The Courage Campaign applauds Acting Registrar Dean Logan's solution to the 'double bubble' issue in Los Angeles County.
Clearly, the winners in today's announcement are, first and foremost, the voters of Los Angeles County who can maintain their confidence in the electoral process and in knowing that their vote will be counted.
Also, through the concerted efforts of the Courage Campaign, concerned citizens and organizations, strong Board leadership, and a Registrar willing to listen and do what it takes to ensure that every vote counts, Los Angeles County has, today, avoided the serious and demoralizing problems confronted by election jurisdictions elsewhere throughout the country.
Mr. Logan has arrived at the solution the Courage Campaign has advocated since the day after the election. The Courage Campaign has consistently demanded that all votes be tallied so that we know how many DTS voters tried to vote for president and then that every ballot be counted where voter intent can be ascertained. Mr. Logan is using the method suggested by the Courage Campaign and many of our friends in the election protection community. We will monitor the counting to assure that it is carried out in a timely manner.
In addition to 32,776 Courage Campaign members who signed a petition to Mr. Logan, we thank County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky for his leadership on this issue as well as the ever vigilant Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
This is a complete victory for people-powered politics and a sign that the people of this state will only accept transparency in the election process.
We look forward to working with the County, the Secretary of State and our friends in the election protection community to assure that this never happens again. Mr. Logan has promised to change the ballot design and the Courage Campaign will follow through and ensure that it is completed in time for the June primary election."
As for the mechanics of how this will work, check out the letter for specific details. They will be resetting the machines to do the count. Not every vote will be counted and here is why from the AP.
Of the estimated 200,000 nonpartisan voters, 50 percent voted correctly and 25 percent didn't pick a presidential candidate, leaving 25 percent who had voted for a presidential candidate incorrectly.
That is the difference between the 100k figure and the 50k figure that we talked about a few weeks ago. The estimations were established from a 1% canvass of the vote, so these are not hard numbers.
Because the Democratic ballot included eight choices and the American Independent ballot only three, they did not overlap for slots 11 through 15 -- notably including the slots for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Therefore, any ballots marked on slots 11 through 15 can reasonably be inferred to have been cast for a Democratic candidate and will be counted, Logan said.
In the case of ballots marked on slots 8 through 10, the county Registrar-Recorder's office will determine whether they were cast in a precinct in which all of the nonpartisan voters cast ballots for either the American Independent or the Democratic party by using rosters in which that information was recorded.
If all of the ballots in a precinct were cast for a single party, it won't matter whether voters specified which party's candidate they were choosing.
This is exactly what the Secretary of State requested happen, which the Courage Campaign supported. There is no way to count all of these votes, given the overlap of the other party's candidates. It just further emphasizes how poorly designed this ballot was and why we need to make sure this never happens again. Voter intent will be determined as much as possible and that is all we have been asking for all along.
Needless to say I am very happy. And thanks again to everyone who helped make this possible. |
