I got an email back from Placer County Clerk-Recorder Ryan Ronco about a couple of Postcards I got here at my command post 5,140 Feet in Elevation.
The email is posted in its’ entirety. This is valuable information for ANYONE that cares about election integrity.
Hello Aaron –
Sorry for my delayed response – I was back east last week to (PERSONAL DETAILS REDACTED) and I’m catching up with emails.
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Yes, this post card is the result of my office finally being able to cancel your voter registration.
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Back in September of 2020, we moved your record to the inactive voter file after we received undeliverable election mail returned to us in advance of the November 2020 election (as a reminder, voters in the inactive file do not receive vote-by-mail ballots, voter information guides, or other election mail – more on this topic below). In accordance with federal law, after two consecutive federal general elections without any contact from the voter (in your case, November 2020 and November 2022), we can move the voters from the inactive file to the cancelled file. Your record was moved from the inactive file to the cancelled file on December 6, 2023, which was the last day we could cancel voters from the inactive file before federal law forbids cancellations of inactive voters within 90 days of a federal election.
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I believe in the Right On Daily blog you mentioned that you contacted my office when you moved so that your voter registration would be cancelled. I’m absolutely not doubting you did that – you are one of those very few registered voters who would ensure your record was cancelled in your previous county of residence after a move (if everyone did that, there would be no need for an “inactive voter file”). However, I don’t have a record of that correspondence. According to our records, we moved you from the active file to the inactive file because we sent you something (probably our residency confirmation postcard that we send before the primaries in Placer County) that came back as undeliverable.
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As I mentioned above, voters in the inactive file do not receive voter information guides, vote-by-mail ballots, or other official election mail from my office. They might still receive political mail from campaigns if the campaign purchased my data before we moved the voter to the inactive file and if the campaign did not pay for periodic data updates. They also might get some official mail from my office depending on WHEN we move the voter to inactive status – our data is usually sent to the vendors who print our vote-by-mail ballots and our voter information guides (two different vendors with two different production schedules) about 60 days before an election, so there could be some people who were active when we sent the voter file to the vote-by-mail ballot printing/mailing vendor and then they become inactive a few days later once we receive and process a piece of undeliverable mail. I know that you mentioned in the Right On Daily blog that one of you received a ballot (according to the new homeowner at your previous address) in the November 2020 election. Assuming it was in fact a ballot and not some other piece of mail (I don’t know where that person may have lived before moving into your old house, but some voters mistake the “Sample Ballot and Voter Information Guide” as the official ballot if they came from a state that has no voter information guide), it would have been the last ballot received at that address for the Park family – once a voter is on the inactive file, vote-by-mail ballots are not printed and mailed for subsequent elections unless the voter returns to the active voter file.
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By the way, if we are contacted with an official form that allows for cancellation (like a death certificate, a United States Post Office change of address postcard, or a “Voter Action Request Form” from my website), we are able to bypass the inactive file and immediately cancel the voter. Therefore, there aren’t a lot of dead people laying around waiting for cancellation – once we get word that they are deceased (which I get directly from the county and state since I’m the County Clerk and the keeper of the county vital records), they are cancelled from the active voter file.
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That is probably more information than you wanted, but I have been meaning to connect with you about your post for quite some time now (just way too busy, unfortunately). Please let me know if my explanation is unclear and I’d be happy to take another stab at the answer.
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Hope all is well. My best to you.
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Sincerely,
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Ryan
There are a lot of useful facts in here from an ethical and trusted County Clerk. Make notes. Thanks for reading.
