What’s the matter with Los Angeles When It Comes to Elections?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Zack Kaldveer, Sherry Reson, and Don Goldmacher

Recent events during and after the California Primary suggest Los Angeles is in the midst of an electoral crisis. And a crisis for Los Angeles is a crisis for California. With the largest concentration of voters in the State, 18 Congressional Districts are partly or wholly contained in the County, along with 14 State Senators and 26 Assembly-members. The votes cast and counted in Los Angeles County significantly affect the outcome of every state wide election and initiative.

So what’s the problem? Let’s begin with the now infamous “double bubble ballot” responsible for the initial disenfranchisement of over 60,000 “decline to state” (DTS) voters in the February primary. The ballot was designed by former County Registrar Conny McCormack – a woman with close ties to Diebold and an overt hostility to the electoral reforms advocated by Secretary of State Debra Bowen (recent recipient of the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” award).

Conny McCormack and her “Double Bubble Ballot”

How could a ballot (designed by the acting Registrar) disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters – in numerous recent elections - without being detected? McCormack has said it was just “an unfortunate, unanticipated result," which "no one could have predicted." Directly contradicting this assertion is the fact that a staggering 44% of “DTS” voters that used the same “double bubble ballot” in elections prior to the February Primary – and administered by Connie McCormack - never had their vote counted either!

Why didn’t McCormack rectify this problem as Registrar? And why quit her job one month before the largest primary in recent memory without sounding the alarm bells?

If she couldn't have predicted the problems her ballot design would cause, then she was grossly incompetent. If it can be proved she knew about the problem and did nothing, she may be criminally negligent.

Dean Logan: McCormack’s Hand Picked and Failed Successor

This sordid tale of electoral corruption and incompetence gets worse. Dean Logan – McCormack’s former Deputy Registrar – was incomprehensibly promoted to Acting Registrar over more experienced and qualified long-time county employees.