Clinton Response to LA County Double Bubble Trouble

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Here is the short story, if you are just coming to it right now.

The Los Angeles system requires that decline-to-state voters not only ask specifically for a Democratic ballot - but also fill in a special bubble on the ballot specifically indicating their desire to vote on the Democratic presidential ticket. Failure to fill in the bubble voids their presidential ballot.

The Courage Campaign has contacted Los Angeles County election officials "demanding that they count the votes and that they inform voters of this 'bubble trouble,"' said Jacobs. "They finally agreed they didn't know how to count the votes."

Our lawyer Steve Reyes caught this over the weekend.  This problem has existed for several cycles and was caught late.  The Obama campaign held a conference call with reporters about this earlier today and one of our lawyers Steve Kauffman was on it.  They are very much concerned, as we are that voter intent will not be determined.  The law is pretty clear on this.

The Clinton Campaign on the other hand...

But Averell "Ace" Smith, campaign manager for California campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said he is mystified by the Election Day complaints from the Obama team, since the rules for decline to state voters - specifically the requirement that request Democratic ballots - have been a matter of public record posted on the California Secretary of State's web site for months.

"Every California campaign has known the ground rules on this for three months," he said. "I can't imagine why they waited until 2 pm. on Election Day to wake up ... it strikes me as strange. If you wait until the last minute to complain, they must really be worried we're going to win."

"We've certainly worked with our voters for months and months" to educate them on the process, he said. "They're blaming other people for not having done their homework...this is nothing more than a cynical attempt to create confusion."

 
This is extremely disappointing.  All the Courage Campaign has been asking for all along is that the Los Angeles County ROV finds a way to limit this from happening in the first place and then to make sure these votes are counted, if the word does not get out.  That is all the Obama campaign is doing at this point.  This is a localized problem to Los Angeles, but there are a lot of voters there who may have been effected.

This is all about determining voter intent.  It is pretty clear when someone asks for a Democratic ballot and then votes for that person that they intended to vote for a Democrat.  The second bubble is not necessary to determine intent.  The ballot was designed this way to make vote tabulation faster, but the side effect is that voters are disenfranchised.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Federation, a nonpartisan voter watchdog organization, said she believed that the LA County procedures represent "an unnecessary extra step" for voters.

"I understand why LA County does is, but I think there is the possibility that some voters will be unwittingly disenfranchised," though the county has chosen the system because it is more economical and enables them to count ballots faster, Alexander said.

And she said it could have major implications.

"It is a big deal in this election because California voters finally have a say in a presidential primary and LA is the state's largest voting district" encompassing all or parts of 12 Congressional Districts, she said. In California delegates are awarded to the candidates based on how well they do in the popular vote in a congressional district, and "if there is a big undercount, it could change the delegate count."

They need to count all of the votes.