As polls closed in California on Super Tuesday, Jim Hicks stood watching in the parking lot of a community center as election officials in red jackets retrieved ballots from a drop box.
He shook the handle of the metal container when they were done to make sure it was closed and he peeked his head into the white truck that was carrying the ballot boxes that would be taken to the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters to be counted.
Jim Hicks, far right, stands at Kennedy Park Community Center in Stockton as polls close on March 5.
(Mackenzie Mays)
“We just need to keep an eye on things after everything that happened,” Hicks said as he rushed to his SUV to follow officials down back roads through dark farmland to more ballot drop boxes where ballots were waiting to be collected, all part of his duties. As an election observer.
Hicks, a real estate agent from Lodi, believes California's universal mail-in voting process is fraught with risks of fraud, echoing baseless messages from the far right that election officials across the country have been working to combat since Donald Trump and his allies began blaming his campaign. 2020 Presidential Loss in Fraud Claims Overturned by Several Courts.
It's hard to ignore the feeling of paranoia in this part of California's Central Valley, after a local politician was arrested for a slew of crimes involving election fraud.
Erin Kane collects ballots for inspection at the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters' office.
(Jose Luis Villegas/For The Times)
Former Lodi City Councilman Shakir Khan pleaded “no contest” in January to criminal charges, including election fraud, after the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said it found 41 sealed, completed ballots at his home, and about 70 Someone registers to vote using their address. Or phone number or email.
The alleged scheme, which stems from Khan's run for City Council in 2020, is just one part of a complex criminal case in which he also faces charges of illegal gambling, money laundering, tax evasion and Employment Development Department fraud.
Officials appeared to have anticipated the potential repercussions after the years-long investigation, and reiterated that Khan, 34, a “no party favorer” voter who has lived among the vineyards of Lodi since he was a child, does not appear to have ties to anyone. . A broader voter fraud conspiracy.
“I want to be clear that this investigation has only uncovered criminal activity in our county here, in local elections,” San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow said at a news conference last year announcing Khan's arrest. “It has nothing to do with and has no impact on any state or federal elections that we are aware of.”
Still, the case has drawn the attention of national conservative commentators, charged a host of local right-wing activists, sowed voter distrust in an already chaotic political environment, and prompted the county to spend thousands of dollars on election security measures like new ballot drop boxes. And cameras to monitor them.
For dedicated skeptics like Hicks, Khan's case is proof that “more sophisticated agents” are tampering with elections and go unnoticed. Hicks said Khan was just a “caught amateur” and there were “far more” like him.
“I think what happened to Mr. Khan only served to reinforce what we already seriously suspected,” he said.
For Olivia Hill, San Joaquin County's chief elections official, the timing of a rare case like Khan's — with voter fraud conspiracies spreading across the country — was a nightmare.
“The narrative continues no matter what we do,” she said.
San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Olivia Hill, right, collects ballots as clerks continue counting on March 11.
(Jose Luis Villegas/For The Times)
Khan's case is unlike many of the baseless conspiracies promoted by the far right. There were no “ghost” or dead voters registered to vote, according to San Joaquin County deputies, who said Khan's focus was on winning election to the nonpartisan Lodi City Council, which oversees a population of about 67,000 people.
But the issue has alarmed local officials, Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Let today's guilty plea send a message loud and clear, especially as we enter 2024: any attempt to alter or undermine our election process and democratic institutions in San Joaquin County will be dealt with immediately and to the fullest extent of the law,” he added. alive. Atty. Ron Freitas said at a news conference in January.
Former Lodi City Councilman Shakir Khan arrested on voter fraud charges.
(San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office)
While running for City Council in 2020, Khan pressured people to vote for him, at times registering them to vote, filling out ballots for them, forging their signatures and collecting their information without their knowledge of his intention to vote illegally on their behalf, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. . The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, which conducted the investigation that led to his indictment last year.
Khan's “no contest” plea does not include an admission of guilt, and he has denied the accusations in the past. Khan is not in prison and is awaiting sentencing.
His lawyer did not respond to requests for comment from The Times.
Police said that some of Khan's alleged fraud victims were elderly, like him, Pakistani immigrants, and were not familiar with the American voting process.
California's voting system did not immediately flag ballots linked to Khan because the people registered were real citizens with legitimate information, according to Hill, who was hired in 2022 as San Joaquin County's registrar of voters.
Since Khan's arrest, Hill has worked to allay an endless list of concerns about fraud from a small group of regulars at county meetings and some Republican elected officials sympathetic to their demands.
It has enhanced signature verification on the ballot; It is divided into multiple registered voters at single addresses, in cases such as homes of different generations; She opened her office to anyone with concerns about so-called ballot harvesting, a process — legal in California but allegedly abused by Khan — that allows voters to give their ballots for other people to deliver.
Hill worked with the county sheriff's office to launch a voter fraud hotline and use an election advisory committee created by the San Joaquin Board of Supervisors to “repair the public's perception of the integrity of the election process.”
She does so despite her strong confidence in the province's voting process, asserting that there is no evidence that Khan's case was anything other than an isolated event that was halted by the system's checks and balances. She said some of the accusations circulating in her community are “nonsense,” but she welcomes skepticism and accountability as part of healthy government.
“I have a commitment to every voter in San Joaquin County,” she said. “I believe very strongly in what we do with the election and how safe and secure it is, and how hard we work to keep it going in the right direction at all costs.”
For people like Molly Watkins, a self-described “farm wife” from rural Linden, the county's efforts aren't enough.
Watkins was in a warehouse near the Stockton airport late on election night this month, watching officials in color-coded vests identifying them as “inspectors” and “supervisors” scrutinize yellow ballot boxes packed into bags. However, she was convinced that watching her wouldn't do much good.
“It's all just smoke and mirrors,” she said as she watched the ballots move. Steps away, Hill gave a tour to a group of similarly interested residents. “There is no transparency in the system.”
In 2021, California became the eighth state to permanently move to mail-in balloting after coronavirus shutdowns — a move celebrated by Democrats, as research showed it increased voter turnout in 2020, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
But Republicans across the country have claimed the process is inferior to in-person voting and less secure.
Watkins, who refers ominously to the “deep state”, has attended numerous local meetings since Khan's arrest to demand changes to the electoral system. She wants the county to fight the state law and get rid of ballot drop boxes altogether. She distrusts voting machine technology and is pushing county officials to return to a system in which ballots are counted by hand.
Lewis Campbell places ballot papers in baskets after sorting them by electoral district.
(Jose Luis Villegas/For The Times)
Unlike Shasta County, where a similar movement is underway, San Joaquin is not a Republican stronghold, and voters here elected President Biden over Trump in 2020.
Election fraud is rare, but skepticism about the democratic process can be a good thing, said Kim Alexander, executive director of the California Voters Foundation, a nonpartisan election watchdog group.
Alexander has seen a shift in her decades of election work, and she said that while “false narratives” about fraud should not drive the conversation, California officials should not ignore them.
“There is a stubborn minority of voters who subscribe to election fraud conspiracy theories who are very vocal, and while I don't think the general public agrees with these theories, they still resonate,” she said. “It has certainly impacted voter confidence across the board.”
Alexander said Khan's case is not evidence of a larger fraud but rather evidence that anyone who tries it will be punished.
“It's one example of an election crime being prosecuted. It doesn't mean it's widespread; it means the process is working,” she said. “This sends a message to anyone else who might try to cheat the process that this is a losing proposition.”
San Joaquin County Supervisor Steve Ding, a Republican, says the polls are “full of hurt.” But he admits the issue has gotten out of hand in his community, saying “everyone needs to take a breath” and “back off” on Hill, who has faced personal attacks as election chair.
“It has cast a shadow over the Khan case,” Deng said of the Khan case. “Unfortunately, it has become a partisan issue instead of a good government issue. It's no longer a question of whether it works or not. People have drawn sides.”
At a San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, people rose for public comment to voice their concerns about the primary scheduled for March 5, alleging that Hill was rigging votes to help someone who attends her church get elected to the Stockton City Council.
Hill denied the allegations and noted that the candidate in question was not expected to win the race.
