Folks, it’s Super Tuesday and Californians are going to the polls, along with 22 other states. But if you’re a registered independents in California, take note: Your vote might not be counted if you don’t fill out one single bubble.
In addition to vote-tallying issues, some concerns had arisen about the voting process.
Voter-outreach groups criticized the ballot in Los Angeles County, saying it could disenfranchise independent voters.
The Democratic and American Independent party ballots given to independent voters who request them include an extra bubble specifying that the ballot is for that party’s primary. The bubble appears before the list of presidential candidates.
If voters fail to mark that spot, the county’s scanning machines will not read the selection for president.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles-based Courage Campaign said that violates California election law. The group sent a letter to Los Angeles County officials threatening legal action if the issue isn’t addressed before Tuesday’s election.
“We did talk to the county, and they admit it’s a problem,” Courage Campaign chairman Rick Jacobs said. “They just don’t seem to know what to do about it.”
Other groups, including the California League of Women Voters, said they had fielded numerous calls from independent voters asking how they could get a party ballot.
“These voters are getting ballots that are blank, because they’re not in a party, and it did not seem clear to most of the decline-to-state voters that they could request a party ballot,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Leslie.
Independents account for nearly 20 percent of California’s registered voters. The GOP does not allow them to vote in the Republican primary, but Democrats and some other parties do.
No Trackbacks To “Sacramento, We Have A Problem“
1st
2x in one day
Go Obama
Oh shit……
Hillary knows the way !
Yup. Here we are, eight years down the road from 2000, and we still can’t design a ballot that doesn’t leave big ………………………………. gaping ……………………………… holes for errors.
I guess this would matter if I hadn’t discovered when I showed up to vote this morning that they have purged me and my husband from the rolls. In addition, my father has been in the hospital for a month. I mailed a duly executed request to Orange County so that he could vote by mail, and that request was ignored. They don’t need votes if they can just keep the system corrupt enough.
Could we get a pic of the ballot in question?
Wow! Thanks for the tip.
Deborah Testa @ 7, that’s horrible.
this is another fine example why the two party system needs
to be fucking chucked out the window. they don’t want any
interference in their entrenched corporate power.
they want to dump on the average independent voter.
well, i say…….NO and GO FUCK YOURSELF.
Late breaking primary news!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NdAUnnU9Ac
dan @ 1:
You’re the Lone Ranger’s nephew!
Ho old are you now?
This wasn’t some snap election called last Thursday or something was it?
I mean, could it be any more convoluted, complicated, begging to get screwed (up) …
caging lists, chads, Diebold, I mean Jeez guys ...c’mon …
dadams @ 10:
and, funny enuff (see, not funny), the two-party system is one of the few things both political machines agree about. that and corporate domination, neoliberalism and a military empire…
This is just SO frustrating. How on earth can this sort of obvious design flaw still get through the ballot process? Unless, of course, it’s intentionally done to suppress votes.
Get Your FREE News Corpse Widget here!
>and, funny enuff (see, not funny), the two-party system is one of the few things both political machines agree about. that and corporate domination, neoliberalism and a military empire …
Coke/Pepsi ‘08!!
And we are going to show Iraqis how to have fair elections?
Why doesn’t Cal. just say the little bubble thingie won’t have to be filled in and even ballots without it filled in will be counted?
Not to appear to be a troll, but why would independents be voting in a primary anyway? If you’re an independent you shouldn’t have a party to vote for.
So I guess no matter who gets the nod, it’s tainted. Nice. And Bush thinks he is going to bring American style democracy to the world? Hahahahahaha.
pissed off patricia @ 17:
According to the article: “If voters fail to mark that spot, the county’s scanning machines will not read the selection for president.” It’s not a policy thing — at least ostensibly — it’s a programming problem with the ballot-counting machines.
Or maybe that should be a programming “problem” (nudge nudge, wink wink).
‘World’s greatest democracy’ strikes again!
C’mon America! For god’s sake. Plenty of third-world elections are more coherently run.
What a dog’s breakfast of a system.
See The Big Picture @ 20:
Well, take the ballots that are rejected and hand count them. There has to be a solution to this screw up.
In Fla. independents could only vote for state propositions. They could not vote for a candidate in the presidential primary.
[You’re banned for spam blogwhoring-Sitemonitor]
• Heavy snowfall was inconveniencing some would-be voters in southern Colorado. Dian Campbell, a CNN I-Report contributor who lives near Antonito, said snow was up to her shoulders at her front door. She was making calls “to see if we can put together a snowmobile patrol to pick people up because the roads in most of the county are unpassable.” If that doesn’t pan out, she and her husband may consider riding horses, Campbell said.
• In Georgia, voters reported long lines and voting machine problems at some polling places in metro Atlanta, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported. At one polling station in downtown Atlanta, voters received paper ballots after voting machines malfunctioned, the station reported. At another polling spot, I-Reporter Judy McCabe Smith said she stood waiting for 75 minutes in a line that stretched around three walls of a basketball gymnasium. An Emory University professor told WSB that as many as 1.5 million people could cast ballots in the GOP and Democratic contests.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI.....index.html
And the excuses start pouring in……but, but…..the system is just fine….nothing here….nope….shut yer eyes and take what we give you. Nice.
Seems the fancier we get with our voting systems, the worse it works for us in the end.
Maybe we could go back to voting with a pencil and paper and let human beings tally the votes. It wouldn’t be perfect but I think it might be closer than what we are doing now.
> Dian Campbell, a CNN I-Report contributor who lives near Antonito, said snow was up to her shoulders at her front door.
Hmmm CNN reporter … maybe she should just try standing up …
I voted this morning in CA, and I wish I saw this post before doing so. I am a registered Democrat, so hopefully this won’t affect my vote. It did throw my fiance and I for a loop when we saw it, and even though it opens with “If you are an independent, then…” it still caused us to think twice about it. The options for the bubble are Independent and Democratic, so if you don’t read the wording correctly, you could accidentally mark it, even if you’re a Democrat. I fear that this can screw up not only Independent votes, but also the votes of the elderly, new, and young voters.
This is America - we make voting as complicated and hard to do as we possibly can!
The people who hand out the ballots should explain this to each of the voters. That would have been the best way to avoid the confusion on an already flawed layout of the ballot.
Most independents are not informed voters, and it’s good that their vote may not be counted. They are the ones who are most responsible for electing Bush. They swing like monkeys, and vote for candidates that appeal to their emotions. It’s rare to find a thoughtful independent voter.
Don’t forget to dip your thumb in purple ink to show everyone you tried to vote!
Prabhata @ 29:
Where as republican and democrat voters use the critical thinking method in selecting their candidate, never changing their minds or questioning their selection, there by always producing exceptional results.
Weak logic dude.
That problems doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania. You have to be registered as either a Democrat or Republican to vote in the primaries. The two parties don’t want “spies” infiltrating the system.
It’s not a mistake!
It’s a literacy test.
I’m working our local polling station here in So. Cal and I have been point out to Non-Partisian voters that if they take a Dem or A.I. ballet that they need to first select that they are voting for Dem or A.I. or their vote for a candidate will not be counted.
also just to note we have 1600ish people on our rouster and we already saw about 150 voters turn out before I went to lunch at 11am. it looks like it will be a good day, hopefuly people are turning out like this accross the country.
I say Sacrament-o has a problem; they’re trying to take a religious concept, and turn it into a calypso song.
curtilingus @ 30:
no kidding…when did Barack change his last name to McCain?
curtilingus @ 30:
And don’t forget to Vote for Little Jack Horner!
I know Kansas isn’t all that important, but we have a Caucus today. We can’t vote without registering for a party. I really think that’s stupid on multiple counts. I grew up in WI where you can register to vote the day you vote, but I’ve lived in 6 other states: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, Illinois & California. In all of these states, other than California, you had to register to vote at least three months before the elections. In Colorado it was something like 6 months. It’s really ridiculous, and in my opinion a way for wealthy republicans to bar the poor from voting. I can’t say how Cali is because I didn’t live there long enough to vote.
curtilingus @ 31:
i completely agree–that was weak argument and, might i add, embarrassing and ignorant.
Thanks so much for the heads up.
Deborah Testa @ 7:
My request to vote by mail was also ignored, despite the fact that it was made about a month before the deadline.
As for the independent bubble on the ballot, it isn’t that big of a deal when you consider that it is literally the first thing on the ballot. If you skip all of the instructions and the extra bubble, and just jump down to the candidate names, you really have nobody to blame but yourself.
Prabhata @ 29:
I druther swing like a bonobo.
Here in AZ, they have a neat little trick.
The primaries are open: if you are registered as an Indy, you can vote in either party’s primary. BUT…
…technically the primaries aren’t until September! The vote we’re having today is a “Presidential preference election”. Which is closed.
Which means Indies can’t vote in it.
Of course, Indies CAN vote in the primaries in September…long after the decision will already have been made about who the nominees will be.
Talk about screwed up…
I never understood why it mattered. Why a person should have to pick which party they were affiliated with. Why cant people just go fuxing vote for whoever they’re going to vote for and not have to worry about not being counted because they said they were affiliated with this party or that party, or no party.
Makes me want to puke.
Kevin @ 45:
It’s all about $$$$$$$$$ and of course Party Power. Look how many supporters we have.
Look, this is much ado about nothing. The party seems to have *saved money* by printing ballots for *two different parties* on the same page. That means that you had to select 1) which party you were voting for and 2) the presidential candidate in order for the computer to properly read your ballot. If you can’t do that, you haven’t properly filled out your ballot. Its no different from, and no more difficult than, any other set of instructions for filling in the bubble or writing in a name. This isn’t rocket science and its not, in fact, too hard to do. Its not any different from specifying in advance which party you want a ballot for (which you have to do in our state). You are supposed to be able to read and follow instructions in order to fill out the ballot. If you are too stupid to do that, or too confused, you can ask for help.
aimai
This kind of thing came up in Washington State a few years back. There was a great deal of controversy about the fact that voters might accidentally not check the box indicating party affiliation and therefore their votes would not be counted. I expected to find a very confusing ballot when I went to vote but, to my surprise, the ballot was straight-forward and easy to understand, and clearly indicated that if you are voting in the Dem primary, you must check the “Dem” box or your vote would not be counted, and the same for the Repub. I haven’t actually seen the CA ballot, but I can’t help but wonder about whether these stories about voter suppression and confusing ballots are perhaps exagerated slightly. To what end, I can’t speculate, but it seems curious.
Kevin @ 45:
Because, primaries are elections within a party to choose a nominee. Some states have closed primaries, meaning people from other parties do not have a say in choosing a particular party’s nominee. I think that makes more sense so that the nominee is truly the choice of the party without interference from people outside the party.
aimai @ 47:
Agreed, following instructions should be a requirement for voting for continuity sake. But I think it is ridiculous to need to get a ballot for the party you are associated with. Why cant it just be:
1. You show your ID
2. You step your ass into a booth
3. You make a selection
4. You step out of the booth
5. You go home and take a nice long shi#
Meanwhile back in Gotham:
1. Bob the voting booth collection man, collects the voting booths results
2. Those results are sent via something to a central location