How
California is being stolen from Sanders right now
7
June, 2016
Special
bulletin from Greg Palast
[Los
Angeles] It's not some grand conspiracy, but it's grand theft
nonetheless. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ voters will lose
their ballots, their rights, by the tens of thousands.
The steal is baked into the way California handles No Party Preference –"NPP" voters –what we know as "independents."
There
are a mind-blowing 4.2 million voters in California registered NPP –
and they share a love for sunshine and Bernie Sanders. According to
the reliable Golden State poll, among NPP voters, Sen. Sanders whoops
Sec. Hillary Clinton by a stunning 40 percentage points.
On
the other team, registered Democrats prefer Clinton by a YUGE 30
points. NPP's can vote in the Democratic primary, so, the California
primary comes down to a fight between D's and NPP's.
And
there's the rub. In some counties like Los Angeles, it's not easy for
an NPP to claim their right vote in the Democratic primary – and in
other counties, nearly impossible.
Example:
In Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, if you don’t say the magic words, “I
want a Democraticcrossover ballot,”
you are automatically given a ballot without
the presidential race. And
ready for this, if an NPP voter asks the poll worker,
“How do I get
to vote in the Democratic party primary, they are instructed to say
that, “NPP voters can’t get Democratic ballots.” They are
ordered not to
breathe a word that the voter can get a “crossover” ballot
that includes the presidential race.
I’m
not kidding. This is from the official Election Officer Training
Manual page 49:
"A
No Party Preference voter will need to request a crossover ballot
from the Roster Index Officer. (Do not offer them a crossover ballot
if they do not ask)."
They’re not kidding. Poll worker Jeff Lewis filed a description of the training in an official declaration to a federal court:
Someone
raised their hand and asked a follow-up question: ‘So, what if
someone gets a nonpartisan ballot, notices it doesn't have the
presidential candidates on it, and asks you where they are?’ The
answer poll workers are instructed to give:
‘Sorry, NPP ballots don't have presidential candidates on them.’ That's correct: even when people ask questions of that nature, obviously intending to vote with a party.
‘Sorry, NPP ballots don't have presidential candidates on them.’ That's correct: even when people ask questions of that nature, obviously intending to vote with a party.
This
affidavit, and several even more horrifying, come from Election
Justice USA, a non-partisan watchdog, hoping to get injunctions to
stop this nonsense. [Hear
my talk with
the group’s spokesman, Paul Thomas, on a special edition of the The
Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Elections Crime Bulletin,
which I host with Dennis Bernstein on the Pacifica Radio Network.]
Let
me throw in another complication. Nearly half of Californians vote by
mail, ballots sent to your home automatically. Most NPP voters don’t
realize that, to vote in the Democratic primary today, they must
bring in their NPP ballot with
the envelope,
and say these magic words: “I want to surrender my ballot in return
for a Democratic ‘crossover’ ballot.”
Got
that memorized? Because if you don’t, if you say the wrong
syllables, in some counties, you
will be denied a Democratic presidential ballot.
Bruce
C. Carter is losing his mind over this. I interviewed Carter who
arrived in his Black Men for Bernie bus, decorated with a giant image
of Bernie’s arrest while demonstrating for civil rights. Carter
warns that, If an NPP voter doesn’t say they are “surrendering”
their NPP ballot, the clerk can take it and count it, blank, instead
of giving the voter a new one.
It
gets far worse. There are simply not enough “crossover” ballots
printed. If they run out of ballots, Carter his telling voters to
demand a recorded vocal vote using the voice recorders set up for the
disabled.
Unfortunately,
the games hardly end there. Election Justice filed still more
declarations with the courts of poll workers being told to give NPP
voters “provisional” ballots even if they say the magic words, “I
want a crossover Democratic ballot.” As I’ve previously
reported,
provisional ballots are “placebo” ballots that let you feel like
you’ve voted, but you haven’t. Provisional ballots are generally
discarded.
Minutes
ago I got a note from NPP voter Olga Martinez in Contra Costa County
where she was told she must take a “provisional” ballot. She
heard our reports and demanded the Democratic ballot and got it. ML
King told us, you don’t get your rights unless you demand them.
And
this note just came in minutes ago from my KPFK co-host, Cary
Harrison.
“I
am in West Hollywood and was just denied voting twice! I’m NPP. I
do not even appear on the voting rolls nor does my STREET on the
voting rolls. Voting suppression is in full swing.”
Cary
just called. He drove to a new precinct as directed: and was again
denied a ballot.
And
dig this: Some counties are demanding that some of the first-time
voters show official voter ID—as if California is now New Alabama.
New voters are, in the main, the young Sanders supporters who
are now finding out what it’s like to be treated as if they’ve
turned Black.
There
is no evidence this ‘Grand Theft Voto’ is part of a massive
scheme by Hillary supporters to swipe the election. The voting system
is run mostly by the Democratic Party which is totally in Hillary’s
pocket. So while the establishment party officials know of
the absurd impediments to voting, they see no reason to solve
these problems because it doesn’t harm “their” voters.
Most
of this procedural nonsense, like the need to surrender an NPP ballot
with an envelope and request a “crossover” ballot –
well, frankly, Bernie’s campaign has known about that all
year.
The
Sanders campaign was spending time talking policy at giant rallies
instead of educating their voters on how to vote. In the rat maze
called the American voting system, the painfully amateur Sanders
campaign never provided a vote-guiding map.
I
don’t believe Clinton booster Governor Jerry Brown intended to play
Bull Connor. Nevertheless, Brown and the Democratic establishment’s
mad hunger to see their candidate wrap up the nomination, has led
them to turn a blind eye to a catastrophe for our democracy.
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