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by volunteers at Stand Firm with Debra Bowenand The Voting Rights Task Force
Recent events during and after the February 2008 California Primary indicate that Los Angeles is in the midst of an electoral crisis. And a crisis for Los Angeles -- the largest election district in America -- is a crisis for California. With the largest concentration of voters in the State, 18 Congressional Districts are partly or wholly contained in Los Angeles County, along with 14 State Senators and 26 Assemblymembers. Therefore, the votes cast and counted there significantly affect the outcome of every election and initiative--statewide and even nation-wide. The most obvious symptom is the now infamous “double bubble ballot” responsible for the initial disenfranchisement of over 60,000 “decline to state” (DTS) voters in February’s primary. The ballot design was overseen by the previous Los Angeles County Registrar, Conny McCormack--a woman with close ties to Diebold and an overt hostility to the electoral reforms advocated by Secretary of State Debra Bowen (Bowen, by contrast is a recent recipient of the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” award). The “Double Bubble Ballot” and Conny McCormack On Primary Election-Day 2008, McCormack’s ballot design caused widespread confusion among poll workers and “(DTS)” voters who were unaware they needed to fill in a second “bubble” in order for their votes to be counted.If this all sounds confusing now, imagine how hard it was to figure out in the voting booth! McCormack claims that it was all just “an unfortunate, unanticipated result," which "no one could have predicted." The facts however, contradict this explanation, as evidenced by the recent revelations that a staggering 44% of “DTS” voters who used this ballot in the 2004 primary did not have their vote counted; in the 2006 primary, 42% of DTS crossover voters were disenfranchised. Under Logan’s administration of the 2008 primary, disenfranchisement was 27%. How could such a catastrophe occur right under the noses of each of the last two Los Angeles Registrars? Why didn’t McCormack rectify this “ballot problem” as Registrar? And why did she quit her job one month before the largest primary in recent memory, without sounding the alarm bells? If she couldn't predict the problems her ballot design would cause, she was grossly incompetent; if she knew about the problem and did nothing, then she may be criminally negligent. In either case, an official investigation is warranted. McCormack's Hand Picked and Failed Successor And County Councilman Reagan Dunn ultimately demanded Logan’s resignation, noting, “The failure of your department in administering the most recent election is clear from the many errors in registering voters, inaccuracies in counting and recounting ballots, failure to ensure that only legal ballots were counted and inability to reconcile voters with ballots cast. Every time you report to the Council and the public, the numbers of errors reported have increased.” Dunn also noted “evidence of what appears to be a cover-up.” Logan’s resume--or lack thereof--is equally troubling: He has no college education and his CERA (Certified Elections/Registration Administrator) “degree” is the result of a 15-day course with the “Election Center”--a private non-profit organization with close ties with electronic voting machine vendors. Logan’s resignation allowed him to escape mounting criticism and a lawsuit that charged he chose "expediency over accuracy and equality" in counting votes. To the dismay of election integrity groups and activists across the country, Logan was incomprehensibly hired to be Deputy Registrar, and then was – as requested by McCormack--promoted over more experienced and qualified long-time County employees to become Los Angeles’s Acting Registrar. Logan’s Complicity in LA’s As the scope of voter disenfranchisement became increasingly apparent, rather than immediately and aggressively seeking to hand count every “DTS” ballot erroneously “rejected,” Logan argued such a recount was only necessary if it would demonstrably change the official election tallies. He then concocted yet another rationale to prevent a recount by making the ludicrous and unsubstantiated claim that the intent of the 60,000 uncounted ballots would be "impossible" to interpret. As public outrage mounted and the press began asking tougher questions, Logan claimed his office had educated poll workers and voters how to properly fill out McCormack’s confusing ballot. Logan’s “blame the voters and poll workers” canard was widely contradicted by incensed voters who called in to KPCC radio to explain their experiences with the “double bubble ballot”. Further undermining the veracity of Logan’s claims were poll workers and poll inspectors who said they had received no instructions or training from anyone regarding the ballot design flaw and the subsequent need for special instructions to voters. As a result of the intense public pressure orchestrated by the Courage Campaign and local election integrity activists, in addition to the threat of a lawsuit, Logan finally agreed to count 48,525 of the “rejected” ballots. Nevertheless, an unacceptable 12,000 valid and legally cast votes remain uncounted to this day. Mr. Logan’s (and Ms. McCormack’s) conduct before, during, and after the February primary has undermined the integrity of Los Angeles elections, badly damaged the public’s trust in the office of Registrar, and subverted the democratic principles he was entrusted to protect and defend. Consider his record:
Had the primary been decided by a few thousand votes, we shudder to think of the electoral crisis that would have ensued. It is difficult to believe that repeated electoral disasters caused by the same ballot were simply due to “honest mistakes”. What is still unclear is whether we are witnessing a deliberate attempt to suppress the vote for a certain class of voters or just a case of repeated Registrar incompetence.
Registrars are bestowed a sacred responsibility in our democracy. They are “frontline” defenders of the democratic process--ensuring elections are fair, just and accurate. As such, any viable candidate for this job should exemplify competency of the highest order, honesty, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to the principle that every vote must be accurately counted and equally valued. Growing coalition demanding Supervisors appoint new Registrar -- Some also seek independent criminal investigation Mr. Logan has proven beyond a reasonable doubt he not only doesn’t possess the necessary character traits, knowledge or competence required of a Registrar, he has displayed a palpable disinterest and even disdain for the rights of disenfranchised Los Angeles voters and the importance of counting every ballot cast.It is no surprise then that an increasing number of concerned individuals and voting integrity groups are demanding the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors eliminate Logan from consideration in their search for a permanent Registrar. The Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee recently overwhelmingly adopted a motion of no confidence in Logan. The Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley--an umbrella group of 25 Los Angeles area Democratic clubs--unanimously adopted a letter urging the Board of Supervisors to appoint a new, qualified Registrar. Also supporting the above action is the Courage Campaign, which exposed the “Double Bubble Ballot” design flaws before the election and led the effort to force the eventual nearly full recount. Other groups and individuals urging the appointment of a new Registrar--such as the Velvet Revolution, Brad Friedman of the Brad Blog and Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation -- also support the initiation of an independent investigation to determine whether criminal misconduct may have been involved.Our Proposed Next Steps: The voters of Los Angeles and California deserve an answer to the all important question: Or in other words, “What did they know and when did they know it?” Standing Firm with Debra Bowenstrongly urges the following and immediate actions:
The voters of California and Los Angeles deserve no less. Please forward this newsletter to your friends, and political and civic organizations who care about the basic tenet of our democracy--every vote must be accurately counted.
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Contact the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors: http://www.countedascast.com/la/laaddresses.php |
