[EL] Prof. Seth Masket paper on Calif. top-two

[David A. Holtzman]

Well I can understand the confusion.When a nonpartisan voter voted in a 
party primary it looked like he or she was joining the party.

I was a pollworker in the 2010 California Primary.Here's what happened 
then.(I just refreshed my memory with my "Election Guide and Checklist" 
from the L.A. County elections office.[Pp. 28, 32.])

We asked nonpartisan voters "/Do you wish to vote for candidates from 
either the Democratic or Republican party?/"If Democratic, we crossed 
out "NP" in the "PARTY" column on the roster and wrote in DEM.If 
Republican, we crossed out "NP" in the "PARTY" column on the roster and 
wrote in REP.

Although such NP voters weren't actually joining a party, since we 
altered the party column on the roster it looked a lot like they 
were.The info was recorded and parties could get it to reach out to 
those NP voters who voted in their primaries.

NP voters could get a "Nonpartisan-Crossover Democratic" ballot or a 
"Nonpartisan-Crossover Republican Ballot" ... not an actual Democratic 
or Republican ballot.Or they could just take a plain "Nonpartisan" ballot.

- dah

President, LWV of L.A.


On 10/17/2012 11:54 AM, Richard Winger wrote:
> I want to thank Rick for posting a link to Professor Masket's new 
> paper about the California 2012 top-two experience, but also I want to 
> mention a factual error in the Masket paper.
>
> On page 4 he says before top-two came in, California independent 
> voters could only vote in congressional and state office major party 
> primaries if they joined those parties at the polls on election day.  
> This is incorrect. Between 2001 and 2010, any independent who walked 
> into a polling place on primary day was given a card that told him or 
> her about the choices, which included a Dem primary ballot or a Rep 
> primary ballot.  They were not required to become registered members 
> of those parties.
>
> That even Professor Masket could be wrong about this shows how bad the 
> media coverage in California has been on this.  I have a blog post 
> today that links to the 2010 Secretary of State rules on this, plus my 
> blog post includes the exact language given to voters at the polls 
> 2001-2010.  Absentee mail voters were given a chance to choose the 
> type of primary ballot by filling out a postage-paid postcard to the 
> county election office, if they hadn't already indicated a default choice.
>
> Richard Winger
> 415-922-9779
> PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election



-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be 
confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an 
intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email to 
an intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in 
error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying 
of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this email 
in error, please immediately notify the sender and discard all copies.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20121017/3b27fc1d/attachment.html>