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February 5, 2008
Trouble in Paradise?
It's just another day at the beach for this polling place in Marina Del Rey, where volunteers hand out fresh-baked goodies to the voters and are hosting a BBQ for the poll workers.
Unfortunately, not everything is picture-perfect around Los Angeles.
As reported earlier on LAist, Decline-to-State voters (a/k/a DTS, a/k/a non-partisan, a/k/a "real" independent) must be extra careful to mark their ballots correctly if they choose to vote in either the Democratic or American Independent primaries. I visited two precincts today where at least one things was done incorrectly:
- When I voted this morning, I informed my local poll worker that I am registered as Decline-to-State but would like to vote in the Democratic primary. They handed me a ballot marked "NONPARTISAN" and sent me over to the Democratic booths. Despite their written instructions (which I saw later), they failed to inform me that I needed to mark a special box to have my ballot counted. Fortunately, the machines were pretty clear and I was able to mark everything correctly.
- Another polling location I stopped by, where friends were volunteering, had been handing voters in my situation a Democratic ballot. While this might actually help ensure more accurate counts if a DTS voter fails to properly mark their ballot, it could also confuse voters at the machine. Furthermore, it could create accounting nightmares for elections officials when they realize that the number of people who voted with a Democratic ballot exceeds the number of Democrats in a precinct. No matter what, it goes against the instructions clearly printed on the voter rolls and in the instructions given to precinct workers.
Hopefully this is trivial, but Nonpartisans everywhere must be especially vigilant. If you are not a member of any party but wish to vote for the ones that allow it (again, just Democratic or American Independent), make sure to take the NONPARTISAN ballot and mark the correct box.
Editor Zach Behrens is interviewing an elections official and we'll have more coverage coming up later this afternoon.
Clarification: As discussed in the comments below, this information is about LA County. If you are outside LA County, check with a local polling official.
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This is not entirely accurate. A registered non-partisan may vote using Democratic, Independent, or Non-partisan ballots. They just need to ask the poll worker for the one they want. As it says on the NP Sample Ballot:
"Tell the pollworker you are a nonpartisan registed voter who wishes to vote for one o the two parties listed above [Democratic or American Independent]. The pollworker will issue you a ballot and direct you to the correct voting both for the selected political party."
Actually, it's 100% accurate. Nonpartisans MUST use nonpartisan ballots. It says so VERY clearly in all the instructions that have been given to poll workers. This sample ballot quote doesn't refute that at all.
The idea is that you go to a party-specific booth (where the voting machines are) with your NP ballot, which includes space to mark candidates for that specific party.
Okay, just to confirm, because I've been reading about this issue all day and am now totally confused.
Did you use the same Democratic ballot that I (a registered Democrat) used? Or did you get a Democratic ballot specific to Nonpartisans?
Because if you got the same ballot that I used, and didn't fill in the bubble, how would the counting thing even know that you were supposed to fill it in?
From what I experienced this morning, tdavies is correct. I'm a nonpartisan and I didn't have to use a nonpartisan ballot at all. I had to specifically ask for a Democratic ballot which I received.
There was also no specific booth to vote in. Everyone just waited for the next available booth. Then I just had to tick the box to state whether I was voting Democratic or American Independent.
Hope everyone's having as easy a time as I did.
All nonpartisan voters use the same nonpartisan ballot.
If you chose not to vote for any party-specific candidates, it's all gravy.
If you chose Dem or AI, you go to one of their machines and insert your ballot. When you vote, their is a option that you must ink to indicate that you are a nonpartisan voting within that party's primary. If you do not ink it, apparently, your vote may not count. If you do, it's all gravy.
If you're a democrat and mark the option for nonpartisan voting in a democratic primary, I'd imagine it won't be a problem since that's just repeating the information already marked at the top of your ballot.
The reasoning behind this is to track the number of people who from each party (or lack thereof) who voted within a particular precinct. That information is public, and future campaigns use it when making decisions like where to send fliers, which doors to knock on, and which areas are most important for other campaign tactics. I can vouch for that as somebody who has worked on campaigns before.
Now I'm even more confused. wakeywakeyman and Adam are both Nonpartisans but used different ballots?
The nonpartisan ballot (and the whole bubble trouble thing) Adam speaks of is UNIQUE to LA County decline-to-state ballots.
Who knows why they did this. I too voted with a nonpartisan ballot at a Democratic booth (and had no idea about the stupid bubble). Perhaps wakeywakey is outside LA county.
Wakeywakeyman -- Assuming you were in LA County, the poll worker made a mistake. It's even spelled out on the roll sheet that you signed. At this point there's no way your vote would be disqualified, but I'm pretty sure it will screw up the accounting process and effect how future campaigns make decisions on targeting.
Hilary -- There's definitely confusion at the polls!
All - I'm not sure if they break this out, but I'd venture a guess that one of the reasons to keep NPs on NP ballots is to let a party know how members voted vs. how non-members voted. Even though they opened up to nonpartisans, it's still useful information and I can't imagine why they wouldn't be entitled to it.
I am a non-partisan voter, and when I chose to vote in the democratic primary, they handed me a democratic ballot (not a non-partisan ballot) as well (and I am a LA City resident).