As dday notes in Breaking Blue, voting problems here in Los Angeles today are real. DTS voters (decline to state, California's version of independents) here in CA are reporting that they're being turned away from the polls throughout the state by uninformed poll workers. The fact is, DTS can vote in the Democratic primary but you must request a Democratic ballot.

In Los Angeles County there's a separate issue. 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 (see picture HERE,) which is 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.

My view is that people shouldn't be disenfranchised just because of this stupid rule, regardless of who they're voting for. The Obama campaign is particularly worried about it, as they held a conference call earlier today on the subject. The upshot: don't expect these votes to count tonight but if there is a dispute to tonight's results, expect them to be challenged, which could mean California's results would drag on for a while. Ack.

Update [2008-2-5 18:44:48 by Todd Beeton]:I was delinquent in originally not giving credit where credit is due. My friends at The Courage Campaign blew this issue up early yesterday when they sent this letter to the LA County Registrar urging that the law is clear on this:

The statute is clear: voters who have already affirmatively requested a Democratic ballot and cast a vote for a Democratic candidate, but who inadvertently fail to mark line number 6, must have their vote counted. To do otherwise is contrary to the statute. We can find no statutory basis for requiring voters to mark additional boxes to indicate that they are DTS voters requesting a partisan ballot.

David Dayen has more at calitics.

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