunteers, short on mailing list sign ups.
He's not George ("I love it when a plan comes together.") Peppard (Hannibal Smith, The A-Team).
Short about $2.2 million on goal of $3 million.
Short 1,900 on goal of 10,000 volunteers.
Short about 100,000 on goal of 250,000 "petition" sign ups.
Of course, these are un-audited numbers, so who knows what the numbers really are. All the Saint's various campaign finance stuff through June 30, is due by July 31, 2025. However, that date is later than his self-imposed filing date for the initiative on July 21, 2025. So who knows, by the time the Saint let's us see his numbers, it may all be over. Unless of course, he thinks there's still money on the table that he can grab.
But that doesn't mean his cronies are not being paid. He's paying five people with donor money.
He also discussed how the language would "make" county registrars determine a voter's citizenship. The solution he described was to make them file annual (really) reports on their progress. So, it looks like that will take years, maybe even not in your lifetime, if it happens at all.
What you are not likely to hear on the podcast is the brief Q&A after he made his spiel.
He said to ask questions in the chat, but the Zoom chat was disabled. Yet when he got to the questions, he was clearly reading questions from somewhere.
Someone questioned him about forcing the attorney general to defend the initiative if it passes. He replied that there is language in the initiative to allow private parties to defend it. Really? That wasn't in any of his previous attempts.
Someone also questioned him about the citizenship issue. The Saint made some comments about the language couldn't force registrars to require citizenship, because of federal law. (Really?) But that people could audit the registration records. What a relief. You can audit your registrar's registration records. Go for it!
It was clear that he was selectively choosing people whose questions he would answer, because he appeared to know who they were by their names.
All in all, the Saint did not make a very convincing case for this "watershed event" actually happening. What is it called when a watershed event doesn't happen? "Never mind!" as Gilda Radner's character on Saturday Night Live, Emily Litella would say. Or maybe simply "Doh!."
We guess you'll have to wait for the filing, IF it happens, before you can see what the initiative actually says. It's still a secret between the Saint and God.
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