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.
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the
comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the
comment you replied to
I'm still confused. I voted in LA county. I DON'T KNOW if I am registered Democratic or DTS. I ASKED for a Democratic ballot and was given one. I DID NOT mark box 6. Was my ballot counted?
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?!?
Is America a banana republic? I am disgusted by all the problems people have in getting their vote counted. As they say democracy is not great because of the vote, it is because of the count. If people are manipulating the count (as I am sure they are doing), they are ruining our republic.
Sonofabitch. Another vote for Obama in Los Angeles not counted. I thought it was odd - the poll workers didn't seem to know what to do with me (non-partisan voter) and they had to get the lady running the center. She knew to give me the correct ballot and pointed me to a Democrate voting booth. I said to her, "Is that it? Do I put it in different box when I'm done? Is there anything else I have to do besides mark my candidate?"
I actually emailed the election committee two weeks ago in LA county to ask if it was clear to Independent voters how to vote on the Democratic ballot. They said information would be posted clearly.
I also heard that some Independents were refused Dem ballots.
Same with provisional ballots too. Before you sign it, it states that you are signing that you are a US citizen. But at the top of the form (very tiny and scrunched in) it has a place to check that you are a US citizen. If you don't check that bubble your vote will not be counted, even though when you signed it stating you were indeed a citizen. That's the way it is in Kansas anyway and I assume provisional voting is the same everywhere.
It's time the voting process in the USA becomes Federalized so that it is consistent across the board no matter what state or territory you live in. Let's dump the current delegate process of the primaries and have one voting day and allow ALL Americans to vote for the candidates in ALL parties. Popular vote wins!
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'm an independent voter who voted in Los Angeles for Obama. Obviously my vote didn't count. Multiply my story by at least 100,000 (There are 780,000 independents in LA County alone so I'm being consdervative) and this explains how Hillary won so big in California. Shame on Debra Bowen.
Nice report. Good to know irregularities are being looked into. I hope I read Rocky D's statement right and that these votes will be counted... and soon. They could determine a change in certain delegate counts. D.
This hiccup with the independent voters was a disaster. Although I voted for Obama, and I'm pretty confident he could not overcome Hillary's 10 point lead, I think the lead could have been diminished a point or two if it weren't for this mix up.
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.
This was a true issue as it took 25 minutes for the poll worker and my sister in law to figure out the ballot. Not being an independent I didn't bother to read instructions for them, but the fact you would need to ask for a democratic ballot and then fill in that bubble is redundant. If you asked for a democratic ballot it's pretty apparent you wanted to vote in the democratic primary for god sakes. Luckily after the first string of independents at our polling place the workers started asking independents if they wanted to vote in the democratic race and that if they wanted their vote to count they MUST bubble democrat and not American Independent.
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.
"... The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war.
But we ought not - we will not - travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."
------------------
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."
"He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it."
The DTS "Bubble" ballot problem in LA county is serious, and tens of thousands of "independent" votes for Dem candidate may not be counted unless there is an administrative/manual overide.
Was really disappointed to learn last Friday that Cal's "open primary" for Dems is NOT open to Registered Republicans. As a fiscal conservative/social libertarian, I registered Repub 20 years ago, and stupidly forgot that it mattered, and was locked out of voting for Hillary or Barack yesterday, although I have been active campaigner for Dems. The first thing I did today was change my registration to Decline to State so that I don't disenfranchise myself again.
There is a republican behind this and there should be PROSECUTION and CONVICTION, I as an AMERICAN Veteran and voter would deem anything less unjust, this is just naked blatant
I was helping out at the Obama GOTV office in Pasadena, and some people were calling in about this issue. So I went to my polling place to find out what was going on. It's actually more complicated than the columnist even indicated. You needed a "Non-Partisan" ballot to even vote in the Democratic Primary. If you said you were "independent," it was likely that you received the ballot for the American Independent Party. (I'm not making this up. I know people who got this ballot.)
Can we get the name independent changed to what it really means! Fed up with partisan bullshit,and deadlock in Washington party. I was undecided, until i did enough research into party directions and then bypassed the grand OLD party because it means just that old, the remaining party is the same only the name is changed. I can't vote in primarys because i'm not a registered anything. They don't have a label for fed up with the shit.
I had no problem as a NP voter (Decline To State). The poll workers in my precinct were well informed and the process was easy. The NP pamphlet clearly states the rules. You would think that poll workers and voters alike would be educated in the process if they participate.
Putting the best light that I can on the subject, the design of ballots in the United States is asinine.
If the nation can have a "1040-EZ" for income taxes, then why can't the nation have a "Primary-EZ" and a "Presidential-EZ"?
The same forms, everywhere?
If a state political party objects, then I would personally conclude that they hold more power than they should over both the way that you vote and the way that your vote is interpreted, and you really need to put the boot to them.
Obviously, this varied greatly from county to county. Orange County, which borders both LA and Riverside Counties, seemed to have a decent system. When signing the voter rolls, there was a block for DTS voters to specify if they wanted to vote in the Democratic or American Independent Party presidential primary. And, since OC's electronic machines were not decertified by California's Secretary of State, there was no possible shortage of paper ballots.
Thanks for telling people about this issue as it certainly goes to explaining why Obama lost CA despite doing well late in the polls. Unfortunately not enough big time media analysts even bring up this problem which as you report was major. I find the under-reporting of this issue to be significant. And it was even a problem with absentee voting.
Loading comments…
Posted February 6, 2008 | 12:29 AM (EST)