Motorists across the state have had to wait in hours-long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to register their vehicle or license renewal. Some have spent an entire day waiting in line. Upset drivers have flooded my office with calls and emails.
To make matters worse, DMV personnel mangled 23,000 voter registrations. How did this happen?
In 2015, Democrats passed the Motor Voter Law, directing the DMV to automatically register new voters, unless they choose to opt out. State Senate Republicans warned that this would be problematic. At the time, my colleagues and I expressed our concerns of adding to an already overburdened workload at the DMV. Furthermore, the DMV is the wrong venue to register new voters since this is not the agency’s area of expertise.
Three years later, we learn that tens of thousands of Californians have been registered to vote even though they did not want to be registered. The DMV also made “mistakes” that assigned some voters a different political party preference than the one they chose. We sincerely hope this was not a case of voter fraud.
Once again, the DMV is the state agency that just can’t get it right. It already has been criticized by the public for long wait times, which it blames on an antiquated computer system and the federal REAL ID law – passed in 2005 and set to be implemented by 2020.
Before the legislative session concluded in August, a group of Assembly Republicans called for an audit of the DMV. At the Joint Committee on Legislative Audit hearing, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto apologized for the long wait times, asked for more money and reassured lawmakers that the problem would be corrected by the end of the year. The request for an audit failed after some Democrats did not vote for it.
The public has lost confidence in the DMV.
It has mishandled its core mission, along with a long list of problems including the erroneous registration of voter affidavits. Something needs to be done to regain that trust. The best way to do so is for the DMV to undergo a nonpartisan audit, which would reveal the extent of its problems and suggest recommendations for fixing them.
Enough excuses. Let’s audit the DMV now.
Senator Jim Nielsen represents the 4th District in the California State Senate.
This article was originally published by Fox and Hounds Daily
We agree, we need to be consevitive
California resident(Vista) and I work for the DMV. The whole idea about registering new voters was to allow the Illegal Mexicans the right to vote, plain and simple..The state just signed up over 1 million illegal mexican votes to vote in the 2018 national and state elections and did not even try to hide the fact. Demwits want to make sure they give free stuff to the illegals to get their vote..That is a FACT..
Audit?
Shut it down, terminate all personnel, and start over.
In the interim, let the AAA deal with the licensing and registration issues – their people are probably more competent, and certainly treat you better.
Break then DMV into (whatever amount) of districts. Set up the way it’s to be run (even if you keep it like it is), and let the RFP’s come in. As long as they keep to they way it’s designed to be run, it’s now competitive. Competition breeds efficiency.
I don’t know if this is a great idea or even a solution, but at least it’s a new approach to a problem that is PROVEN it needs to be fixed.
AAA ??? What let private industry do the jobs of civil (oxymoron) service?
Better yet have AAA carry a torts liability insurance with annual audits. If the screw up they have to pay the State of Calif. for the mess and then fix it. There is a concept … responsibility.