So, here’s how elections work in Ventura County, California. We have new voting equipment, Sequoia Optech Insight optical scanner. It reads a paper ballot that is a fill-in type format, and the software can be hacked before installation to flip votes by any of several algorithms, and the hack automatically deletes itself when the memory cartridge is connected to the main tabulator after the voting is over. But that’s not enough for the crooked bastards here. Besides the parties who have slates in this primary, we have a “non-partisan” registration, and those who register as “non-partisan” can vote any party slate that allows it. In this case, Republican, Democrat, American Independent Party or “Non-Partisan.” We received an ample number of “Non-Partisan” ballots, and an ample supply of “Declined to State” Republican ballots (N-P voters can vote these slates, but cannot use the regular party ballots. They must use “Declined to State” Republican, Democrat, AIP ballots.) But we received NO “Declined to State” Democrat or AIP ballots, which means that N-P voters who wish to vote the Democrat or AIP primary slate can only do so by provisional ballot. In fact, we were given no instructions on how to handle this situation, so even that may be wrong. This means that N-P voters who vote the Republican primary slate go to the head of the line, while those voting the Democrat or AIP slate get an extra 5-10 minutes of paperwork AND must produce a picture I.D. And these ballots may not even be counted, because even if there is a protocol for these votes, we weren’t given it. When queried regarding this situation, our “roving inspector” (ironic title, no?) initially stated that the county elections director had determined that we had no N-P voters eligible to vote the Dem or AIP slates, so no “Declined to State” ballots were sent for those two parties. We were later informed by the same inspector that “Declined to State” ballots for Dems and AIP not only weren’t sent out to any polling place in the county, they weren’t even printed. Which means that somebody is bullshitting somebody. The reason I volunteered as a poll clerk this election is that last election I saw poll clerks turn voters away for the slightest of reasons, the main reason seeming to be a Mexican name. Eventually, enough voters demanded that these people be given provisional ballots that they were allowed to cast votes, though many of us heard a poll clerk remark, “OK, give them provisional ballots…they’re not going to get counted anyway.” If this shit flies in the primaries, bet your ass we'll see it in the rest of our elections as well, and God only knows what kind of programming got loaded into those scanners before they got sent out. I'm beginning to believe Malcolm X was right about ballots. What has your experience been in this election?

Thanks for the report. It was my first experience with a pen instead of a pencil and the gigantic confusing ballot. I noticed those machines and assumed they were scanners. It's the first time I can recall the question being asked about party designation...or have I voted absentee so long I didn't know about that?
I was the proud mother of an 18 year old today who voted for the first time...in person of course.

I guess we have to start documenting, eh? Mind if I borrow your report for dissemination elsewhere?
Good job, Gadzooks. McPherson has been a busy bastard, eh? I voted for Bowen.

Feel free to use it anywhere it fits. The question about party affiliation was due to it being a primary...we only get to vote for candidates from the party we are registered in...unless, of course, we register non-partisan and decide to vote republican.

Zooks/Panda,

Don't know if you saw this yet or not.
http://oldamericancentury.org/bb/index.php?showtopic=9379

I've put several posts in that thread concerning your E-Voting system.

IT IS OWNED BY VENEZUELAN BUSINESSMEN.

Zooks,
you need to E-mail BradBlog and BlackBox about this incident.
They need to know about irregularities like this.

That's from being a permanent absentee voter...they mail me a Dem ballot.
Plus I have a memory like a sieve.
Max is right...send your post above to Bradblog...he's been gathering election evidence for a while.

Good thinking, Max.

Someone have an email address for bradblog? I looked all over his site and can't find a contact us. Edit; Doh! Found it. Never mind...

I called the County Elections office this morning, and was told that the instruction sheet that stated not to give non-partisan voters regular party ballots, only "declined to state" ballots does not exist, and that there should have been no problem getting through to that office yesterday (not true...line busy all day). Get it?