full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign
This weekend the Courage Campaign discovered a serious ballot design flaw in Los Angeles that could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in LA County.
To cast a ballot in the Democratic presidential primary a Decline-to-State (DTS) voter must request a Democratic Party ballot. However, in Los Angeles County, they must also fill in an oval indicating their desire to vote for a Democrat and then mark their preferred choice for President -- two ovals must be filled, not one. If the voter fails to fill in the Democratic Party oval, their vote will not be counted and they will not be alerted to the error. (see the ballot on the flip)
There are 776,774 registered DTS voters in Los Angeles.
Big problem right. Yeah, we thought so.
Our lawyers were back and forth with the registrars all weekend and sent them a strongly worded letter this morning.
The AP broke the story this afternoon, offering up this discouraging quote from the LA County Registrar.
"It would almost be counterintuitive for someone to miss," said Dean Logan, the acting county registrar. "We have put this information in voter education materials, and we've provided real clear instructions."
To which Courage's Founder and Chair Rick Jacobs responded:
"Just ask the people of Florida about the role of intuition in counting votes. It's already tough enough to vote in the Democratic primary for president. With three quarters of a million "Decline-to-State" voters in Los Angeles County, the least the county registrar of voters can do is guarantee that the ballots are accurately counted."
Jacobs pointed out that there are 776,000 independent voters in Los Angeles County, or roughly 3/4 of the total number of voters who have already voted in the early voting states.
We followed up with another letter from our lawyer, this time with a list of demands.
Mr. Logan and Mr. Finley,
I write to memorialize our conversation earlier and to outline a number of responses that your office should immediately undertake to remedy a situation that will have the potential of disenfranchising a great number of voters who are trying to navigate a voting process that is already confusing to many.
We have confirmed with your office that in fact, voters who have not marked circles 5 or 6 and who have requested a partisan ballot will not have their vote counted. We have also confirmed that the Inka-Vote system, as implemented, will be unable to tabulate their votes for President and that in effect, those votes will be lost completely.
Our client, Courage Campaign, therefore demands that the Los Angeles County Registrar-Record/County Clerk and the Secretary of State immediately implement the following:
1.) Distribute recorded messages from the Registrar's office to Decline to State/Nonpartisan voters reminding them that they must fill in circle numbers 5 or 6 (the bubble stating they are voting Democratic or AI) if they request a Democratic or American Independent ballot. The notice should also inform them that failure to do so will result in their choice for president not counting. These calls should commence tonight and be distributed throughout the day tomorrow.
2.) Distribute press releases to the English news media and language media for those groups covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act with the same message provided in item number one above.
3.) Instruct "rovers" and other polling place supervisors to specifically instruct pollworkers to remind voters that they must fill in circles 5 or 6 or their vote for President will not count.
4.) Immediately distribute public service announcements consistent with the information mentioned in item one, above.
5.) Permit Courage Campaign volunteers to observe the sorting and vote counting process so that we may assess the extent of the problem caused by the issues with DTS voting.
These steps are reasonable responses to the issues raised in our letter to your office earlier this morning. Once again, our client reserves all of its legal rights. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Steve J. Reyes
Kaufman Downing LLP
The good news is this limited just to Los Angeles, something the CDP confirmed earlier today. Also, the registrar has informed us that he will be taking pro-active steps to make sure that voters are alerted to the deed to fill out two bubbles not one.
That said, we need your help. Are you or anyone you know a registered DTS voter in Los Angeles? Make sure they know to:
- Ask for a Democratic ballot.
- Fill out both bubbles.
What has not happened and evidently will not happen is a safety mechanism. The recording system will not alert voters that they did not mark the first bubble. There will not be a stack of ballots set aside to confirm the intent of the voter.
On a related note, the Courage Campaign has been hard at work making sure that DTS voters know in the first place that they have to ask for a Democratic ballot. We are airing radio ads today and tomorrow in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacrament, Fresno and Bakersfield. Bradley Whitford recorded the spot for us. We also used that audio to make 1.1 million calls to registered DTS voters today.
The goal all along was to get DTS voters in the habit of voting for Democrats and turn them into reliable Democratic voters. This ballot issue in LA throws a wrench into it, but we are moving full speed ahead.