This double bubble thing sure has some legs. The discussion continues tomorrow in downtown LA with all the major electoral players in the house. Secretary of State Bowen will be there. Registrar Dean Logan and recently departed Registrar Conny McCormack. The Courage Campaign's lawyer. And a gaggle of LA electeds for good measure (and to give the forum a purpose).
The final results are in for Los Angeles County, with nearly 80% of the double bubble ballots ultimately being counted towards the final total. As the Whittier Daily News reports:
The count, completed Sunday, had no effect on the outcome of the primary.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton received 51 percent of the 47,153 votes that were counted. Barack Obama gained 42percent of those same ballots.
Just over 12,000 votes could not be interpreted, said Dean Logan, the acting registrar-recorder/county clerk.
Of course, as the article goes on to say, Logan began the process not expecting any of the ballots to be counted:
Logan initially believed none of the "double bubble" votes could be counted in cases where non-partisan voters had failed to fill in a bubble specifying in which party's presidential race they were casting a "crossover" ballot.
Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters has agreed to count every possible ballot effected by the "double bubble trouble". He is following the suggestions made by the Courage Campaign and Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Today he testified in front of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors about the steps he will be taking to tabulate the vote in advance of the 28 day certification deadline. He also sent a letter to Secretary Bowen (pdf here).
Thank you to the more than 32,000 people who signed the petition to Logan, those who donated and everybody else that helped make this possible. While it is unlikely that any delegate counts will be effected, that was never the point. We live in a democracy where every vote should be counted. That was in danger of not happening in Los Angeles County.
Much more over the flip including Rick Jacob's statement after testifying and details about how this count will be conducted.
It's time to celebrate! The Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan has agreed to count every possible vote effected by the "double bubble trouble". Logan will be following the suggestions of the Courage Campaign and the Secretary of State Debra Bowen to count the votes prior to the 28 day certification deadline. Logan sent a letter (pdf) to Secretary Bowen to that effect and also testified in front of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this morning, as did Rick Jacobs.
Delegate allocations are unlikely to change, but that was not the point. Every vote in this country should be counted. Thanks to the over 32,000 people who signed the Courage Campaign petition, our lawyers who dogged the registrar and many, many more who made this victory possible.
The registrar has promised to change the ballot, so that this never happens again. The Courage Campaign will make sure he follows through on that pledge. In addition, we will be seeking legislative changes to make it easier the millions who are registered as Decline-to-State vote.
Rick's statement and more detailed information on how this count will happen is on the flip.
BradBlog, as is the norm over there, provides an excellent evaluation of where things currently stand with the DTS 'double bubble' ballots. It's long, in-depth, and awesome. In part:
For the moment then, some 50,000 voters in Los Angeles County have had their votes for Presidential candidate currently miscounted. An intended vote for Hillary Clinton, for example, has not been registered as a vote for her. She has lost that vote for the moment, and the voter has been disenfranchised. Needlessly.
Moreover, current acting Registrar Dean Logan is claiming that, due to the fact that the same sets of bubbles were used for both Dem and AI candidates, it's "impossible" to determine with absolute certainty the intent of the voter. But he is wrong. In almost every single case.
The current miscount/error rate for those 50,000 ballots is now at 100%. Thus, any ballot counted at this point will only lower the current miscount/error rate.
Since almost every single one of those ballots can be counted accurately, as per the voter intent, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's an absolute absurdity and outrage that Logan is claiming that none of them can be, as he argued in an absurd report [PDF] delivered to the County's Board of Supervisor's on Monday.
He closes with an elegant summation:
The excuses must stop. Dean Logan must get to work and start counting. NOW.
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
Dean Logan, the acting Registrar of Voters in Los Angeles issued a detailed
report (pdf) yesterday evening, following a 1% sampling of the Decline-to-State vote. Unfortunately, he is still refusing to count every possible ballot. Following his report, the number of uncounted ballots is estimated at 49,500, since the sampling showed that a significant portion intended to just vote non-partisan. We do not know the hard number, since he has only done a sampling, not pulled and examined all of the ballots. AP
Registrar Dean Logan said those improperly filled out ballots are impossible to count by hand because of the county's complicated voting system, which requires crossover voters to fill in two "bubbles": one to choose a political party and one to indicate their presidential choice.
"There's no way in looking at the ballot to discern voters' intent," Logan said after releasing preliminary findings about the flawed voting system.
Wrong. Voter intent, as the Courage Campaign has argued all along is clear. These voters requested a Democratic ballot, voted for a Democrat and just because they missed an extra bubble does not mean that you can't determine voter intent.
28,000 people have signed our petition to the Registrar demanding he count every possible vote. Have you signed yet?
Check the flip for more, including excerpts from a letter our lawyers sent back to Logan that specifically discuss voter intent and his obligations under the state Constitution to count every vote.
There are 94,000 Decline-to-State (DTS) votes that have gone uncounted in Los Angeles County due to the "Double Bubble Trouble"
The Courage Campaign lawyers have been back in forth with Dean Logan, the LA County Registrar of Voters (ROV) over the last 24 hours. While the Registrar is making noises to the press about counting all 94,000 votes that have not been counted because the voter missed the redundant Democratic bubble, he is only talking about sampling 5% of the vote. Those 94,000 amount to about HALF of all of the ballots cast by Decline-to-State voters on Tuesday in LA County.
That is why this afternoon we launched a petition to Dean Logan. The message is simple. Count. Every. Vote.
We have gotten dozens of stories via email, phone and our website from DTS voters in Los Angeles who think their votes have not been counted, because they missed the extra bubble. This one from Julian H. is just heart breaking to me.
"I've been following politics before I even hit my teens. And 2 weeks before this election, I turned 18, with my registration in weeks before. I knew the issues, the candidates, the propositions, and for the fist time in my life cast a ballot. I heard the next day about the double bubble. No one at the polls mentioned it, and I didn't see instructions that even pointed to its existence. It's not such a great feeling that you're first close up experience in a system you've watched for so long at a distance could have amounted to nothing."
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
Here is the latest on the "double bubble trouble". Today the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors held a hearing. Several people testified including Rick Jacobs and the Registrar of Voters Dean Logan. The good news is that Logan sounded amenable towards counting the votes, but made no specific promises.
Any Decline-to-State voter who failed to mark the extra bubble indicating that they wanted to vote in the Democratic primary has not been counted thus far. There are no guarantees it will happen and so we are continuing to press the issue until every vote possible is counted.
The Courage Campaign is doing three things right now.
Requesting that the L.A. ROV conduct a count of all DTS votes, precinct by precinct.
Requesting that the L.A. ROV immediately take steps to fix the DTS ballot design flaw for future primary elections
Asking DTS voters across Los Angeles County to hold on to the receipt of their vote ("voting stub") until further notice.
As to #3 on this list. If you are a DTS voter in Los Angeles County who asked for a Democratic Party ballot on Election Day and still have your paper receipt for voting ("voting stub") please let us know so our lawyers can insist that your ballot be counted.
OR
If you are a DTS voter in Los Angeles County and you had trouble at the polls and/or believe your vote may not have been counted.
Please use this form to report your story and receipt number if you have it on the Courage Campaign website.
Courage Campaign lawyer Steven Kaufman (of Kaufman Downing LLP) sent a new letter (pdf here) today to the L.A. ROV. Excerpts on the flip:
