With massive changes to voting systems in California, election officials are planning and hoping to avoid Iowa-style chaos on Super Tuesday
LOS ANGELES - As he looks ahead to California’s March 3 Democratic primary, Neal Kelley is having sleepless nights.
The stakes are high. With 415 delegates up for grabs – the largest haul in the country, accounting for more than 20% of the 1,991 delegates a candidate must win to secure the Democratic nomination on the first ballot – California will have considerable influence in choosing the eventual nominee. Its early primary this year will give the Golden State even more sway. Four years ago, its primary was held in June.“I’m not going to sit here and say nothing can go wrong,” Kelley said.
Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, the office in charge of elections, declined to discuss the lawsuit. He said the agency held a mock election in September to test the new equipment and made improvements based on user feedback, including upgrades to the buttons that help voters navigate the candidate lists.
In addition, election officials sent ballots to all registered voters in participating counties in the hopes of encouraging more people to vote by mail.The tradeoff is that there will be markedly fewer polling places. In Los Angeles County, for example, there will be about 970 Voting Centers open for next month’s primary, less than a quarter of the 4,500 polling places that were operating during the 2016 primary.
Lee Jackson is among the confused. A resident of La Habra Heights in Los Angeles County, the 45-year-old business development consultant said he intends to vote in the Democratic primary. But he has only “vaguely” heard about this year’s changes and isn’t sure where to find the nearest Voting Center.
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