http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... 7569.story

Few election glitches, except for independents

'Decline-to-state' voters allowed to vote for Democratic candidates report receiving wrong ballots or having their ballot nullified for procedural reasons.
By Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
8:25 PM PST, February 5, 2008
Voting in California's presidential primary proceeded relatively smoothly, election officials said Tuesday, but some independent voters reported trouble getting the proper ballots and others worried that their ballots might not be counted.

In Los Angeles County in particular, some independents who voted in the Democratic contest feared their votes would be thrown out because they did not mark a separate Democratic Party bubble.


Secretary of State Debra Bowen, concerned that some independent voters were improperly denied partisan ballots, issued a statement hours before the polls closed reminding poll workers of the rules allowing independents to vote in the presidential primary.

Independents, officially known in California as decline-to-state voters, were entitled to vote in the Democratic Party or American Independent Party primaries. The California Republican Party declined to let independents vote in its presidential contest.

"The secretary of state's Voter Hotline has received several dozen calls from [decline- to-state] voters around the state reporting some county poll workers have not been fully aware of voter rights," Bowen's office said.

Overall, voter turnout was high, and in some places it was evident that independent voters were having no trouble getting ballots. In Riverside and Contra Costa counties, for example, election officials said some polling places were running short of Democratic ballots by the afternoon and more had to be shipped.

In Los Angeles County, problems for independent voters were compounded by a unique voting system that required voters to mark the party designation in addition to the candidate they were voting for.

Paul Drugan, executive assistant with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, acknowledged that hundreds of ballots might be thrown out because the party bubble wasn't marked. But he said the instructions on the ballot were clear and that election officials had been educating independent voters about the requirement for months.

"We kind of foresaw this would be a problem a while ago," he said. "Seeing that was going to be a problem, we got the message out."

Even so, Drugan acknowledged that his office had received a number of calls from irate and panic-stricken voters worried that they had not marked the party bubble and that their ballot would not count.

"Is it a perfect system?" he asked. "No, it is not. Elections are an imperfect beast."

The camps of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama weighed in on the issue before the polls closed. The Obama campaign ocalled on campaign workers to advise independent voters that they had the right to vote for Obama and in Los Angeles County to remind them to fill in the party bubble. Problems should be reported to the secretary of state, they said.

The Clinton campaign fired back, saying it was inappropriate for Obama's campaign to raise concerns about the legitimacy of the election at the last minute. "This is nothing more than a cynical attempt to create confusion and cast doubt on the election," said Clinton's California campaign director, Ace Smith.

In Orange County, some independents hoping to cast votes in the Democratic primary were nearly thwarted because they were unknowingly given nonpartisan ballots.

Amy McLain, a Buena Park registered nurse and independent voter who intended to vote for Obama, did not know she had to ask for a Democratic ballot. Just as she began to vote, she realized the candidates' names were absent and was able to persuade poll workers to give her a Democratic ballot.

But her husband, Robert McLain, a Cal State Fullerton history professor who is also an independent, did not realize he had been given a ballot without presidential candidates until he had voted on other ballot measures. By then it was too late to cancel his vote and start over, poll workers told him.

"He is furious that no one told him that if you intend to vote in the Democratic primary, you need a Democratic [ballot]," she said.

Their confusion also raised a larger suspicion.

"I think independents will be underrepresented in the Democratic primaries because no one is telling them they need a Democratic ballot as opposed to a nonpartisan ballot," Amy McLain said. The poll workers "didn't seem to know the procedure."

Despite scattered problems, election officials said the California vote was proceeding well overall.

"With every election we do hear of pockets of confusion," said Nicole Winger, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state. "This time around we are again hearing of some isolated incidents but the election is running smoothly across the state."

Around the nation, election monitors said they had received only scattered reports of problems, though it was too early to assess how seriously they may have affected voting.

In New Jersey, Gov. John Corzine was left waiting for about 45 minutes early Tuesday at his polling place while workers fiddled with the electronic voting machines, said Doug Chafin, director of electionline.org, a nonpartisan group that monitors voting systems for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

A number of problems were reported with New Jersey's Sequoia Advantage voting machines, including alleged vote changes on the screens and various breakdowns, added Warren Stewart, senior project director of Verified Voting, another nonpartisan and nonprofit group. The New Jersey electronic machines are being used under a waiver because they lack printers required by the state.

Meanwhile, electronic lists of voters were causing problems in Georgia, Stewart said. Rather than use printed lists of registered voters, Georgia along with about a dozen other states, had precincts access an electronic list. Some lines developed when poll workers were not able to access the statewide data of voters, Stewart said.

richard.paddock

@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ralph Vartabedian, Tony Barboza and Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.