No More Double Bubble Trouble

by Eric Marshall

Thanks in part to the great work of Los Angeles Election Protection, there is good news for LA County voters - no more Double Bubble confusion!

In the February 5^th primary, Los Angeles County used a balloting system which required Decline-to-State voters to physically mark a bubble at the top of their ballot indicating whether they were voting in the Democratic or the American Independent primary. Confusion about the double bubble issue resulted in the disenfranchisement of many Decline-to-State California voters because they did not mark the bubble at the top of their ballot indicating in which primary they wished to vote.

Aided by the advocacy of Election Protection coalition partners led by Common Cause and the California Voter Empowerment Circle (CalVEC), Los Angeles County was able to implement a plan to assess the intent of 47,000 voters and "rescue" and count their ballots within two weeks.

Now, the LA Times cites a Daily News report that the Double Bubble problem will be a thing of the past for the June 3^rd statewide primary:

The revised crossover ballot will eliminate the need for voters to mark an additional bubble to vote for partisan candidates.   

"The solution we prepared with the revised ballot eliminates the double-bubble so the voter doesn’t have to take that extra step," said Eileen Shea, spokeswoman for the registrar-recorder’s office.

"We now have the nonpartisan Democratic crossover ballot and nonpartisan Republican crossover ballot already pre-marked so the voter won’t have to make any separate marks on their ballot. They simply have to go to the Democratic booth or the Republican booth and vote their ballot."

Click here to access the LA Times piece, and here to read the Daily News article.