RETURNS: CONFUSION OVER BALLOT DESIGN MAY AFFECT CANDIDATES' FINAL DELEGATE COUNTS.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer About half of all 189,000 Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County nonpartisan non·par·ti·san adj. Based on, influenced by, affiliated with, or supporting the interests or policies of no single political party: a nonpartisan commission; nonpartisan opinions. ballots cast in the Tuesday primary were not counted because of confusion over ballot design, the county's top elections official said Wednesday. And acting Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said potentially tens of thousands more may also be affected because several hundred thousand absentee One who has left, either temporarily or permanently, his or her domicile or usual place of residence or business. A person beyond the geographical borders of a state who has not authorized an agent to represent him or her in legal proceedings that may be commenced against him or her and provisional ballots A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question in regards to a given voter's eligibility. A provisional ballot would be cast when:
The problems surfaced Tuesday as the registrar's office began receiving reports throughout the day from crossover voters Noun 1. crossover voter - a voter who is registered as a member of one political party but who votes in the primary of another party crossover elector, voter - a citizen who has a legal right to vote at the polls confused about how to mark their ballots. While election experts said they doubt the problems will alter the outcome of the statewide vote, it could affect the number of delegates each candidate gets -- potentially determining the Democratic nominee for president. "Los Angeles County is the largest election jurisdiction in the country so anything that goes wrong in L.A. goes wrong on a big scale," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. "If these under-votes get counted, it could change the delegates in some California congressional districts The U.S. state of California is divided into political segments known as California Congressional Districts. Bi-partisan Gerrymandering After the 2000 census, the legislature was obliged to set new district boundaries, both for the state Assembly and Senate and for ." Under questioning by the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, Logan said about half of the county's 189,000 nonpartisan and decline-to-state voters who cast ballots did not fill in a party box at the top of the ballot required for their vote for a Democratic presidential candidate to count. Logan said that amid widespread concern about voting accuracy, he will conduct a 1 percent manual recount during the 28-day election canvass to determine the exact number of disenfranchised voters. Logan said it will then be determined how many of those votes should be added to the counts for Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Logan said he also plans to convene CONVENE, civil law. This is a technical term, signifying to bring an action. a meeting of interested parties to determine how to ensure that ballots used in the June and November elections are less confusing. Alexander said she's never heard of another jurisdiction in the nation where so many votes were uncounted. In the 2000 Florida voting dispute, only several thousands votes were in question. "Clinton won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, but popular votes don't get you the nomination," Alexander said of California's Democratic primary Tuesday. "There is a very real possibility that these under-votes could help sway the election results for the Democratic presidential primary contest." Meanwhile, campaign officials for Obama said they received hundreds of calls from voters concerned that their votes weren't counted. Campaign officials said they also received complaints from independents who said they were not allowed to vote for a Democratic candidate. A lawyer for the Courage Campaign, a voting-rights group, sent a letter Wednesday to Logan demanding that he ensure that votes are properly counted. "We can't have another Florida 2000," said Rick Jacobs, founder and chairman of the Courage Campaign. "It's important for the next two elections in June and November." Logan said he will work with the Secretary of State's Office to examine the issue. The county has more than 800,000 nonpartisan voters. The controversy involves voters registered as Decline-to-State who chose to cross over to the American Independent or Democratic Party ballots. They were required to mark the party box at the top of the ballot -- along with their choice for president -- for the vote to count. "We got hundreds of phone calls about this, if not thousands," said Debbie Mesloh, the California director of communications Director of Communications is a position in the private and public sectors. The Director of Communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. for Obama, who received 41 percent of the county vote compared with Clinton at 55 percent. "We are telling people who have concerns to contact the Secretary of State's Office." Officials also expressed alarm after Logan said that only about 40 percent of ballots cast by nonpartisan voters for president in the 2004 and 2006 elections were counted. "None of us know if these (uncounted votes) could tip the election, but there is a possibility here," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky Zev Yaroslavsky (born December 21, 1948) is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D. Edelman. said. Los Angeles City Attorney The Los Angeles City Attorney is an elected official whose job is to prosecute all of the misdemeanor criminal offenses within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Rocky Delgadillo Rockard John "Rocky" Delgadillo (born July 15 1960) is the current City Attorney of Los Angeles, California. Career
"Other counties," Delgadillo said, "were able to see around the corner and had the ability to solve their problems before the election." troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com 213-974-8985 |
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