WV ballots have no President line on them

evince

evince

Truthmatters
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/83823

WTF??????



West Virginia Secretary of State Disenfranchising Thousands of Obama Voters?

Posted by Matt Stoller, Open Left at 5:00 AM on April 29, 2008.



Separate but unequal voting systems in West Virginia threaten to disenfranchise independent voters. I got a call today from Mark Levine, the election protection attorney for Donna Edwards and one in whom I have a good amount of trust, and he told me about a brewing problem in West Virginia which will probably end up disenfranchising thousands of Obama voters. Here's the nub of the issue. West Virginia has an open primary, which means you can vote even if you are an independent. However, if you are a Democrat or a Republican, you are automatically given a normal ballot in a primary. If you are an independent, you are pointed to a touch screen device which does not list a Presidential choice.

If you are an independent, you have the option of requesting a Democratic or Republican ballot so you can vote in the Presidential primary, but you have to request it. And unless you know to request it, you will end up with no vote in the Presidential primary. The Secretary of State has decided not to inform people of this fact, which will leave potentially thousands of voters in West Virginia who came to vote for Obama without a choice.

Independents, in other words, are being disenfranchised. There's a full press release on the flip.
 
So you have to notice that there's no line for President in the ballot they send you to at first, and you have to ask someone why.

In other words, you have to show the level of intelligence of a nine-year-old, or this article says you get "disenfranchised".

The article goes on to conclude that this will "probably end up disenfranchising thousands of Obama voters".

The author clearly doesn't have a very high opinion of Obama voters. One wonders why.
 
Desh said:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/83823

WTF??????



West Virginia Secretary of State Disenfranchising Thousands of Obama Voters?

Posted by Matt Stoller, Open Left at 5:00 AM on April 29, 2008.



Separate but unequal voting systems in West Virginia threaten to disenfranchise independent voters. I got a call today from Mark Levine, the election protection attorney for Donna Edwards and one in whom I have a good amount of trust, and he told me about a brewing problem in West Virginia which will probably end up disenfranchising thousands of Obama voters. Here's the nub of the issue. West Virginia has an open primary, which means you can vote even if you are an independent. However, if you are a Democrat or a Republican, you are automatically given a normal ballot in a primary. If you are an independent, you are pointed to a touch screen device which does not list a Presidential choice.

If you are an independent, you have the option of requesting a Democratic or Republican ballot so you can vote in the Presidential primary, but you have to request it. And unless you know to request it, you will end up with no vote in the Presidential primary. The Secretary of State has decided not to inform people of this fact, which will leave potentially thousands of voters in West Virginia who came to vote for Obama without a choice.

Independents, in other words, are being disenfranchised. There's a full press release on the flip.
Click to expand...

And how are Hillary voters not being disenfranchised here?
 
If they are allowed to vote under the state laws WTF did someone draw up a ballot without that catagorey on it?
 
Here in CO, the Independents wouldn't even be able to vote in the Primaries unless they declared for one of the other parties.
 
"So you have to notice that there's no line for President in the ballot they send you to at first, and you have to ask someone why."

So, you don't have a problem with it, apparently. Maybe we can get every district to agree in the '08 Presidential election that only registered Democrats get a line for President, while registered Republicans do not, and have to ask for a different ballot?
 
Desh said:
If they are allowed to vote under the state laws WTF did someone draw up a ballot without that catagorey on it?
Click to expand...
Because they would be able to vote in one or the other, but not in both. Independants would have to declare for D to vote in the D primary.
 
All they had to do is have a line for all the current people running(both R and D) and you can chose just one.
 
Desh said:
All they had to do is have a line for all the current people running(both R and D) and you can chose just one.
Click to expand...
No, that isn't "all they have to do"...

In WV there is an Independent party. They have to choose whether to vote for that party or for the D party.

One can vote in a Primary, but they cannot vote in two. If they choose to vote D they get that ballot after signing a declaration, then they cannot vote for Independent candidates.

This would be like having the D candidates on top of the R ballot. First, the party selects their candidates, not the state. Second, they can only vote in one of the Primaries.
 
Damocles said:
No, that isn't "all they have to do"...

In WV there is an Independent party. They have to choose whether to vote for that party or for the D party.

One can vote in a Primary, but they cannot vote in two. If they choose to vote D they get that ballot after signing a declaration, then they cannot vote for Independent candidates.

This would be like having the D candidates on top of the R ballot. First, the party selects their candidates, not the state. Second, they can only vote in one of the Primaries.
Click to expand...


There is no "Independent Party" in West Virginia. The issue seems to be that there are other matters (not primaries) that are being voted on in this election, particularly board of education elections. If an independent shows up they get the ballot that allows them to vote for the board of education, but not in the presidential primary. The SoS is requiring independents to affirmatively request a ballot of a particular party instead of simply asking independents, who may be unaware that they have to affirmatively request a party ballot, if they wish to vote in the presidential primary and, if so, for which party.

Compounding the problem is that the independents go through touch screen voting, they don't have a full slate of matters being voted on in front of them prior to voting. They then run through the touch screen voting process and it ends without a vote on the presidential primary at all. This means that independents wishing to vote in the primary have to cast provisional ballots after going through the ouch screen voting. Provisional ballots aren't counted in the regular course.
 
Onceler said:
"So you have to notice that there's no line for President in the ballot they send you to at first, and you have to ask someone why."

So, you don't have a problem with it, apparently. Maybe we can get every district to agree in the '08 Presidential election that only registered Democrats get a line for President, while registered Republicans do not, and have to ask for a different ballot?
Click to expand...

I like it!
 
Dungheap said:
There is no "Independent Party" in West Virginia. The issue seems to be that there are other matters (not primaries) that are being voted on in this election, particularly board of education elections. If an independent shows up they get the ballot that allows them to vote for the board of education, but not in the presidential primary. The SoS is requiring independents to affirmatively request a ballot of a particular party instead of simply asking independents, who may be unaware that they have to affirmatively request a party ballot, if they wish to vote in the presidential primary and, if so, for which party.

Compounding the problem is that the independents go through touch screen voting, they don't have a full slate of matters being voted on in front of them prior to voting. They then run through the touch screen voting process and it ends without a vote on the presidential primary at all. This means that independents wishing to vote in the primary have to cast provisional ballots after going through the ouch screen voting. Provisional ballots aren't counted in the regular course.
Click to expand...
If there was no "independent" then there would be no ballot for them, just as there is none here in CO.
 
Damocles said:
Exactly. That is what I was saying. Instead we get conjecture.

They are allowed to declare and vote their ballot for one of the parties if they wish.
Click to expand...

In CA if you are registered as an Independent, as my mom is, you have to go ask for a Dem ballot as she did to vote for Obama.
 
Damocles said:
If there was no "independent" then there would be no ballot for them, just as there is none here in CO.
Click to expand...


You need to read more carefully. As I said previously:

The issue seems to be that there are other matters (not primaries) that are being voted on in this election, particularly board of education elections. If an independent shows up they get the ballot that allows them to vote for the board of education, but not in the presidential primary.
Click to expand...

That's the problem. In addition to the presidential primary there is a non-partisan board of education election. Independents get to vote only in the non-partisan board of education election unless they affirmatively request to vote in one of the party primaries.
 
Dungheap said:
You need to read more carefully. As I said previously:



That's the problem. In addition to the presidential primary there is a non-partisan board of education election. Independents get to vote only in the non-partisan board of education election unless they affirmatively request to vote in one of the party primaries.
Click to expand...
It sounds like the rules people always use. It wasn't like they purposefully made them up at the last moment.

I see where the issue lies though. If we had something general to vote in the Primary at the same time the I's would get a pretty short ballot... unless they declared. I would be warning them though.
 
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