State Faces Shortage of Polling Places for Special Election

kxtv.com ^

[chance33_98]

State Faces Shortage of Polling Places for Special Election

Although there are plenty of candidates for governor, there may not be enough places for Californians to cast their ballots. Statewide, officials say there will be 40 percent fewer places to vote during the recall election than in a normal election.

Sacramento County is losing more than 100 of its normal polling places. The county will go from 708 last November to 605 in October.

Other counties are worse off. Contra Costa County, for example, will have only about half of the usual number of polling places.

Senate President John Burton announced Tuesday that he will send letters to every county urging the maximum number of polling places. He also says he is exploring an emergency appropriation bill so the state will be able to help counties with the cost.

Voters will need to check the back of their voters' pamphlets to see where they are supposed to cast their ballots.

Some voters say they'll avoid the polling place confusion altogether. "We've decided that we're going to do our absentee ballot to be able to look at the whole ballot and all the names and make a decision," said Mende Tuttle of Sacramento.

[PhiKapMom]

This is a bunch of crap. When I voted in CA, I voted in a neighbor's garage which was where our precinct voted.

This has the odor of Davis/Clinton all over it!

[Republican Red]

From Neal Boortz:

HERE COME THE CHADS

There are about six counties in California that will be using punch card ballots in the upcoming recall election. The ACLU, naturally, is suing. The ACLU says that the punch card ballots discriminate against minority voters.

OK .. .noodle time. Just why would the ACLU say that punch card ballots discriminate against minorities? Is there some physical difference between white voters and minority voters that makes it easier for white voters to take that little punch tool and punch out that chad? I can’t think of one. Since the actual physical act is the same for all races, the answer must lie elsewhere. How about reading? You have read instructions and names on those punch card ballots. But then you have to read instructions and names on the other ballots as well. So, reading can’t be it. But yet we’re told by the ACLU that these ballots discriminate against minorities. The only angle I can come up with is that the ACLU must believe that only white voters can actually read the instructions and then follow them by using that punch tool to punch out the proper chad. That must mean that the ACLU thinks that whites are, in some way, smarter, more intelligent and more capable of following mindlessly simple instructions than are voters from various minority groups.

So … where are the demonstrations against the “racist” ACLU?

[AntiGuv]

Just why would the ACLU say that punch card ballots discriminate against minorities?

FWIW, the typical argument is that because poor, urban districts are more likely to use punch cards, and since minorities are more likely to live in poor, urban districts, the use of less reliable punch cards discriminates against minorities.

[ScottinSacto]

Buncha crap is right. So the union bosses have to drive their busses around the block rather than around the corner. And the arguments that the ballot is going to be confusing is also a bunch of $#!T. You have to punch 4 holes (maybe a few more if you have local issues going on the ballot)...but if you read your pre-election ballot and mark down the corresponding numbers of what you want to vote for on the 2 Propositions, the one hole for yes/no on the recall and the number of your replacement choice...voting should take less than 30 seconds...even if you have to flip thru 200 candidates. The Dems would have you believe that the citizens are too stupid to vote and therefore there should not be a vote. My fear is that the 9th Circus of Appeal will go for the stupid stupidity argument.