Registrar needs Cali to keep promise and pay for Feb. 5

Organizing a primary election is difficult. Organizing two primaries within five months of each other is a recipe for chaos. Californians had an early vote for the presidential primaries, but the San Diego County Registrar of Voters is still waiting for the state to pick up the tab.
The registrar spent 44 percent more money this current fiscal year by holding two primary elections, than it will spend next fiscal year by holding only one major statewide election. Because of that, the registrar's proposed 2008-09 budget could be up to $16 million less than the current fiscal year's budget.
This year, the California State Legislature voted to hold a bifurcated primary, which means that the original primary is split into two primaries - the Feb. 5 and June 3 elections. This special type of primary isn't held often.
On the surface, having two elections appears to be a beneficial idea. But behind the scenes, the registrar has been running into a number of problems.
“[The bifurcated primary] is difficult because of the overlapping timeframes and it’s very expensive,” said the registrar’s department head, Deborah Seiler. “We’re working overtime because people are still doing cleanup from February and we’re also planning for June. It means a lot of overtime and no breaks for the staff. People working nights and weekends with no days off.”
Seiler said she believes the voters did like that the primary date was changed from January to February. But she expects there to be a decrease in voter turnout in the June primary election, because so many people all ready voted in the big presidential primary.
“The legislature decided to split the primaries for the first time in decades,” Seiler said. “But there was no reason to.”
Actually, the California legislature did have a reason.
By installing this bifurcated primary, some termed-out legislatures will be able to run again in the June election for State Senate and State Assembly, but wouldn’t have been able to if the election were held in February.
Even though this decision to implement a bifurcated primary arduously affected the registrar and other registrars throughout the state, the counties don’t really have a say whether it’ll occur again.
“I think the likelihood [that a bifurcated primary happening again] is slim,” Seiler said.
The state legislature, in return from challenging the registrar offices with two primaries, said it would pay for the Feb. 5 election, which cost the registrar $15.2 million. But it hasn’t paid the San Diego County Registrar yet.
“The February primary needs to be paid for by the state,” Seiler said.
She said the State Association of Counties is currently pushing for the registrar’s reimbursement.
Even though the November election is expected to be hundreds of thousands of dollars more expensive than the February and June primary elections, the registrar is expecting to make much ore revenue from the November election.
“We’ll get ore money because more local jurisdictions are participating in the election and sharing the costs,” Seiler said.
The registrar spent $30.5 million in their 2006-07 fiscal year and will probably spend around $36.5 million this fiscal year, while it’s proposing it will spend a low total of $20.4 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The registrar spends most of its money on services and supplies for the elections, which include printing costs, length of ballots and number of ballots.
February’s primary had a very simple ballot compared to the November election ballot, Seiler said. There are up to 300 candidates on the ballot that the registrar is working with, she said.
The registrar has $11.4 million for services and supplies in its proposed budget for the November election, while it spent only $7.8 million on services and supplies for the February primary.
If the November election will cost more than expected, the registrar can shift money between categories in its budget, Seiler said.
“We participate a spike in voters [in the November election],” she said. “But the question is, will the voters both to go to the polls in June?”

Job Fair this Wednesday

Want to earn some extra cash? The San Diego County Registrar of Voters is holding a job fair for the upcoming June 3rd election this Wednesday, March 26, from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.

Types of work include:
general clerical positions (such as using phones, entering data and filing paperwork)
review forms
sort and assemble mail pieces
packaging of supplies and other warehouse duties (involves some heavy lifting)
recruit poll workers
train poll workers

The pay ranges from $8.76 to $17.61 per hour, depending on knowledge and the complexity of the assignments.

If you're interested, please go to the ROV office at: 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite I - it's on the Southeast corner of Clairemont Mesa Blvd. and Ruffin Road, between the 163 and I-15.

"Decline to State" mix-up

Nobody enjoys hanging in limbo. Most of the time it's in your best interest to choose a party if you feel more closely with one. When you're a "decline to state" voter for a primary election, it means that you're a nonpartisan/independent voter. (This doesn't mean you're with the American Independent Party- it means independent as in you don't have a party.) During a primary election, the nonpartisan voters will receive a nonpartisan ballot, which consists of only nonpartisan issues. The nonpartisan voter can receive a ballot for a single political party in a primary election only if the voter asks at the time of voting (for a mailing ballot or while at the polling place) and if the political party notifies the state before the election.

In the February 5th election, "decline to state" voters weren't allowed to vote for a Republican candidate, because the Republican Party didn't notify the state in time to allow the process to happen.

In the June 3rd election, "decline to state" voters will be allowed to vote for most candidates of the Democrat, Republican and American Independent parties.

Payback checks

The San Diego County of Registrar made an oops. It accidentally charged 91 jurisdictions a total of $427,000 for the November 2006 general election. Last week, the registrar mailed checks to the jurisdictions. The biggest check was $78,000 for the San Diego Community College District. The error occurred because the two vendors (Merrill Publishing and CTS LanguageLink) that created and printed the sample ballots charged the jurisdictions twice. Registrar head Deborah Seiler said the confusion happened because of unclear contract language. Merill gave the registrar $400,000 for future services.

-Information gathered by The San Diego Union-Tribune

Obama's unsurprising win

Sen. Barack Obama won Mississppi last night, winning 61% of the vote and therefore 19 delegates. Mississippi is the state with the highest African-American population and Obama won a whopping 92% of the black vote. But Sen. Hillary Clinton didn't go home empty-handed. She won 37% of the vote, but grabbed 14 delegates. Not bad. She still trals Obama with 1,480 delegates to his 1,611. Remember- the first one to 2,025 wins!

I wonder:
Should Florida and Michigan's punishments be lifted and be permitted to re-do their primaries? They would probably favor Clinton, because she won a great majority of the votes in the states originally, a month ago.

Look out for Pennsylvania. The primary will occur in 6 weeks and that's the golden ticket to grab. One candidate will grab it. If it's evenly split...then the battle continues, and maybe something else must be done to declare a clear winner. But if that something else are the superdelegates...how just will their decision be?

Lots of flavors to choose from for U.S. Rep

The 52nd congressional district is up for grabs. Well, not exactly. There are 11 candidates (5 Republicans and 4 Democrats) on the ballot to become the U.S. Representative for San Diego's East County area, but below is some research on the people I believe have the best chance.

Vickie Butcher- Democrat from La Mesa- wants universal health care, a withdrawal from Iraq and wants clean, renewable energy.
Duncan Hunter- a Republican from La Mesa- he's currently in office right now as a U.S. Rep. He's a Vietnam vet and has had a strong hand in building the border fence to stop illegal immigration from Mexico, providing tax relief and supports the war in Iraq.
Mike Lumpkin- Democrat from Jamul- He's against the war in Iraq, having fiscal restraint and orderly, legal immigration.


My personal favorite? Vickie Butcher. It could be because when I met her, her smile was so warm and sincere that it made Nancy Pelosi look like Hillary Clinton. Or it could be that she was out in the rain on Martin Luther King Day (along with me)- celebrating the civil rights movement, King's brave ambition and acknowledgment of what's important even though the weather wasn't San Diego's best. And it could be that she's a female Democrat who used to be a teacher and who is comfortably liberal - just like me.


Please remember to register to vote! Or, if you're not sure if you're registered, check!

Positions for upcoming June election

The positions to be voted on in San Diego's upcoming June 3rd election are:

-U.S. Representative candidates for the 49th through 53rd Congressional Districts
-State Senate candidates: 39th, 66th and 73rd Districts.
-State Assembly candidates for the 74th through 79th Districts.
-AIP Central Committee in the 66th, 73rd through 79th Assemblies.
-Democrat Central Committee in the 66th, 73rd through 79th Assemblies.
-Republican Central Committee in the 66th, 73rd through 79th Assemblies.
-P&F Central Committee- 1st through 5th Supervisorials.
-Green County Council.
-Superior Court Judges, office numbers one through 26.



(More specific information regarding the candidates and their politics will be posted within the month.)

Surprise, surprise

The elections on March 4th had shocking results. Sen. Hillary Clinton gained some ground and won Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Obama won Vermont. Clinton now has 1,424 delegates but still trails behind Sen. Barack Obama's 1,520 delegates. What a turnaround. What an upset for Obama supporters.
Clinton has a few tricks up her sleeve, but hopefully they aren't dirty tactics. CNN analysts said that most people who were undecided, resulted in voting for Clinton. Sure she lost the latino vote, but undecided voters proved to be powerful.
Now it's up to Pennsylvania to pick a winner (which will occur in April). To the East Coast, they go. But McCain will be resting easy.

But McCain will be resting easy. It's not a shocker that Sen. John McCain won all four states and received enough delegates to get the Republican nod. Mike Huckabee, with only 267 total delegates, said,"It's been a heckuva run" and told his supporters to back McCain.

I wonder:
Have Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton been helping or hurting their spouses' campaigns?
Did Clinton's appearance on SNL help get voters to see her young, friendly side?
How willing are Huckabee's supporters to jump on the McCain wagon?