California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is likely going to face a recall election now that state Republicans have secured the necessary 1.5 million signatures to trigger it. But we say “likely” because of an interesting snag: a sudden interest among the state’s Democrats in verifying voter signatures.

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a possible candidate to run against Newsom, noted, “The state of California is controlled by a whole bunch of Democrats. One-party rule. They are going to go through every single signature we have and throw out ones. The verification process is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” Therefore, he added, Republicans are making sure to collect perhaps 500,000 more signatures than they actually need.

Back in January, the Associated Press reported regarding the November presidential election, “California election officials announced … that 99.4% of more than 15 million mail-in ballots were verified and counted in the November election, a rejection rate notably lower than the March primary even though more than twice as many people voted.” In March, 1.5% of ballots were rejected.

Notably, with 87% of the California vote coming by mail in November, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump roughly 11 million to six million. Those five million votes represented most of Biden’s nationwide margin of seven million.

California obviously has a stellar record of honesty and integrity in its elections, so why would Democrats worry now?

Bulk-mail balloting is the future according to Democrats. It’s how they plan on winning elections from here forward. But they’ll suddenly care very much about election integrity when they need to defend their own guy against a recall.

Hypocrisy is a tired old game for Democrats and Newsom in particular. In fact, it’s largely why Newsom is under threat of recall. He’s imposed a year’s worth of business- and church-crushing restrictions on the Golden State, including putting holidays on the chopping block, only to be caught last fall flouting his own restrictions.

None of this is to say Republicans have a real shot of ousting Newsom. This is not Ronald Reagan’s California, or even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. For the foreseeable future, there’s only one party that matters in the state, and that’s the Democrat Party. The far bigger problem for the rest of the nation will be whether other states follow California’s lead on bulk-mail voting — and some states are — because that could make the whole country a one-party authoritarian state. That is exactly what national Democrats intend with legislation like the unconstitutional HR 1.