California: Voting Irregularities?!?!

[Xithras]

Anyone else seen anything odd? I just cast my vote and am VERY ticked at our local elections office.

Stanislaus County, Modesto, Ca.: Neither I nor several of my Independent, Green, or Democrat friends received sample ballots prior to the election. I called the registrar several days ago to verify that I'm registered to vote, and was assured that I was on the rolls and that my sample ballot must have been lost in the mail. I then asked about my polling location and was told that it was unchanged. For the record, ALL of my friends who didn't receive sample ballots heard the same story. While I try to NEVER trust government officials in our local Freeper-friendly, Rethug dominated offices, there was little I could do and had to just take their word for it.

I'll give you one guess what happened when I went to vote today...yep, they lied to me. First, I went to my regular polling place (a local church). The building was locked up tight, with NO outside "Vote Here" signs. Infuriated that I'd been lied to, I drove around until I found a payphone with a book, called my local elections office, and demanded to know the correct polling place. They directed me to a local office complex.

But my story isn't over yet. When I went in I discovered that I WAS NOT on the voter rolls. As the poll worker set me up with my provisional ballot (translation: "We're not going to bother counting it unless the race is too close to call"), she commented that she'd seen a LOT of cases like mine today. When I pressed her on how many, she emphasized "a LOT", and stated that she'd never seen so many before. In the period of time it took me to fill out my ballot, I overheard no less than THREE other voters get the same treatment...THREE in a five minute period! That's THREE voters who will NOT get their votes counted (four if you count mine).

And it goes on... When you cast a provisional ballot, they give you a special envelope to place your completed ballot into. We're using the pencil/bubble type ballots, and one side of the ballot was clearly labelled "Do Not Fold". Anyone who's ever used a Scantron type form reader before knows why...a paper with creases cannot be read. So WHY was the provisional ballot envelope I was given less than HALF the size of the ballot?!?!? When I asked the pollworker about it, she replied "Just fold it up". When I pointed out that the ballot wasn't supposed to be folded, she said, "Well sir, that's the only way you're going to be able to cast your ballot here today!". So I folded it.

After getting to my office and calling my friends, I've discovered that EVERYONE who didn't get a sample ballot was missing from the voter rolls, and many people are having difficulties finding their polling places.

Anyone else having problems like these? What should I do with this info?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. 1-877-321-VOTE (8683).

Call that number for any irregularities

[radwriter0555]

2. And your local newspaper!

CALL EM...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Call the LA TIMES!

I am certain THEY CARE!

[Xithras]

21. Their already on it

Called the Bee and found that I wasn't the first. Apparently the problem is fairly widespread, but the county is attributing it to the consolidated polling places. They're claiming that people aren't on the rolls because their going to the wrong polling locations.

In my case, I double checked with the registrar again...I went EXACTLY where I was supposed to.

[Xithras]

19. Called

n/t

[revree]

4. report this immediately to registrar's office and to police

DON'T LET THIS GO ,- THIS IS FRAUD!!!!!!!!

[rainy]

5. You must report it to BBVreport.org

They will know what to do with it.

[nini]

6. Here we go...... why am I NOT surprised?

the fucking republicans!!! excuse me - FACSISTS!!!

yes.. call your local TV stations, LA TIMES etc...

get the word out.

[Kolesar]

7. Report it here: http://www.BBVreport.org

http://www.BBVreport.org

And further
In my state (Ohio), a voter can cast a "provisional ballot" that will be sent back to the Board of Elections the same day. They will check the voter's name vs. the voter rolls at that time, then count the vote.

[T Roosevelt]

8. Here's the related thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=483619&mesg_id=483619

[Xithras]

9. Reported

n/t

[Xithras]

23. About provisional ballots

The poll worker explained to me that in California, provisional ballots are the LAST thing counted, and their only looked at if the race is extremely close (e.g. the number of votes separating the candidates is smaller than the number of provisional ballots). While there IS a possibility that it may be counted, I've got this overwhelming sense of "Why did I bother?" going on right now x(

F***ing Republicans :mad: :grr:

[Padraig18]

10. Call your SOS office, too!

Isn't he the State official in charge of overseeing elections? Surely they must have a hotline--- IL does!

[cupcake]

12. not again.

They can't do this again, can they? Why doesn't everyone wake up???

[Wickerman]

11. Outrageous

I had voting problems once in my life. I lived in Texas. The people there would not let me leave until it was sorted out. It was early morning, my precinct had moved, I figured I could get on to work and figure out there where to vote. Nope, they worked at the precinct to find my polling location. Had to call the elections office. That should happen every single time there is a problem when someone tries to vote.

That isn't even the end of the story. When I got home that evening someone from the elections office called to make certain that I had found my polling station.

Unbeleivable you should've been treated so poorly. Make sure you respond to all these excelelnt suggestion. Your complaints now can prevent this kind of crap happening to any of us in 2004. I'm just sorry you were disenfranchised this time out.

[Selwynn]

13. PLEASE DO NOT SIT ON THIS STORY!

[Caution]

14. After calling the newspaper and the voter number given here

Make up a petition describing your story and a sign with something to the effect of:

Did you have trouble voting today?

and have people leaving the polling place sign your petition.

This is *exactly* the reason why the republicans cannot be allowed to steal california.

[Padraig18]

16. That would not be permitted, I wager

In IL, no 'extraneous printed material' may be displayed in the polling place, only printed matter from the election authority.

[qb]

22. You could stand just off the premises with a sign that says

"Report Voting Problems Here"

[Padraig18]

25. That might work

:hi:

[ronnykmarshall]

15. Kern County (Bakersfield)

This what my mom told me.

Very confusing as to where to go. Multiple precincts in on polling place. NO VOTING BOOTHS!! Just tables off to the side.

[jus_the_facts]

17. BAND TOGETHER AND SUE THE FUCK OUT OF THEM......

......GET TOGETHER WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO THIS HAPPENED TO AND FILE LAW SUITS.......IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!

[Catherine Vincent]

18. Travis Smiley said on the radio this morning that...

Out of 3200 usual polling places, only about 1800 would be open. I wonder why?

[arcane1]

20. that is totally outrageous

I had no trouble at all, kind of. I had to go online to find out that my usual place wasn't going to be opened, and figure out where I was supposed to go instead. After that, 10 minutes later I was done and leaving the place

[Junkdrawer]

24. In 2000, a similar thing ALMOST happened to me in PA...

However, I stood there for 20 minutes making a huge stink until they "found" my name. When I called Democratic HQ later, I was told a lot of people called with the same complaint.

Standard Repug tactics.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

26. SF Chron: report here! NOW

They are requesting any stories of problems and may have a reporter call to go over the story:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/09/25/question_form.txt

[Xithras]

27. Reported

Hey, I'll pass this story onto anyone who will listen :-)

[kayell]

28. File a complaint NOW

Don't wait until the election is over. Give name rank and serial number of the person who "helped" you by giving too small envelope.

I wondered about this when I heard on NPR a little bit ago that there were far fewer polling places than normal. I wonder which neighborhoods lost their local polling place, hmmmm?

[althecat]

29. Someone with the same experience mailed me...

HI,

Received via email. I will chase up the location details... Seems to be identical to Xithras experience...

******

I don't know if anything can be done about it, but I received this from a friend in California this morning about what's going on at the poll where she votes:

******

"I am steamed. Steve and I just got back from voting and guess what? After voting in every election since we have been eligible to vote as teens we were told we were not registered despite the fact that we got our polling place and election materials in the mail. We had to vote using provisional ballots.

My kids are also in the same boat, although Heather and her DH Brian were told they could not vote because they were not registered. About half of the people who were in line ot vote when Steve and I went were having to use provisional ballots too. Can you say shades of Florida????? I am so damned mad I am going to write every newspaper and TV station I can. This is outrageous.

This would happen just as we are leaving on a 7 day trip to Havasu. Will keep everyone informed as to what I do and find out. So any of you watching the returns in the news from California don't be surprised if you hear this election has been rigged. Never thought I would ever say that but I am sure something is afoul of the law here.

[BevHarris]

30. Here is something about provisional ballots you should read:

(carried over from the Black Box Voting problem reporting forum, http://www.BBVreport.org)

"Many people were filling out provisional ballots because they demanded paper ballots and were given those instead. They don't trust the machines. But they were told simply that "provisional ballots are the same as 'paper ballots'". I told these people that they had to choose between not having their ballot counted and using the Diebold machines."

You see, there is a reason to get as many people as possible on provisional ballots if you think they are going to vote Democrat. They don't count provisional ballots, from what I'm told -- someone correct me if I'm wrong -- unless they could "make a difference" in the election.

So, this affects the appearance of the margin of victory. Also, in the event that machine results are tampered it reduces the percentage of the fudge factor needed -- and the larger the percent, the greater the risk of exposure if tampering is done.