As I first wrote back on Super Tuesday, my friends at The Courage Campaign (for whom I do part time work) were the first to catch a potential speed bump for Los Angeles Decline To State voters ('DTS' -- our version of Independents) who chose to vote in the Feb. 5th Democratic primary.

Here, we have an Ink-A-Vote system where you mark your paper ballot with an ink marker and the ballot is then scanned through an optical reader right in front of you and you're sent on your way after confirmation that the vote was recorded. The problem for DTS voters is not only do they have to request a Democratic ballot, but then they must mark an extra bubble, which is placed above the names of the candidates, that confirms they're voting on a Dem ballot. Stupid, right? They already requested the ballot, that would seem to be confirmation enough, but alas, if it's not marked the scanner won't record it.

The Courage Campaign did an excellent job of educating voters and alerting the LA County registrar of voters in the days leading up to the primary, but ultimately their fears of disenfranchisement have unfortunately been borne out. As of today, a full 9 days after the primary, a total of 94,500 DTS voters' ballots have not been recorded because they failed to fill in the "Democratic" bubble on the Democratic ballot they'd already requested.

The Sacramento Bee rightly calls it a "major voting disaster" and through the continued pressure from The Courage Campaign, the LA County Board of Supervisors has entered the fray, passing a sort of half measure. From a Courage Campaign e-mail blast:

...the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has asked Logan to, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, "tally the ballots of tens of thousands of nonpartisan voters... (and) change the confusing ballot in the nation's largest voting jurisdiction to prevent such a mishap from reoccurring." 

This is good news, but there's one big catch: The resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors merely asks Logan to expand his random sample -- it does not force him to hand-count every "Decline-to-State" ballot.

That's why, until every vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is counted, we can not let up the pressure.

I agree whole-heartedly, which is why I signed their petition demanding that Logan count all of the votes. The petition already has more than 31,000 signers but the more that join, the more pressure we can exert on LA registrar of voters Dean Logan to actually give voice to those that voted on Feb. 5th.

The number of disenfranchised DTS voters represents almost half of all DTS votes state-wide. That is outrageous. No wonder they don't register with a party, this doesn't exactly give them confidence in our elections. We as Democrats should fight disenfranchisement wherever we see it and should do everything we can to encourage non-partisan voters to vote with us. So I hope you'll sign it today and help The Courage Campaign out so they can continue doing this important work.

There's more...

There's been some discussion on the left as to whether a partisan primary should be influenced by voters who don't belong to either party. No matter where you come down on that issue, in my mind, if election laws allow an open primary, we should be encouraging all voters to take advantage of the opportunity to make their voice heard in the Democratic primary, since, as Rick Jacobs puts it at The Huffington Post:

With literally hundreds of thousands of young first time voters getting into the fray this year, we have an ideal opportunity to get them to vote Democratic. And if they vote this time, as Governor Dean says, they'll likely vote for Democrats in the future.

In California, unaffiliated voters can register as Decline To State (or DTS.) This is an important voting bloc in California as their numbers are the only ones that are steadily rising. According to the California Secretary of State's website, DTS voters make up just over 19% of all registered voters in the state, double their percentage from 1992. During that same period, Democratic registration has dropped about 6% and Republican registration has dropped 5%. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows what incumbency rackets the state parties run.

Now, the reason these voters are important in terms of our primary on February 5th is that, while DTS voters are not allowed to vote in the Republican primary, they are permitted to vote in the Democratic primary. The problem is, DTS voters don't seem to know this, or at least they don't seem to know how to go about doing it. According to Jacobs, in the 2004 Democratic primary, 30% of DTS voters cast ballots but only 8% voted in the presidential primary.

How can this be? California law states that DTS voters may vote in the Dem primary but to do so must request a Democratic ballot. This may sound simple, but the thing is, if DTS voters don't make this request on Tuesday, they will be handed a non-partisan ballot, which will have everything but the presidential contest on it.

This is why The Courage Campaign, a California grassroots progressive organization (for whom I do part time work) is launching a DTS education campaign to reach 300,000 DTS voters over the coming week via telephone and e-mail to let them know that they are able to vote in the Democratic primary in California but they must ASK FOR A DEMOCRATIC BALLOT.

If you are a California DTS voter or who have friends or family who are, I highly recommend the Courage Campaign's excellent FAQ page with all the information you could possibly need to make your voice heard on Tuesday. It's no accident that it's the Democratic Party that allows DTS voters to vote in our primary, we are after all the party of inclusion, so I'm glad the Courage Campaign is launching this campaign to encourage participation in Tuesday's primary and to reduce the barriers that are in place that would prevent our being yet another state with off the charts Democratic primary turnout.

There's more...