Our Own California Version of the Butterfly Ballot
How difficult can it be to register people to vote and design ballots that don’t confuse people of normal intelligence? Harder, apparently, than one would think.
There are at least two pressing problems facing many voters today in California (not counting any perceived deficiencies among the candidates themselves). It seems that voters who thought that by registering as Independents they would in fact be considered as independents were wrong. Many actually ended up in the American Independent Party—a small but airly far right party invented to promote the candidacy of the late segregationist Governor George Wallace. Many folks are finding out today that they are not independent at all but affiliated with a party that does not represent their views at all—or represents them even more imperfectly than either the Republicans or Democrats.
As Rumsfeld remarked “democracy is messy.” This is how I had Buchanon voting relatives in Florida in 2000. Many of these people who actually needed to check the box, Decline to State in order to be considered as Independents. So they ended up not being able to get a Democratic ballot and therefore could not vote for either Clinton or Obama.
But, as they say on TV, that’s not all. Even those who managed to check Decline to State when they registered and got the proper mauve ballot had to then check an extra box in order for their presidential vote to count. If they failed to select Democrat, their vote will be annulled. Why, they might have wondered, if I’m an independent do I have to check Democrat? Good question. It has now been reported that many of these Decline to State people were given actual Democratic ballots by mistake. Their votes will be counted. Go know.
Of course, all of this will be litigated and will, by the time it is resolved, be moot. What a mess.
Since I'm a "non-partisan" voter in California, I know that's what they call them in this state. Using the terms "Independent" and "decline to state" only makes this whole thing more confusing.
And yes, having to punch the extra place on the Democratic ballot in order for it to be counted is going to lead to many, many undervotes. Who are the people who figure these things out?
There's no reason that a "nonpartisan" voter should need to check an extra box -- they should just be able to vote their ballot without all this unnecessary confusion.
This happened to my wife a number of years ago. When she was young and didn't know any better, she had registered as a Democrat. But as she grew older and wiser, she decided to shed that affiliation, and register as an independent instead.
Unfortunately, she ended up checking the box for American Independent by accident. I remember my response to her when we discovered the mistake:
"Well, the AI party is nuts -- but given where you're coming from, it's an improvement!"