Report: Independents Being Disenfanchised In West Virginia

I got a call today from Mark Levine, the election protection attorney for Donna Edwards and one in whom I have a good amount of trust, and he told me about a brewing problem in West Virginia which will probably end up disenfranchising thousands of Obama voters. Here's the nub of the issue. West Virginia has an open primary, which means you can vote even if you are an independent. However, if you are a Democrat or a Republican, you are automatically given a normal ballot in a primary. If you are an independent, you are pointed to a touch screen device which does not list a Presidential choice.

If you are an independent, you have the option of requesting a Democratic or Republican ballot so you can vote in the Presidential primary, but you have to request it. And unless you know to request it, you will end up with no vote in the Presidential primary. The Secretary of State has decided not to inform people of this fact, which will leave potentially thousands of voters in West Virginia who came to vote for Obama without a choice.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[gomonkeygo]

Simple solution to this problem, which won't be fixed by the WV Sec. of State, obviously.

The Obama campaign has to spend some of those millions on advertisements - TV, radio, print - informing the independent electorate of the situation. This'll get media coverage of the situation, too, that it wouldn't otherwise get. And bring thousands of new voters to Obama, I'm sure, grateful that his campaign took the leadership initiative on this issue. I bet Clinton won't.