JWZguy
01-23-2008, 04:08 AM
First of all - I think we won! I hope to get more info later.
It is hard to tell what the margin is, but there were easily more RP people there than any other individual group. I would like to believe we had more than half the total but that is very hard to say. People were constantly walking in and out. I heard that we had over 3000 people vote.
It was a very heartening site to see all the RP supporters. I wasn't that surprised, of course, after seeing the 1200 people at RP's speech yesterday. (BTW - I have seen some people say 600 - that's not even close to right.)
One thing that concerned me greatly was the provisional voting. I would like to let everyone know what happened to me.
I changed my party affiliation to Rep on Nov 30th, having gotten an email that day that it was the caucus deadline (first I had heard.) I did not have time to go in person, so I made sure it was postmarked at the post office so I would have proof. On Jan 9th, I had still not received my voter reg card, so I went in in person thinking that if they did not have my form, at least I could make sure I was eligible for the primary. After a long wait, I got a copy of my registration stamped by them as proof I had applied on the 30th.
It was clear the voter registrar's office did NOT record my application date. Only the date they processed my form. This means there was no way to verify that I was in on time except by the postmark. It's not "in the system."
So when I showed up to vote, first they checked my name on the list. No surprise, it wasn't there. I was told to go to the "Z" line. When I got there, I found out that the lady taking care of the Z line told everyone to go to the WXY line. It took about 20 minutes to get up there, so this was not a very nice thing to do to everyone who was in my situation (there were just as many in my line as any other line.)
When I got to the front, I told the lady that my name was not on the list, but that I had proof I was registered in time. She insisted I had to vote provisionally. I asked what would happen to my vote. She said it would be "checked" tomorrow. At this point I thought my vote would be thrown out.
After I filled out my ballot, I was about to hand it back to her to put in "provisional folder". I should explain what their system was. First they write down your name and ZIP and birthday. Then they only put the birthday on your ballot. If your name checks out, they look for your birthday and pull the form. From the amount of provisional voters, this seemed very irresponsible. Who is to say there wouldn't be many people there with the same birthday?
I wasn't feeling good about this. I noticed a young man standing behind the lady who was working. I explained my situation to him - I had proof I should be allowed to vote, and if my vote was checked, it probably would get thrown out. This guy was very polite and helpful, and he brought me to talk to someone standing behind a makeshift wall of dividers. I do not know who this man was, but he was apparently running the show, because he had the power to override the lady and let me vote "for real". I explained my situation and showed him my form and he didn't look at it very closely, but I guess he believed me. The most unsettling part happened next.
He took a marker, marked "PROV" off my ballot, and scratched my name off the provisional folder. I believe he told the lady something like "we're going to let this man vote right now." She then proceeded to say very defensively "He never showed me that form until after he filled out the ballot!"
This bothers me for several reasons. If she was defensive, it means she felt she had something to be defensive about. I am guessing she was probably supposed to let anyone who documentation vote immediately instead of throwing their votes into a folder with a very dubious filing system. Instead she was telling everyone, including all the people in line who had voter registration cards showing they had been registered republicans long before the deadline to vote provisionally.
Second of all, it was a straight up unprovoked lie. I had not even talked to her after actually filling out my ballot. I had been behind her and she hadn't even SEEN me after I went off to fill it out.
I told Stephen Pittard, who was working very hard at the Ron Paul table recording our votes (to prevent fraud) what had happened. I also told several of the people in line in front of me, who had a MUCH stronger case than me. I hope their votes were counted that night, and not "after checking". I don't know what happened though, maybe one of them can chime in.
I don't want to alarm anyone, but we really have to be on the ball. Everywhere. On the whole though, it looks like things went REALLY WELL for our district.
Afterwards I stayed until 8 and watched people come and go, and at one point we were told that we were leading in every district.
I think we dominated LA for RP! Hopefully we'll have enough support in other states to make our primary on the 9th worth fighting for.
Please fight! We CAN WIN! I'm really sick of everyone telling me "he has no chance." We can make them all eat those words, lets do it!
It is hard to tell what the margin is, but there were easily more RP people there than any other individual group. I would like to believe we had more than half the total but that is very hard to say. People were constantly walking in and out. I heard that we had over 3000 people vote.
It was a very heartening site to see all the RP supporters. I wasn't that surprised, of course, after seeing the 1200 people at RP's speech yesterday. (BTW - I have seen some people say 600 - that's not even close to right.)
One thing that concerned me greatly was the provisional voting. I would like to let everyone know what happened to me.
I changed my party affiliation to Rep on Nov 30th, having gotten an email that day that it was the caucus deadline (first I had heard.) I did not have time to go in person, so I made sure it was postmarked at the post office so I would have proof. On Jan 9th, I had still not received my voter reg card, so I went in in person thinking that if they did not have my form, at least I could make sure I was eligible for the primary. After a long wait, I got a copy of my registration stamped by them as proof I had applied on the 30th.
It was clear the voter registrar's office did NOT record my application date. Only the date they processed my form. This means there was no way to verify that I was in on time except by the postmark. It's not "in the system."
So when I showed up to vote, first they checked my name on the list. No surprise, it wasn't there. I was told to go to the "Z" line. When I got there, I found out that the lady taking care of the Z line told everyone to go to the WXY line. It took about 20 minutes to get up there, so this was not a very nice thing to do to everyone who was in my situation (there were just as many in my line as any other line.)
When I got to the front, I told the lady that my name was not on the list, but that I had proof I was registered in time. She insisted I had to vote provisionally. I asked what would happen to my vote. She said it would be "checked" tomorrow. At this point I thought my vote would be thrown out.
After I filled out my ballot, I was about to hand it back to her to put in "provisional folder". I should explain what their system was. First they write down your name and ZIP and birthday. Then they only put the birthday on your ballot. If your name checks out, they look for your birthday and pull the form. From the amount of provisional voters, this seemed very irresponsible. Who is to say there wouldn't be many people there with the same birthday?
I wasn't feeling good about this. I noticed a young man standing behind the lady who was working. I explained my situation to him - I had proof I should be allowed to vote, and if my vote was checked, it probably would get thrown out. This guy was very polite and helpful, and he brought me to talk to someone standing behind a makeshift wall of dividers. I do not know who this man was, but he was apparently running the show, because he had the power to override the lady and let me vote "for real". I explained my situation and showed him my form and he didn't look at it very closely, but I guess he believed me. The most unsettling part happened next.
He took a marker, marked "PROV" off my ballot, and scratched my name off the provisional folder. I believe he told the lady something like "we're going to let this man vote right now." She then proceeded to say very defensively "He never showed me that form until after he filled out the ballot!"
This bothers me for several reasons. If she was defensive, it means she felt she had something to be defensive about. I am guessing she was probably supposed to let anyone who documentation vote immediately instead of throwing their votes into a folder with a very dubious filing system. Instead she was telling everyone, including all the people in line who had voter registration cards showing they had been registered republicans long before the deadline to vote provisionally.
Second of all, it was a straight up unprovoked lie. I had not even talked to her after actually filling out my ballot. I had been behind her and she hadn't even SEEN me after I went off to fill it out.
I told Stephen Pittard, who was working very hard at the Ron Paul table recording our votes (to prevent fraud) what had happened. I also told several of the people in line in front of me, who had a MUCH stronger case than me. I hope their votes were counted that night, and not "after checking". I don't know what happened though, maybe one of them can chime in.
I don't want to alarm anyone, but we really have to be on the ball. Everywhere. On the whole though, it looks like things went REALLY WELL for our district.
Afterwards I stayed until 8 and watched people come and go, and at one point we were told that we were leading in every district.
I think we dominated LA for RP! Hopefully we'll have enough support in other states to make our primary on the 9th worth fighting for.
Please fight! We CAN WIN! I'm really sick of everyone telling me "he has no chance." We can make them all eat those words, lets do it!