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Denial of GOP ballots tops poll problems
The San Diego Union-Tribune ^
| February 7, 2007
| Craig Gustafson
Posted on 02/07/2008 7:33:21 AM PST by TankerKC
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To: PeteB570
Try being smart some time.You don't know me or the folks that this happened to. If you are itching for a fight, move on. I'm not interested.
21
posted on
02/07/2008 8:25:51 AM PST
by
TankerKC
(I tried to find more Nixon.)
To: Cold Heat
Geeez......Ain't that simple logic.....That's more "simple" than "logic," but ok....
22
posted on
02/07/2008 8:27:30 AM PST
by
TankerKC
(I tried to find more Nixon.)
To: TankerKC
Lack of communication on a change in the election process is not limited to the CA GOP.
Kansas decided to have a caucus this election cycle - first time in 20 years. Until I, as a precint person, raised caine with the state GOP, hardly any communication had been made to the public.
23
posted on
02/07/2008 8:34:08 AM PST
by
MEGoody
(Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
To: TankerKC
“I’m proud of you.” your words for me knowing my status.
People who don’t know their voter status get no sympathy from me.
People who try to stir things up over such people I don’t think too much of.
A closed primary is a closed primary.
The bursting radius of an excuse is zero meters.
24
posted on
02/07/2008 8:34:21 AM PST
by
PeteB570
(NRA - Life member and Black Rifle owner)
To: TankerKC
My sample ballot has my party affiliation on it. Don’t many people check that? I wonder if there is time to fix the problem if it is noticed then.
25
posted on
02/07/2008 8:34:51 AM PST
by
hoppity
To: TankerKC
"...
that had their registration cards with them ..." Not to belabor the point but I can think of two simple explanations for that. One, the state readily admits a certain amount of data entry error. Having been in IT for 35+ years I can say that data entry rates for typical users, are much higher than professional key-punch clerks. I'm sure county and precinct boards have multi-use clerks keying this data. Let's assume 1% error rate. Out of 2,350,994 GOP votes that would be 23,510 errors. Did the radio stations get that many or more calls?
Second, while I cannot imagine a caller on a call-in political talk radio show lying... I must leave this option open.
26
posted on
02/07/2008 8:38:59 AM PST
by
HawaiianGecko
(If you can't run with the big dogs...)
To: TankerKC
We have open primaries in my state.
Independents can request a Republican or Dem ballot. The State is run by Dem's, and this is a Dem scheme to recover people who left the Dem party when Clinton was testing cigars in the WH.
Republicans never had that problem, and use the restricted primary to keep people in the fold. It has always been this way. We believe in the Republic, not a Democracy and participants don't have any voting rights in primary's. The primary is a Party thing.
It should remain so.
27
posted on
02/07/2008 8:39:21 AM PST
by
Cold Heat
(Mitt....2008 (I have voted))
To: HawaiianGecko
Second, while I cannot imagine a caller on a call-in political talk radio show lying... I must leave this option open. Lying is an option. So are exaggeration and confusion. :)
28
posted on
02/07/2008 8:42:12 AM PST
by
TankerKC
(I tried to find more Nixon.)
To: TankerKC
Had several registered Independents come to our precinct and were irate that they were not allowed to choose a ballot and vote. I felt bad for them, but tried to explain that we have closed primaries...some just couldn’t understand, others took a voter registration card to change their party from Independent to either Dem or Repub and a few said they wouldn’t join either party regardless, just didn’t want to join a political party. And so it goes.
To: TankerKC
How would they know which Republicans to deny and which to allow?The demographics (location esp.) of the two wings of the California GOP are well known. Orange County is conservative, e.g., and the central to north coast is liberal. The next question would be, "Did the liberal GOP areas have the same complaint?" I have not yet heard so.
30
posted on
02/07/2008 8:47:58 AM PST
by
Poincare
(Hope is nostalgia for the future.)
To: HawaiianGecko
The even simpler explanation is contained in the last part of the sentence: "that had their registration cards with them when they went to the polls and the cards proved that they were registered as Republicans...at one time."
It doesn't matter if they were registered Republicans at one time, if they aren't registered Republicans at the time of the primary. Blame the state GOP for changing the rules and blame the voters for not paying attention to the change.
31
posted on
02/07/2008 8:49:07 AM PST
by
drjimmy
To: TankerKC
32
posted on
02/07/2008 8:51:14 AM PST
by
bmwcyle
(the Beltway crowd is like a bunch of women who have started menstruating together)
To: CharlesWayneCT
A decline to state should have been interpreted as dont change what I already am, not a switch me to non-partisan. Sorry, can't do that. "Decline to state" may be a very intentional choice. For one thing, it gives people the leeway to vote in any of the primaries of those parties which choose to be open to "decline to state" voters. For example, in 2010 the Republicans could choose that option, and the Democrats could choose not to allow that option. It's up the the political parties.
This was a problem that was probably predictable ahead of time (if anyone had thought of it) but also unavoidable. There will always be some percentage of voters who are registered "declined to state" (for whatever reason or mistake) but think they are registered with a particular party. For many years it didn't matter, since they could still get Republican ballots. This is the first time it did matter, so this is the first time the problem became visible.
Ideally, voters should have paid attention when they voted in the past (or when they received receipts in the mail from the Registar of Voters after re-registering to change their address or whatever). They should have noticed errors and gotten those errors corrected ahead of time. The large majority probably do so, but you're always going to be left with some smaller percentage who aren't observant or don't bother to check. They are the ones who found they couldn't vote in the Republican primary this year.
Were there real instances of screw-ups, where the voter really was a Republican and the Registrar of Voters had made a mistake? Undoubtedly there were a few of those. There are every year in every party; mistakes happen. But those are fairly rare. The great bulk of problems this year was due to voters' own faults.
I have very little sympathy for voters who can't mark a ballot correctly or can't keep their registration straight. I look at it as a desirable form of natural selection: the votes of stupid voters aren't counted. Sort of a very crude intelligence test, with a very low bar. It's better than nothing.
33
posted on
02/07/2008 8:53:23 AM PST
by
dpwiener
To: CharlesWayneCT
"
The problem I think was in the process of address changes. A decline to state should have been interpreted as dont change what I already am, not a switch me to non-partisan.
I'm not too sure about that. It depends upon the definition of "decline to state" when the government put that as an option on the mailings. I have a tough time imagining them defining it any other way than it was interpreted Tuesday. If I were to chose "decline to state" it would be because I don't want anyone to have a record of which party I prefer, not for them to keep me on the roles as a Republican or Democrat.
I also have a tough time getting my mind around the thought that the party was thinking: "Let's have a closed primary to keep crossover voting out and only allow people that
actually registered as Republicans plus all the 'decline to state' if we know they were registered GOP in the past.
I don't know what the county clerks are like where you live, but where I live they aren't the types to do a lot of research before checking a radio box.
34
posted on
02/07/2008 9:01:01 AM PST
by
HawaiianGecko
(If you can't run with the big dogs...)
To: TankerKC
There you go, an end to the conspiracy nonsense story that was being hyped on Tues.... This one never passed the smell test.
Of course I’m sure the rabid “mccain must die” crowd won’t care, and keep shouting about the conspiracy anyway.
To: Brilliant
Not a surprise, The Ca GOP did all it could to cut the conservative candidates off at the knees the last couple elections..
36
posted on
02/07/2008 9:14:59 AM PST
by
NormsRevenge
(Semper Fi ... Godspeed ... ICE’s toll-free tip hotline —1-866-DHS-2-ICE ... 9/11 .. Never FoRGeT)
To: HamiltonJay
Of course Im sure the rabid mccain must die crowd wont care, and keep shouting about the conspiracy anyway. I suppose that the conspiracy folks are about as over-the-top with there theories as you are with the names you throw out. McCain must die? C'mon.
37
posted on
02/07/2008 9:53:20 AM PST
by
TankerKC
(I tried to find more Nixon.)
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