I wouldn't be so sure that this policy change is "on orders from the
Secretary of State," just because the poll worker trainers said so.  They'll
often say something like this just to deal with questions that they don't
want to answer.  I'd call someone in the Elections division of the Secretary
of State's office to confirm this first.  If they deny ever issuing such an
edict, and unless this prohibition is being enforced in a covered county,
then Section 5 would not be implicated.  That said, the registrar of the
county in which this is being done should be notified, because I'll
virtually guarantee you that this is not county policy, and needs to be
corrected.  If they still claim that the Secretary of State told them that
this was state policy, inform them of your call to the SoS's office, and ask
for written proof confirming the SoS's orders.  It seems to me that if a
county maintaining such a position in California is almost certainly
violating state election law.

David J. Becker
Election Consultant and Voting Rights Attorney
(202) 550-3470
(202) 521-4040 fax
david.j.becker@electionconsulting.com
www.electionconsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Edward Still
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 2:31 PM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Subject: Re: Calif. Secty of State doesn't want poll workers to inform Indp.
Voters of their choices

Since there a handful of counties in California covered by Section 5 
of the Voting Rights Act, I suggest that this new policy must be 
submitted for preclearance.

Ed Still, Birmingham AL

At 12:52 PM 5/25/2006, ban@richardwinger.com wrote:

I live in California.  Yesterday I attended a training
class for precinct elections officials.  We were
instructed not to tell independent voters that they
are free to choose to vote in the Democratic and
Republican primaries.  This is "orders from the
Secretary of State", and quite different from our
instructions in past elections.  The California major
parties have been letting independents vote in their
primaries starting in 2002 (except Republicans
excluded independents from their presidential primary
in 2004, but permitted them to vote for all office
other than president).

If an independent voter asks about his or her choices,
we can answer truthfully; but we can't volunteer any information.