Simpich writes: "When you see this level of nonsense, you have to do
something. I threw up my hands and did something that I could do. I got
together with my friends. We filed a voting rights suit in federal court
today on behalf of our left-leaning voting rights group for Bernie, the
right-leaning American Independence Party of California, an Independent
voter for Bernie, and a Democratic voter for Bernie."
Miami, Election Day 2012: African Americans wait in line for hours to cast
their vote. People were attacked for bringing them water. The way to avoid
long lines is early voting - that's why applications to vote by mail are so
important. (photo: Alan Diaz/AP)
We Filed Suit to Prevent Mass Confusion at the California Primary
By Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News
22 May 16
If you are an Independent voter in California, voting is very confusing.
Consider this. Most Californians vote by mail. There's the rub.
Elections Code 3006 makes it mandatory for any government form that is an
application to vote by mail to explain that Independent voters have the
right to request a Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian
presidential primary ballot - a "crossover ballot." Sounds good.
But ... not all of these applications provide this mandatory notice. Not
even here in the supposedly enlightened Bay Area. Look at all these counties
that got it wrong.
You can see we're not talking about just one or two - such as the websites
for the Department of Elections of the City and County of San Francisco and
the Registrar of Voters for Alameda County, which are the focus of the suit.
We're talking more like ten or twenty counties.
You also see the voter instructions for Los Angeles County saying things
like voter registration closes on April 18 - when the deadline is actually
May 23!
Here's another problem: It's mandatory for these applications to let
Independents know that they have the "legal right" to personally deliver
their applications to vote by mail back to their county of board of
elections by May 31. This notice often isn't given either.
Why not? The elections people may not want muddy boots on their nice
carpets. Or they may simply want fewer Independents to vote. After all, once
people have traipsed downtown to pick up their ballot, and see voting
machines sitting there unused, they'll probably just wind up voting right
there!
Many of the Independents (also known as "no party preference," or NPP) don't
know they can ask for a Democratic ballot and vote for Bernie (or Hillary,
for that matter).
It's so confusing that I changed to Democrat for this election so I'd be
sure I could vote for Bernie.
When you see this level of nonsense, you have to do something. I threw up my
hands and did something that I could do. I got together with my friends. We
filed a voting rights suit in federal court today on behalf of our
left-leaning voting rights group for Bernie, the right-leaning American
Independence Party of California, an Independent voter for Bernie, and a
Democratic voter for Bernie.
Our Democratic voter plaintiff would like to have the option to be an
Independent and vote for Bernie, but she doesn't want to take the chance
given this situation. Some Independents are so nervous that (like me) they
are re-registering as Democrats before the Monday registration deadline!
One article about this case, "Clinton's California Dreaming of Election
Stealing," is not the message I want to send, but it typifies an
understandable reaction to a situation that results in serious
disenfranchisement. The two major parties toy with the Independent voters of
this country. They run the boards of elections and they make up the rules as
they please as they go along. The result is that every county is a fiefdom,
run by each county election official in a different way. This does not
inspire confidence in the integrity of the vote.
I'm not suggesting that crossover voting is the cure to the nation's ills.
Our problems are a lot deeper than that. I understand why many parties ban
crossover voting - Rush Limbaugh used to delight in egging on his dittohead
fan base to "knock off" the strongest liberal opponents in the opposition
primaries.
Why do the Democrats allow crossovers? The Democratic Party apparently
believes its own rhetoric and wants to attract Independents back to their
party, given that the Republicans can no longer overtly sabotage their
primary. Given that the Independents are not being treated with respect,
this strategy is not going to work. Reasonable people throughout the
political spectrum can agree that it's wrong to tamper with the right to
vote in any way, shape or form.
We list many remedies in the lawsuit - from asking the counties to correct
these errors over major media, to pushing back the registration deadlines,
to simply making sure the polls don't run out of crossover ballots. There is
an even better remedy. It just requires some thought and some social action.
The quick fix that everybody can do is vote now, either by mail or in
person. Don't wait and find out about problems on the last day. We have
early voting in California - not publicized by the major media.
The polling booths in the basement of San Francisco City Hall are empty and
silent. They will be jammed, however, on Election Day. Independents can step
up and ask for a crossover ballot - but only if they know to ask. The poll
workers are trained not to tell them of the option!
Disenfranchisement is a terrible thing. It's been going on in the South
forever. We're finally getting a look at it in places like Brooklyn, where
126,000 were purged from the rolls shortly before the New York primary. A
14% drop of Democrats in five months? Right before the primary?
Brooklyn is where Bernie grew up. Independents couldn't vote in the New York
primary, but they couldn't exactly take the vote away from Democrats ...
unless they were purged from the rolls.
Purges of adversarial voters are not just done by Karl Rove. They are done
by forces of political power, exercised by people who make up the rules and
then enforce the rules they made up. If the elections officials aren't
vigilant or allow ambiguous language to creep in or worse, thousands of
votes are affected.
Some of this conduct is incompetent. Some of it is criminal. All of it has
to stop.
________________________________________
Bill Simpich is a civil rights attorney who knows that it doesn't have to be
like this, but it will continue unless people speak out against these grand
juries. My next article will discuss how a new Supreme Court case means that
anti-war activists can be subpoenaed by grand juries for nonviolent action -
after all, it might free up someone's resources to take violent action.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Miami, Election Day 2012: African Americans wait in line for hours to cast
their vote. People were attacked for bringing them water. The way to avoid
long lines is early voting - that's why applications to vote by mail are so
important. (photo: Alan Diaz/AP)
/SRCURLONE/SRCURLONE
We Filed Suit to Prevent Mass Confusion at the California Primary
By Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News
22 May 16
f you are an Independent voter in California, voting is very confusing.
Consider this. Most Californians vote by mail. There's the rub.
Elections Code 3006 makes it mandatory for any government form that is an
application to vote by mail to explain that Independent voters have the
right to request a Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian
presidential primary ballot - a "crossover ballot." Sounds good.
But ... not all of these applications provide this mandatory notice. Not
even here in the supposedly enlightened Bay Area. Look at all these counties
that got it wrong.
You can see we're not talking about just one or two - such as the websites
for the Department of Elections of the City and County of San Francisco and
the Registrar of Voters for Alameda County, which are the focus of the suit.
We're talking more like ten or twenty counties.
You also see the voter instructions for Los Angeles County saying things
like voter registration closes on April 18 - when the deadline is actually
May 23!
Here's another problem: It's mandatory for these applications to let
Independents know that they have the "legal right" to personally deliver
their applications to vote by mail back to their county of board of
elections by May 31. This notice often isn't given either.
Why not? The elections people may not want muddy boots on their nice
carpets. Or they may simply want fewer Independents to vote. After all, once
people have traipsed downtown to pick up their ballot, and see voting
machines sitting there unused, they'll probably just wind up voting right
there!
Many of the Independents (also known as "no party preference," or NPP) don't
know they can ask for a Democratic ballot and vote for Bernie (or Hillary,
for that matter).
It's so confusing that I changed to Democrat for this election so I'd be
sure I could vote for Bernie.
When you see this level of nonsense, you have to do something. I threw up my
hands and did something that I could do. I got together with my friends. We
filed a voting rights suit in federal court today on behalf of our
left-leaning voting rights group for Bernie, the right-leaning American
Independence Party of California, an Independent voter for Bernie, and a
Democratic voter for Bernie.
Our Democratic voter plaintiff would like to have the option to be an
Independent and vote for Bernie, but she doesn't want to take the chance
given this situation. Some Independents are so nervous that (like me) they
are re-registering as Democrats before the Monday registration deadline!
One article about this case, "Clinton's California Dreaming of Election
Stealing," is not the message I want to send, but it typifies an
understandable reaction to a situation that results in serious
disenfranchisement. The two major parties toy with the Independent voters of
this country. They run the boards of elections and they make up the rules as
they please as they go along. The result is that every county is a fiefdom,
run by each county election official in a different way. This does not
inspire confidence in the integrity of the vote.
I'm not suggesting that crossover voting is the cure to the nation's ills.
Our problems are a lot deeper than that. I understand why many parties ban
crossover voting - Rush Limbaugh used to delight in egging on his dittohead
fan base to "knock off" the strongest liberal opponents in the opposition
primaries.
Why do the Democrats allow crossovers? The Democratic Party apparently
believes its own rhetoric and wants to attract Independents back to their
party, given that the Republicans can no longer overtly sabotage their
primary. Given that the Independents are not being treated with respect,
this strategy is not going to work. Reasonable people throughout the
political spectrum can agree that it's wrong to tamper with the right to
vote in any way, shape or form.
We list many remedies in the lawsuit - from asking the counties to correct
these errors over major media, to pushing back the registration deadlines,
to simply making sure the polls don't run out of crossover ballots. There is
an even better remedy. It just requires some thought and some social action.
The quick fix that everybody can do is vote now, either by mail or in
person. Don't wait and find out about problems on the last day. We have
early voting in California - not publicized by the major media.
The polling booths in the basement of San Francisco City Hall are empty and
silent. They will be jammed, however, on Election Day. Independents can step
up and ask for a crossover ballot - but only if they know to ask. The poll
workers are trained not to tell them of the option!
Disenfranchisement is a terrible thing. It's been going on in the South
forever. We're finally getting a look at it in places like Brooklyn, where
126,000 were purged from the rolls shortly before the New York primary. A
14% drop of Democrats in five months? Right before the primary?
Brooklyn is where Bernie grew up. Independents couldn't vote in the New York
primary, but they couldn't exactly take the vote away from Democrats ...
unless they were purged from the rolls.
Purges of adversarial voters are not just done by Karl Rove. They are done
by forces of political power, exercised by people who make up the rules and
then enforce the rules they made up. If the elections officials aren't
vigilant or allow ambiguous language to creep in or worse, thousands of
votes are affected.
Some of this conduct is incompetent. Some of it is criminal. All of it has
to stop.
Bill Simpich is a civil rights attorney who knows that it doesn't have to be
like this, but it will continue unless people speak out against these grand
juries. My next article will discuss how a new Supreme Court case means that
anti-war activists can be subpoenaed by grand juries for nonviolent action -
after all, it might free up someone's resources to take violent action.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
