LAist: Trouble in Paradise?

meballard

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:48:09 -0800

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).

Adam Rose

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:36:25 -0800

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.

Andy Sternberg

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:34:48 -0800

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.

hilary

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:54:20 -0800

Now I'm even more confused. wakeywakeyman and Adam are both Nonpartisans but used different ballots?

Adam Rose

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:47:27 -0800

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.

wakeywakeyman

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:42:40 -0800

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.

hilary

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:38:53 -0800

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?

Adam Rose

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:21:08 -0800

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.

tdavies

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:08:01 -0800

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."