Some news from the recount of Democratic Primary votes from decline-to-state voters in Los Angeles County who failed to fill in the bubble marked "Democratic" as the party whose primary they were voting in.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

An increase in turnout among historically underrepresented voters Tuesday brings hope for outstanding voter participation that represents all Americans in November. Project Vote's Super Tuesday exit poll analysis found young and minority voters made a strong presence at polls in key states across the country, including record-setting turnout among Latinos in California. While voter participation appears to be on the rise in this critical presidential election year, polling place problems persist as some voters - and their precincts' poll workers - were unaware of state and federal voting procedures, creating the risk of intimidation and disenfranchisement. In order to maintain fair and open access to voting for all Americans, it important to prepare voters and facilitate effective poll worker training before November.

Update [2008-2-7 4:49:32 by baudelairien]: After more than 500 complaints were lodged with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office, acting Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan ordered an examination of more than 94,000 non-partisan ballots that may not have been counted. Of 189,000 votes cast by nonpartisans in Los Angeles County, only half marked a redundant bubble indicating they were voting in a party primary. Ballots without the extra bubble marked were initially uncounted. The confusing ballot has been compared to Florida's infamous "Butterfly Ballot" of the presidential elections of 2000. (sources: Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News)

(Original story) "100s of thousands" of votes may be voided in CA: According to the L.A. Daily News, a confusing ballot design in Los Angeles County could cause hundreds of thousands of votes cast by independent voters to be discarded. Parallels are being drawn to the Florida's infamous "Butterfly Ballot" of the presidential elections of 2000.

Went to vote this morning, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. And got a runaround. Finally found the right spot at a public elementary school. Even had a flag picture posted on the door. Plus a sign in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish and a couple of languages I did not recognize. More after the break.

Please Support the MyDD Fundraiser Today

Between her rally in San Diego yesterday and then the one here in Los Angeles today, Clinton seems to be sending one very distinct message: Southern California is Clinton country. Gotta tell you, it sure felt like it today. As I drove onto the campus of Cal State Los Angeles in East LA, I was followed by what looked like a neverending stream of cars. Once on campus, as I approached the gym where the rally was being held I found a ridiculously long line, again, seemingly neverending (see video below.) I've not seen anything like this at any Clinton event I've been to, these are the kinds of crowds Barack Obama gets, not Hillary Clinton.

The event was pretty long, spanning a few hours and featuring an impressive string of speakers including actors Christine Lahti, Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera and Bradley Whitford in addition to many elected officials including several members of California's congressional delegation (Maxine Waters, Hilda Solis, Brad Sherman, Diane Watson...) as well as CA Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, State Comptroller John Chung, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Just as I was in Nevada, I was really struck today by the diversity of the crowd both age but especially gender-wise. I suspect the crowd was more female than male but not by much. And the excitement in that room was, as cliche as it sounds, electric. People like to chalk Clinton's popularity in the polls up to her name recognition and her status as the "establishment" candidate but, as I've said before, her opponents underestimate the passion people have for her at their peril. Here's another video that will give you a sense of the crowd's excitement inside the gym today.

Unions were out in force for Hillary today, AFSCME members in their trademark green shirts and signs and United Farm Workers in red, chanting Si Se Puede at various times before and during the event. In fact, all throughout the event the crowd, which was largely hispanic but my no means predominantly so, would continue the chant, alternating between "Si Se Puede," "Yes We Can" and then, and this seemed to spring up spontaneously from the crowd, "Yes She Can!"

Message-wise, the most intriguing thing from my perspective was the concerted effort to distinguish Hillary from Barack. One common thread throughout many of the speeches was that this election "isn't a choice between experience and change, you need the experience to make change happen." Another repeated refrain was "Hillary doesn't just talk about change..." implying, of course, that that's all Obama does.

Another point of distinction was Maxine Waters's repetition of her line in the spin room the other night: "My constituents have trouble keeping their homes and feeding their kids. They wake up every morning with all the hope in the world that things will get better; they don't need anymore hope, what they need is help!" That got a big response and of course used another one of Obama's signature rhetorical flourishes to distinguish between their two models of the presidency: inspirer in chief vs. helper in chief.

On a more substantive level, we now see why it was that the Clinton campaign, as I've heard reported often, wanted Edwards to drop out so it could become a two-person race: so she could be the candidate of universal healthcare. The mere fact that Barack's plan is not a mandate that requires everyone to buy-in allows Clinton to state, as she did today: "My opponent will not commit to universal healthcare." She went on: "I don't think we should elect a Democrat who does not stand up proudly for universal healthcare." She's not only branding herself as the candidate of universal healthcare, she wants to go into the November election branding the Democratic Party as the party of universal healthcare. Her rhetoric on the topic at times also echoed Edwards, such as when she said "health care is not just an issue to me, it's a cause; it's the central passion of my public life."

But Clinton's final argument to California, and I expect she'll be making the same case in all February 5th states and beyond, was encapsulated in the following lines:

We need a doer, we need a fighter and we need a champion once again. [...]

I'm not asking you to take a leap of faith, I'm asking you to hire me to do the hardest job in the world.

It was no accident that the song that played over the loudspeaker as Clinton left the stage to shake hands was "Taking Care of Business" by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Update [2008-2-2 19:11:31 by Todd Beeton]:Just wanted to add that LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was one of today's speakers, estimated the crowd at 10,000 people, not sure if that's been corroborated by an independent source.

I had the pleasure of seeing Howard Dean speak at a fundraiser in Los Angeles Wednesday night. He addressed us, a crowd of 100 or so who'd paid $50 each both for the privelege of hearing him and to support the 50-state strategy. That was $50 well spent indeed.

My overall reaction to seeing Dr. Dean this time was to marvel at how deftly he walks the line between the establishment and the activist base. He spoke to us firmly, with optimism, cheerleading as one would expect the head of a party to do, but he wasn't evasive...he addressed head on the hard question, namely WTF with that last vote on the war supplemental? Only Howard Dean could bring up that vote to the party faithful (including a good number of activists by the sound of it), defend Pelosi and Reid and get out of there alive. He didn't pander, he didn't condescend, he spoke to us like the idealist who got a job that requires pragmatism that he is. And the crowd loved him.

Dean got the room going with a solid dose of old fashioned partisan Democratic pride, speaking about the success of the 06 elections, Nancy Pelosi's being the first woman (and first Californian) Speaker of the House, and hitting on three succinct  points that really seem to sum up the message he'd like us all to spread to other Democrats far and wide:

1. There's no such thing as a red district anymore

2. We will win when we talk about values

3. Change takes time

More...

On March 5, The UFCW Grocery Workers' contract expires, and there isn't much sign that the UFCW and the store owners are nearing an agreement.  In 2003/04, grocery workers went on strike for four and a half months in response to contract negotiations reaching an impasse, a strike that had major repercussions for the market share of supermarket chains and cost an estimated $2 billion.  Ownership doesn't seem to have forgotten about that, despite the fact that most of that market share has been regained and, in certain places, surpassed.

The union's website, packed full of goodies, can be found here, outlining what they're up against, what they're doing, and why.  You can also sign the petition of support if you're so inclined, and find many other ways to get involved at the website or at the end of this diary.

The Los Angeles Times reported in Thursday's California section that the City of Los Angeles has reached a tentative million-dollar settlement of the civil lawsuit filed by the mother of a 13-year old African American boy shot to death by a latino LAPD officer in February 2005.