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February 6, 2008
Want to get Angry About Voting Problems? Watch This.
He tried to vote for Ron Paul, but couldn't
LA Times headline: Few election glitches, except for independents
Daily News headline: L.A. County ballot flaw could void hundreds of thousands of votes
CNN was streaming video from inside a polling place all day long in California (we think Fullerton).
In training for poll inspectors by the county registrar, video taping guidelines were reported inconsistent according to election activist and Dharma & Greg actor Mimi Kennedy in a phone interview this morning. Around 500 trainings took place throughout the county.
The rules about filming are "Ill-defined and subject to interpretation," explained John Ennis from Video The Vote. According to Grace Chavez, Spokesperson for the LA County Registrar, video taping can take place as long as it does not impede the process (voter or poll worker), does not disclose what a voter is voting for (close ups) and if the owner of the poll location is okay with it (the poll inspector is not always the owner). Media outlets must make an announcement before filming.
David Markland at blogging.la had a similar experience to the above video.
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Was Grace able to present any sort of documentation backing this up, or is that just her interpretation?
Which law is she citing?
Can you videotape your own ballot, or just not those of other people?
"If the owner of the poll location is okay with it" is incredibly vague - does this mean that a videographer needs to get written or verbal ahead of time?
I got the same response as the Ron Paul voter - that the reason I couldn't take a photo of my own ballot was "because they said so."
Cool you got a response, but I don't think it answers any lingering questions. Just covers their asses.
This voter's vote will count. He has nothing to be upset about. As for filming, the inspector was wrong to ask him to stop.
I'm not so sure about that. If the inspector was also the owner of the location, he had the right to ask him to stop. But the video doesn't show his association or lack thereof, so we won't know for sure.
Eh, even if the inspector was the owner of the location, I still don't think he can ask anyone to stop filming except as a courtesy.
The moment he permitted the location to become a polling place he forfeited the ability to claim the spot as "private property." I'm not 100% certain about this, but I'd bet on it.
That said, from the background this looks like it's a library or school property of some sort, so I doubt "ownership" is an issue.