Is there no end to the election corruption that disenfranchises more American voters every day? Super Tuesday in California already smells like Florida 2000.
Here's what happened: California has 1.1 million independent "Decline to State" voters. For weeks, the Courage Campaign has been doing a GOTV directed at them, so they'd know they were allowed to vote in the Democratic primary (unlike the Republican primary, where DTS voters can't vote). Then, just 24 hours before the election, Courage Campaign realized that a technical booby-trap was lurking on L.A. County's DTS ballots. For the ballot to be counted, the voter had to hand-mark two extra bubbles indicating "Democrat" (even though the ballot was already a Democratic ballot). But what if voters didn't notice that they had to do this?
Just before the primary, Courage Campaign woke up to the problem. They notified the Registrar of Voting 24 hours before the polls opened, and threatened legal action if nothing was done to rectify it. For example, DTS voters could have been instructed at the polls about the need to mark both places. Local media chimed in to help ensure that voters got the word.
But nothing was done to fix the problem. Now reportedly half of the DTS votes in L.A. County -- around 94,000 -- are being tossed out. Including the vote of an independent friend of mine, who belatedly realizes that he marked one bubble, but not the other. And the Registrar is refusing to hand-count the votes.
It's estimated that significant votes for both Obama and Clinton are being thrown over the side. Courage Campaign is organizing a loud petition campaign to stir up voters...and hopefully stir up some powerful local political figures as well, so a hearing can be held. The votes must be counted in the next few weeks, before the election is officially certified.
Will justice be done? These days, I wonder, as Florida-type corruption continues to infect the country. Stay tuned.
Anybody who wants to add their voice to the protest can sign a petition at
http://www.couragecampaign.org/CountEveryVote
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1 Comment
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One has to wonder why the item 6 was even there in the first place, since it doesn't seem to benefit anyone in particular...
Alex Blaze | February 8, 2008 3:43 PM
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