Well, it looks like my vote in Tuesday's primaries won't count. Watch the video to find out why. If this isn't typical Politricks, I don't know what is.
Or, if Flash vids aren't your thing, read on:
So, THIS is what it feels like to be disenfranchised!! COOL!
As a white man, I thought I'd NEVER get to feel what this was like!
And you know what? It feels pretty lame!
Yep, turns out voting officials (probably just one, Dean Logan) designed the ballot so that us indy-voters in Los Angeles have to check an extra circle to declare which party's primaries we're voting in. This is an extra, useless step that is clearly there because someone (again, probably just Dean Logan, LA county's new acting Registrar of Voters) doesn't give a crap about us independent voters or actually wants to stop our votes from counting.
Something so minor like this can be easily over looked--especially since it's obvious which party a voter went with when you look at which candidate they voted for.
That'd be like having to declare your interest in buying a Toyota before you are permitted to buy a Camry. Makes no sense. You can read more about it in the headline's from today's Democracy Now here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/7/headlines#4
What's really funny is that I went back and looked at the little voters info booklet/sample ballot they sent me in the mail. It *does* mention that I have to pick one of two circles to fill in--but it doesn't tell me where to find those two circles! I didn't see them on the ballot card I was handed, nor did I notice them on the ballot-framey-thing where I actually did my voting.
But back to the sample ballot they sent me in the mail--so if it was on the ballot, you'd think it would be there. In fact, in previous elections, I've filled out the sample ballot and then used it as a guide when I actually do my voting. However, this time, I couldn't do this because the first four pages of the sample ballot they sent me were BLANK! In fact, if you go back to the video I shot of me actually voting, you can not only see my hand glide RIGHT over the "Democratic" circle, but you can also see that there was only one circle to fill in at all--one for the Democrats. So, a useless choice compounded by the fact that I couldn't have inked in the other choice if I had wanted to!
Granted, I'm an idiot who was just caught up in the moment (I really was excited to vote) and I should have been more thorough as I voted, but why do I have to declare which party's primaries I'm voting in? I have a feeling that the other circle was missing because I was using the "Democratic" booth and not an American Independent booth. However, if it was a special ballot to begin with, why didn't it just come auto-checked? Hell, truth be told, I blew past the presidential primaries page on the ballot-framey-thing because a bunch of those pages were blank, too.
However, I can tell you *for sure* that if the sample ballot they sent me had been complete, I'd never have missed that stupid circle. Like I said, I use that as a guide.
I'm not the only person in LA who had trouble voting, either. Sean Carroll at the Cosmic Variance blog had bigger problems than I did:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/02/05/chaos-at-the-polling-station/
My sister-in-law, Lisa (http://OnLisaReinsRadar.com), IMed me last night saying she got stuck with a provisional ballot. This was the same thing that happened to Sean at Cosmic Variance. What this means, as I understand it, is that their votes will only be counted if there is a recount.
It's hard to not be sarcastic... soooo hard!
Orignal From: TheVlog for 20080207: So, THIS is What Disenfranchisement Feels Like!
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