The Republic of Chad

It was about 1:15 p.m. on Super Tuesday as I drove back to the office, my “I Voted 2008” sticker in hand. And I was incensed.
A four- (and a half) year college graduate, I’m generally an intelligent person. But it took me months to figure out how I’d vote in this year’s presidential primary. I knew precisely for whom I wanted to vote, as an earlier blog explains, but I wasn’t precisely sure how I’d do it. I reiterate that I’m a fairly smart man.
The confusion arose over my preferred political affiliation. Having learned a thing or two at university, I’ve been a proud GDI – or God Damn Independent – for most of my adult life. Having shunned the Greek system, I’ve so far turned up my nose at the Republicans and Democrats.
But the way our voting system works, if you’re non-affiliated, at least for the first couple years – or in this case elections – you’re basically a loser. Luckily I did my homework and discovered I could request a crossover ballot and vote for a Democrat, but countless others in Los Angeles County weren’t quite as lucky.
Or smart. And it’s not entirely their fault.
I was still fuming on my commute back to the rock quarry because I had to make a minor scene at my polling place due to confusion from the workers over my right to vote someone else besides another non-affiliated candidate. It was shades of freshman year in college all over again.
Los Angeles County has a rule that allows us non-affiliates to cross the party lines to Democrat, but it seems you have to explicitly ask permission. So much for our inalienable rights, as long as you say “pretty please.”
My situation turned out OK, but I must wonder about the other 780,000 un-affiliated voters in Los Angeles County alone. Were they able to decipher the madness?
It’s pretty bad when Dean Logan, the acting county registrar, doesn’t even have a clue what’s going on. As I still muttered under my breath the ridiculous situation I just found myself in, Logan himself told journalist Warren Olney on KCRW’s “To the Point” radio show that his office had issued several PSAs in recent weeks to inform voters of the situation. I’m a fairly discerning citizen, a journalist myself, who stays abreast of such things. Granted, I don’t watch much TV, but I never once heard a whisper of such ads. My bad for not watching “American Idol.”
So there I sat in traffic as I listened to Logan hem and haw his way through the interview, as other panelists voiced their concern over Los Angeles’ system. Logan told Olney that the registrar's office had forecasted that the unaffiliated voter fiasco wouldn’t be an issue and that polling place staffers had been extensively trained to deal with the issue. Oh really?
Then two of the other interviewees corrected him with their own assertions that it could very well affect the Democratic primary. One even brought up the 780,000 unaffiliated voters who could be affected. Olney asked Logan if this number sounded right.
A long pause ensued. Logan responded that such a figure wasn’t at his immediate disposal, only to be answered by another interview subject that indeed the number was correct, taken straight from the state registrar’s web page. A simple Google search will turn up some 3 million voters statewide who are also unaffiliated. I’m so glad we have someone in charge who knows what he’s talking about. Or not. But isn’t that apropos with G.W. Bush still in the Oval Office? He, after all, got there (twice) amid shady happening in the polling booth.
And you think our country’s messed up voting system is only confined to Florida and Ohio?