Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – October 20, 2025 I always thought that only citizens of our great county could vote. Come to find out that there's nothing in the constitution that prohibits non-citizens from voting. But, the Federal and State laws can vary. Let's talk about Federal elections: On the one hand, the Supreme Court has consistently held that voter qualifications for federal elections are set by the states, not Congress. On the other hand Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which made it a federal crime for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. So, that sounds like a conundrum. How about State voting? I'm pretty convinced that former President Biden and his cohorts really wanted illegals to invade our country so they would have more voters on their side. In California, there's an initiative due to go on the 2026 ballot to make it explicit that only citizens can vote. About time. Los Angeles alone has over 1/2 million illegals. Department of Homeland Security and the Public Policy Institute of California estimate around 2.6 million illegals as of 2023 for the State. That's about 7% of the states total population. I believe that figure is probably very low. Assemblyman Carl DeMaio is spearheading the effort in order to secure public trust. Trust in our politicians is sorely lacking – just look at the billions wasted and abused on "helping the homeless" just to name only one subject. Oh, and let's not forget that that has cost taxpayers $24 BILLION over the last five years with little to no accountability. Only this month two arrests have been made for developers committing fraud with the millions they obtained. I'm sure that won't be the end of the arrests. But, why did it take 5 years? I believe it's because Pres. Trump put in a responsible person; Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli who will hold their feet to the fire. It certainly wasn't because our Gov. Newsom was interested in cleaning house. As a matter of fact, quoting the Acting US Attorney about Newsom, "…. he often peddles in dishonesty."* Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli They need 1 million signatures to get this initiative on the ballot. Actually they only need 875,000 signatures, but normally a lot of signatures get thrown out for various reasons so it's prudent to collect the million. There are 180 days to complete the task of collecting sufficient signatures. We're currently at 129 days 2 hours and counting. If you're the kind that likes to watch this on a day-by-day basis you can go to this website: https://www.reformcalifornia.org/cavoterid/home. So far they have over 300,000 signatures. I don't foresee any problem with collecting the needed signatures in time. If you want to sign or help collect signatures give me a call or text at 707 951-0184 or download petitions from Reform California. * KCRA 9/29/25