In the special election in California's 50th Congressional District, where voting comes tomorrow, Democratic candidate Francine Busby made the astonishing statement, in response to a question from a question in Spanish, that "You don't need papers for voting." Here is the account from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Busby said she was invited to the forum at the Jocelyn Senior Center in Escondido by the leader of a local soccer league. Many of the 50 or so people there were Spanish speakers. Toward the end, a man in the audience asked in Spanish: "I want to help, but I don't have papers."
It was translated, and Busby replied: "Everybody can help—yeah, absolutely, you can all help. You don't need papers for voting; you don't need to be a registered voter to help."
Busby's explanations for her comment are unconvincing. She seems to have reflected a feeling by many Democrats that people are entitled to vote whether or not they're legally eligible—every Democratic vote is OK. It's not a message that I suspect her campaign advisers recommended she make.
Reader Comments