This video is published on Why Tuesday? as well as OffTheBus.
LOS ANGELES, CA - This state, with a tradition of high turnout, activist communities and 441 delegates, is the focus of today's media coverage. But this heightened attention is nothing new. Here, the popularity of elections is sure to expose even the most minute hiccup. Today, there was one.
The process is this: decline-to-state voters who wish to exercise their franchise in the Democratic Primary must ask the poll-workers for a Democratic ballot. Fair enough.
Here's the trouble: In the voting booth, voters must then mark a bubble on the ballot that confirms the voter is indeed voting on a Democratic ballot. If they fail to mark, their ballots go uncounted. And further, if a voter neglects to fill in this bubble, a voting machine will not return the ballot because the vote is counted as an under-vote. In Los Angeles County alone, 776,000 voters are susceptible to double bubble trouble.
Needless to say, many decline-to-state voters were confused. After all, by requesting the ballot in the first place, voters are already in essence filling out this bubble. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that poll workers have also been uninformed. Decline-to-state voters were denied the right to participate within the Democratic Primary, and were given non-partisan ballots.
20% of Californians consider themselves, and are registered as, decline-to-state voters, yet in this historical nomination process their voice is jeopardized by baffling ballot rules and puzzled poll workers.
Team Why Tuesday? slowly hit the streets of Los Angeles in what seemed like - to our east coast contingent - the worst traffic in the entire universe. And after catching up with Dolores Huerta (video to come), we rushed over to talk with Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard Delgadillo. Concerned for California's primaries, Rocky told me that he intends and hopes the intent of the voters affected by these mishaps is respected.
Why Tuesday? is an effort to make America's democracy stronger through increased voter participation; we work to make election reform an issue that our politicians cannot afford to avoid. Read more campaign coverage from OffTheBus by clicking here.
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What I don't understand is why registered Democrats were NOT supposed to mark box 6 and DTSs were supposed to mark box 6. How does the vote scanner know the registration party of each voter?!?
SIMPLE AS THAT!
"That's it." She said.
Now that pisses me off.
I also heard that some Independents were refused Dem ballots.
I was rather dismayed when I showed up to vote yesterday in San Diego to find out that I couldn't pick a Republican candidate because I had no party affiliation (Non-Partisan). Because of this, the Republican party has already lost my vote. I ended up voting on the Democrat ballot even though I'm not a big fan of that party either. WAKE UP AMERICA! We need change. The partisan politics between the Democratic and Republican parties are DESTROYING US! Nobody wants to work with other party members anymore for the good of the country. Everybody wants to stick to their narrow points of views when it comes to party lines and refuse to acknowledge views from the other party. The problem with both parties is they cater too much to the extremes of each party instead of reaching out to the moderate average American.
I, for one, believe in certain ideas from the Republican party but also believe in ideas from the Democratic party. THINK FOR YOURSELVES PEOPLE! Don't allow each party to dictate to you on what you should believe in! Make up your own mind and then vote accordingly. The worst thing you can do is to pull the "all democratic" or "all republican" lever.
I don't believe in coincidences too much...
At my polling place yesterday, there was a woman who was not even presented with the option of voting in the Dem primary. My friend had to call Norwalk and had a state employee explain to the lady at the polling place that she could vote in the Dem primary. Another friend said that the workers at her polling place wouldn't allow her to vote in the Dem primamry. And,lastly, another friend who voted absentee wasn't sure what to do, she had to refer back to the large voting book to understand that she MUST fill in the bubble in order for her vote to count; I'm sure many people just didn't bother because they weren't aware, and some weren't allowed to vote in the Dem primary at all.
All Americans are equal, and we will create change in America. Obama said his campaign is color blind. This is a perfect theory, which is not even approached at most liberal universities because it is not a practical theory. Yes, we can pretend that we do not recognize the color of another’s skin, but that is not a truly color blind society.
During Barack’s speech on Super Tuesday night, he started the speech with changing our education system in America. He said that “Black and White kids deserve a better education” Where is the color blindness in this statement? Where are the Hispanics or Latinos in this statement? Obama cannot hide his prejudice either, he is not so color blind and I refuse to sign away the farm to create change in America to a man who openly defies my idea of a totally United States, where Latinos and Asians are included; equally as important, I’m not willing to forgo my identity as a Caucasian male to appease other cultures, everyone is equal.
Yes, this has been a difficult decision, and I traditionally vote conservative; unfortunately the conservative I’m hoping for does exist, but does not do well among traditional party line voters. Ron Paul is flawless, with ideas that are fundamentally sound. Our forefathers would ask Ron Paul to run the nation. What are you going to do?
Yes, a very difficult decision indeed, the next conservative for me is Hillary. As a Libertarian living in Arizona, I have decided to vote for Hillary. As an openly gay male, working as a case manager for homeless seniors, within a global Christian organization, I would have to say change has already happen, and that government does not need to legislate morality, wrong or right, good or bad. Everything is a process, correct or incorrect and the role of the government is to clear the space necessary for me to have Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This has been a difficult election year for any Independent voter within the state of Arizona. The rules in Arizona declare that an independent voter cannot vote neither in the Republican nor the Democrat primary. We are a clan without a land.
Having no legitimate part in America’s election process gives me a sense of being less than the rest of the country. The closed door society that I live in has once again drawn the boundaries of my happiness, and closed the door on my passion to create a truly free market within the election process; yet, I labor on to understand each candidate’s position, not just one party’s candidates, but all candidates from both parties.
McCain wants Amnesty, and I understand we need a larger labor force, but utilize the labor force we now have. There are many people receiving SSI now, which they would like to work more than Social Security will allow. Seniors on Social Security, let them work without penalizing them. These two sub-groups in America are not looking for top corporate positions, just a way to supplement their income in a high functioning society.
Btw I have no idea who the votes would truly benefit as polling indicates Obama, but my anecdotal experience were Clinton voters. Regardless of which candidate they voted for their votes not being counted over something this arbitrary is sad. They had better get their acts together and stop making idiotic trick ballots.