Fox News political pundit Tomi Lahren took to Twitter to complain about voter fraud, but found herself being schooled on election security by Los Angeles County voting officials.
On 3 June, Ms Lahren posted on Twitter claiming that she had received mail-in voting information for Los Angeles County despite the fact that she's lived in Tennessee for two years. She suggested that the error was indicative of holes in election security caused by mail-in voting.
“Just received my California voting code and mail-in ballot information...only problem is I haven’t lived in California in over 2 years and have been registered in Tennessee for over 2 years but it’s all good, fraud is a myth,” she tweeted.
The next day the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk's office shot back, saying an official had checked her records and found that her address was inactive due to returned mail. It went on to say that Ms Lahren's eligibility would have only been reactivated if she had responded to the mailer or voted, which would have required her to confirm her qualifications and California residence.
"Checked and your registration is INACTIVE due to returned mail and would only be reactivated if you responded or voted signing the oath attesting to your qualifications and residence. Please DM to confirm your data and we will process a cancelation. Thanks!" the official replied.
Essentially, Ms Lahren failed to alert LA County that she was moving and to update her information, which is why the county sent her a reminder about voting locations. Had she voted she would have had to have reaffirm her residency.
She tweeted again later on 3 June that California did not want her vote because the state would prefer to have "illegal immigrants" voting in their elections. Some conservatives, like Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have suggested that such tactics are part of a "great replacement" of what he calls "legacy Americans" by migrants. The great replacement theory was cited by a white supremacist who killed 10 people — primarily Black individuals — at a grocery store in Buffalo earlier this year.
“They definitely don’t want MY vote because it wouldn’t be for the dirty Democrats ruining that state!! I just wonder how many illegal immigrants are getting these nifty ballots in the mail….” she wrote.
On Wednesday, Ms Lahren continued posting about the mailer she received, asking why she received an alert if she had been inactive in California as the registrar's office claimed.
California voters responded to her, saying the state mails out reminders for voting locations to inactive voters for up to three years after they have been made inactive. If Ms Lahren had actually notified the state that she'd moved, she would not have received the mailer.
