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California Presidential Preference RCR
Hi,
Here’s what I understand about the new legislation before the
California House. I have to apologize, in advance, for any mistakes I
make. I wasn’t around for the last presidential primary so I made
some assumptions (which may or may not be correct) in putting this information
together.
As I understand the new California bill (SB-100 Burton), it only affects
the Presidential Primary. All the other races (Senator, Congress, State,
etc.), with the exception of the Central Committee people races, will continue
to be done on an open primary basis, no change. The Central Committee
people races will be done on a close primary basis, again, no change from the
last primary in ’98.
Vote Once – Count Twice
SB-100 (as I understand
it) says that for the Democratic Party, their ballot must have all the
Presidential candidates listed (even candidates from the other
parties). However, we must have the ability to report the results in
2 ways: how many total votes were given for all the candidates (of all parties)
and how many votes for just the democrats for just democrat candidates.
This has been often referred to by the SOS and counties as the “Vote Once
– Count Twice” Presidential Preference. In SB-100 only the
Democrats are forced to employ this method. All of the other 8 parties
(including the Republicans) have the option of using this count method or using
the “Vote Twice – Count Three Times” method.
In order to report results by party, the SOS is suggesting, putting party
specific information at the bottom of the ballot. Another way to look at
this is the Democratic ballot will look exactly like the Non Partisan ballot,
but will have DEM voter group information on the ballot.
Vote Twice – Count Three Times
All the parties
except the Democratic Party, have the option of choosing to use the “Vote
Twice – Count Three Times” method. This method will have the a
Presidential Preference race, exactly identical to the Non Partisan and
Democratic race, with all the candidates for all the parties. Also, the
ballot will contain an additional race with just the candidates specific to that
party. So there will be 2 races, and the results will have to be reported
3 ways: all voters, all candidates; party voters, party candidates; and the
results of the party specific Presidential Preference race.
The SOS and the SB-100 bill allow for crossing over in this count
method. The SOS says that they understand that the parties which go for
this method, may (or most likely) get confusing or irrelevant data; “not
our concern” they say.
At this point, it looks like only the Republican Party is going to go the
“Vote Twice – Count Three Times” route. However, all
parties have the right to follow (except the Democrats) and have until July 1,
1999 to declare either way.
SB-100 Burton vs. SB-28 Peace
If SB-100 passes, then
California will have the 2 Presidential Preference methods: “Vote Once
– Count Twice” (for Non Partisan, Democrats and any other parties
who choose) and “Vote Twice – Count Three Times” (for any
parties who choose, except the Democrats). If the bill does not pass,
SB-28 is the backup. This bill will only contain the “Vote Once
– Count Twice” method for all parties.
Why Exclude the Democrats?
I am anticipating that
everyone is going to ask this question. In the SB-100 bill, there is a
special clause which excludes any party with more than 6 million registered
members from undertaking the “Vote Twice – County Three Time”
Presidential Preference method. Only the Democratic Party in California
has more than 6 million registered members. I understand that the
Democrats wrote that clause themselves, I guess they didn’t think it was
such a good idea to do the “Vote Twice – Count Three Times”
method.
Reports
The SOS require that our SOVC report contain
the “Count Twice” information...that is for the Presidential
Preference race with all candidates, we have to show how all the voters voted
for all candidates and how just the party people voted for the party
candidates. Our customers will probably also want a summary report with
the same information.
Apparently DFM is already ready with their report for the “Count
Twice”. They modified a close primary report to work with the
Presidential Preference. I have already faxed everyone copies of this
report. Notice they don’t exactly give the right information.
Their “Party” reports give how all the party voters voted for all
the candidates. Counties with the DFM report will have to go and manually
tally up the votes in order to determine
Attached Examples
I am attaching in this email, sample
ballots I built to illustrate the count methods. I am including one of
each: NP, DEM and REP ballots. The ballots are in PDF format. You
will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view these files. I have also faxed
copies of report DFM as well as a diagram from the SOS to describe the bills:
SB-100 and SB-28.
Take care,
Robert Chen
Global Election Systems Inc.
(415) 292-9752
"Remember, never ask a geek "why"; just nod your head and
back away slowly... "
- Dan Wineman (geek)
Cal 2000 Prez Ballot DEM.pdf
Cal 2000 Prez Ballot NP.pdf
Call 2000 Prez Ballot REP.pdf