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Absentee Ballot Issue, San Diego County
Example of Xerox copy Absentee Ballot recently sent out by SD ROV's Office From Joan Little, 11/01/06 Dear Friends and Fellow Activists: As some of you may now be aware, we have learned that some people in San Diego have received Xeroxes of official ballots as Absentee Ballots. (See photo above.) I first learned of this when a friend of mine in San Marcos contacted me on Monday saying that he and his wife received Xeroxed Absentee Ballots in the mail. No letter is included with the Xeroxed Absentee Ballot explaining why they are receiving same and what their options are if they don't want to use it to vote. The same instructions are sent with these Xeroxed Absentee Ballots as are sent with official card-stock Absentee Ballots. I have been working with Ryan down at the County Democratic Party offices to find out more about what is going on with these ballots and have had my own discussions with Registrar of Voters clerks regarding the matter. Here's the "kicker" and why I want to pass this information on to you in case you are aware of anyone getting one of these funky ballots: Once this Xeroxed Absentee Ballot is filled in by the voter and mailed into the ROV, it will then be "re-made" onto official card-stock ballots when those become available. (Apparently this is the same process the ROV uses for many military and damaged ballots!) ROV staff will work in teams of two per xeroxed absentee ballot to "re-make" it onto an official card-stock ballot. (The Xeroxed ballot is too big to fit through an optical scanner so that is why it's "re-made.") The party does have a right to witness this process. Jess Durfee and Ryan Hurd met with Mr. Haas at the ROV today and learned that about 5,000 of these xeroxed ballots went out in San Diego County. (Xeroxed ballots were used because not enough official ballots were printed and a decision was made that it was better to get the xeroxed ballots out to absentee voters to be sure they got a ballot before Election Day rather than to wait for more official card-stock ballots to come in.) They are still trying to determine from the ROV just who got these Xeroxed ballots and in what precincts. To date we are aware of four voters who have received these xeroxed absentee ballots. If you become aware of any other voters receiving one, please let me know so I can add them to my roster. The SDCDP will likely be sending out an e-mail to its list and a press release on this matter some time tomorrow. If you know someone who has received one of these xeroxed absentee ballots, let them know that the process is for the ROV to "re-make" the ballot. If the voter isn't happy with that procedure (and why would they be!), their options are as follows: 1) Call the ROV's office, tell the clerk you received a Xeroxed Absentee Ballot and ask if they now have the card-stock ones available and can you come down and exchange it; 2) Take the Xeroxed ballot and the accompanying return envelope that came with it to the polls on Election Day where you may turn it in in exchange for an option to vote on the machines or by paper ballot (however, be advised that a limited number of paper ballots will be available at the polls. See my attachments for further detail on this issue...) |
