Posted on 09/19/2003 11:10:34 PM PDT by yonif
SACRAMENTO -- With fewer than three weeks until a scheduled Oct. 7 election, state elections officials report nearly 400,000 Californians have already voted, although the election may be put off until March.
That growing mountain of absentee ballots could be tossed out at an estimated cost of $30 million, if the election is delayed. It may have already helped determine the outcome of the Oct. 7 race by locking in votes that might have been changed later.
Along the thousands of ballots already in, voter registrars say each of the state's 58 counties are receiving requests for more each day. It's happening even as a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a delay in the election the full court may reconsider this week.
"As a matter of fact, I think we've had even more requests," said Alma Rosas, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County elections department. "We haven't seen a slowdown of it."
"We're swamped," added Tehama County Registrar of Voters Mary Alice George, where one in every 27 voters have already spoken through absentee ballots.
County and state officials say that even as the courts decide if there will be an Oct. 7 election, much of it is being settled on kitchen tables from Mount Shasta to Chula Vista.
Counties also report thousands more votes are being faxed from overseas military bases and field posts, where approximately 7,000 Californians in uniform are registered to vote absentee. The state is allowing counties to fax and e-mail absentee applications overseas to meet deadlines already impossible by mail.
All this interest in absentee voting in what could be a tight race worries both Democrat and Republican operatives, who fret about thousands of voters who won't be able to change their minds to meet late-changing circumstances.
For Democrats, the concern is that some voters who might be persuaded to keep Gov. Gray Davis in office have already cast absentee ballots to oust him. For some Republicans, particularly those who believe actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the party's most electable candidate, the fear is that supporters of Sen. Tom McClintock have already voted and aren't able to vote for Schwarzenegger if McClintock drops out.
"We talked about that at the (Republican) convention last week," Kern County Republican chairwoman Karen DeWalt said.
Once a voter has turned in a ballot, "they don't get to get it back," said Sacramento County elections manager Alice Jarboe. "But if they vote for a candidate who pulls out of the race and they haven't turned their ballot in, they can call our office and we will issue a replacement."
Wednesday, the secretary of state's office reported 379,273 marked absentee ballots had already arrived at county elections departments, with thousands more in the mail. Statewide, more than 2 million voters are signed up to vote absentee, spokeswoman Shirley Washington said.
The deadline for applying is Sept. 30, and absentee ballots must be returned by election day.
The statewide tally of returned ballots so far included 40,000 in San Diego County, more than 30,000 in Los Angeles County, 15,000 in Contra Costa County and 7,000 in Placer County.
Contra Costa County Clerk Stephen Weir, a spokesman for the state's 58 voter registrars, said Republicans typically make up a slight majority of absentee voters. Sacramento County reported 16,000 people have already voted. "It's incredible. We don't normally get 16,000 voting ballots back in our offices one week after we mail them out," said Jarboe. She said the returns and applications seem equally split between Republicans encouraged by Schwarzenegger's recall campaign and Democrats pressed by the state's labor unions to keep Davis in office.
In Placer County -- a growing suburban area east of Sacramento that has the state's highest percentage of registered Republicans, 52 percent -- nearly half use absentee ballots, county Republican chairman Ken Campbell said. Among his friends, he says, many are still holding theirs, waiting to see what shakes out between McClintock and Schwarzenegger -- or if there is an election at all.
I'm sure they'll conveniently lose the Republican ballots before the actual vote.
Am I being too cynical?
-PJ
From the article.....
Contra Costa County Clerk Stephen Weir, a spokesman for the state's 58 voter registrars, said Republicans typically make up a slight majority of absentee voters. Sacramento County reported 16,000 people have already voted. "It's incredible. We don't normally get 16,000 voting ballots back in our offices one week after we mail them out," said Jarboe. She said the returns and applications seem equally split between Republicans encouraged by Schwarzenegger's recall campaign and Democrats pressed by the state's labor unions to keep Davis in office.
How did you arrive at your assertion that "liberals aren't voting"?
-PJ
She said the returns and applications seem equally split between Republicans encouraged by Schwarzenegger's recall campaign and Democrats pressed by the state's labor unions to keep Davis in office.
Despite the fact that the author describes the recall as a "Schwarzenegger campaign", I think it's safe to assume that the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of the recall. However, for the author to characterize the 'Rat ballots as being pro-Davis is making an assumption that is not at all supported by the polls. Isn't it something like 40% (L.A. Times poll results notwithstanding) of the 'Rats are in favor of recalling Gumby?
I think the people are ready.
-PJ
Split as far as yes/no on recall?
Who knows?
You said they (liberals)weren't voting.
They're voting......but a strong possibility exists that too many of the 'Rats went YES.
I thought they weren't voting?
Schwarzenegger should ask the people why they'd go through a recall of Davis just to put the "same old, same old" in his place?
-PJ
Given that the ballots are sealed, is it even reasonable for Jarboe to characterize the 16,000 absentee ballots as anything other than returned?
How would she know that the returns "seem equally split" between the two parties, never mind how they voted?
-PJ
What's the definition a of a "sealed ballot" in the context of an absentee vote?
What info is readily available on a returned absentee ballot that can be discerned by Registrar's office prior to it's opening after the election?
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