Was my vote in Democratic California primary thrown out?

February 6, 2008 1:36 PM

Was my vote in Democratic California primary thrown out?

When I got my CA driver's license in August I registered as a Green Party member. So yesterday I went to my polling place to vote. When I showed up they had all my info, and it was all correct. Now when I checked in I was asked how I wanted to vote, which threw me off because I was under the impression I could only vote in the Green Party primary. But I asked, and with no problems, receveid a ballot for the Democratic party.

I've been reading online about many of the problems CA has had with "declined to state" voters who voted Democratic. I know it has something to do with the bubble on the first or second page of the ballot that independent voters are supposed to check off if they want to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate. I checked that off, so in that area I'm fine.

BUT was I even allowed to vote in the Democratic primary? I was not registered "declined to state" but as a Green Party member. Yet I asked for and received a Democratic ballot. In the book that had everyone's info the woman even crossed out my party affiliation of GRN and wrote something else (I'm not sure what). So did my ballot get counted or was it thrown out?

posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth to law & government (12 comments total)

i was a poll inspector in the california primary, so i dealt with issues like this all day yesterday. since your registration in the roster index (the book) was GRN, you should have received a green ballot. did your vote in the democrat primary count? most likely not. did your votes on the state propositions and local measure count? (assuming you voted for them) yes.

a lot of people were surprised that ballots depended upon party affiliation yesterday. unfortunately, not all poll workers understood it as well, or they wanted to make people happy. it's sort of like some registered voters are savvier than others.
posted by kendrak at 1:48 PM on February 6, 2008

Is there any kind of channel that I can go through to make a complaint about this? This has unsettled me quite a bit.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 1:50 PM on February 6, 2008

"You will need to re-register to vote when [...] [y]ou change your political party affiliation."
posted by WCityMike at 1:52 PM on February 6, 2008

I think I'm reading this correctly, from the League of Women Voters of California:

California now has a "Modified Closed Primary System". Unaffiliated ("decline to state") voters may, if they wish, choose to vote for one party's candidates. The American Independent Party and the California Democratic Party, and the California Republican Party have agreed to let unaffiliated voters vote for their candidates. The Democratic Party and the Republican party will not permit unaffiliated voters to vote for their county central committees. Also, the Republican Party will not let unaffiliated voters select a presidential candidate.

Persons who are currently registered in a political party can vote for candidates of another political party if they reregister in the other party by the deadline which is 15 days before election day.

I'm reading this to mean that your ballot was probably tossed. You were not a decline-to-state or independent; you were registered as Green, and therefore would have had to reregister as either a Dem/Repub or a decline-to-state.
posted by rtha at 1:54 PM on February 6, 2008

I think your vote was counted, from what I understand about the law. However, I would suggest contacting the Secretary of State at 800.345.VOTE if you'd like the definitive answer.

Two years ago, the California Democratic Party decided to allow GRN, IND/AIP and decline-to-state voters to take & vote on a DEM ballot if they'd like. I think you can imagine why.

I believe you could also reregister at the poll and cast a provisional, too, which would be counted if it was a valid registration or change in registration.
posted by luriete at 1:55 PM on February 6, 2008

if you want to complain, you should contact the l.a. county registrar of voters, who probably handled your precinct. i know my county (alameda) seemed keen for feedback on the election, and if poll workers are giving people incorrect ballots (no matter how kind their intentions), the registrar of voters should know.
posted by kendrak at 1:58 PM on February 6, 2008

luriete, california has the "modified closed" primary which allows decline-to-state or non-partisan voters to participate in primaries if the party allows. according to the ca secretary of state, only two parties allow d-t-s voters to vote in their primaries- the democrat and the american independent party. this was evident because we had three different type of non-partisan ballots- n-democrat, n-aip, np. the league of women voters in califronia also has a pretty good description of this.


if you're registered green, you have to vote in the green primary. if you voted provisionally for another party, that part of your ballot will probably be thrown out because california does not have same day registration. it's really confusing and they don't do much to publicize it in a way that makes sense to the average voter.
posted by kendrak at 2:16 PM on February 6, 2008

I'm confused, though. They handed you a Democratic ballot, you filled it out and dropped it in the box. After that point, how would they have known that that specific ballot in the Democratic primary came from you, a Green party-registered voter? There's nothing on the ballot, I'd assume, that links it to an individual person; that would defeat the whole point of anonymous voting.

I'm not a Californian, so I'm just guessing here, but my guess is that the only way they have to limit an individual voter's ability to be registered in one party but vote in another is at the point where they decide which ballot to hand you. If they hand you a ballot for another party, you fill that ballot out, and drop it in the box before someone raises any objections, it'd seem to be that you succeeded in voting in the other party's primary, and there's nothing they can do to unring that bell.

What am I missing here?
posted by delfuego at 3:35 PM on February 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

delfuego, thank you for stating the obvious and making everything more complicated. if the ballot was scanned and counted, then there's nothing they could really do retroactively. i imagine when they double check the roster and see the GRN crossed out and DEM written in, then maybe the LA county registrar of voters may have some questions, but they have no way of knowing which ballot (i'd expect there'd be more) would be problematic because they are truly anonymous in the stack. (unless you were the only registered member of a party to vote with the proper ballot, i suppose...)

if it was a provisional ballot, which are hand checked and counted, the inellgible bits would be thrown out.
posted by kendrak at 3:58 PM on February 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

this happened to me also, I am a independent, and they handed me a democratic ballot, I voted ( didn't see the "mark here to vote in the democratic race" bubble), and left.

Later in the day, when all the brouhaha started, I walked across the street from work to a polling station that was there and asked them about it. They said I was given the wrong ballot ( I still had the stub from the top), but my vote was counted correctly, although it was procedurally wrong.

Not sure if they were correct.
posted by brent_h at 7:08 PM on February 6, 2008

If the ballot went into the ballot box it will be counted. Or at least counted the same as any other ballot.

The whole point of a secret ballot is that they can't go back and remove your ballot for any reason. And because it makes ballot stuffing easier.
posted by gjc at 7:05 AM on February 7, 2008

I voted ( didn't see the "mark here to vote in the democratic race" bubble), and left.

I think that bubble was only on LA County ballots. I didn't see it on my ballot here in San Diego, and NPR only mentioned Los Angeles when they were discussing the issue.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 3:04 PM on February 7, 2008