Always Read the Fine Print

Always read the fine print. Obvious enough, but how many of you really do it? I mention this, because an interesting thing happened to me last Tuesday afternoon while volunteering at a poll booth in the city of Redlands; voters accused me of violating their constitutional rights for something I had no control over. I didn't engage the voters, for surely I knew there was some kind of mistake and also, if it happened to me, I'm sure I would be irate as well. But listen, the poll booth volunteer isn't the person at whom stones should be thrown. He/she is doing an honorable job serving our country.

With that said, here's what happened. Many voters who came in that day thought they were registered as Democrats, but were shocked when we told them they were registered as Republicans and therefore could not vote for the Democratic candidates. Why? The Republican party did not allow crossover voting for their party. Thus, the voters became irate and soon began accusing me of the aforementioned. The problem I gathered was this. Have you ever seen petitioners outside of Walmart, on college campuses, or at your door asking you to sign a petition to get some measure on the ballot for the upcoming election? Many of these same petitions contain fine print that states, something to the affect, when you sign this petition your are registering with the Republican Party. You see, the GOP hires dirt-poor, sometimes borderline homeless, people to solicit voter's signatures at $2-5 a signature. Most people think they're doing a good deed by saving the local school districts, building more parks, legalizing marijuana etc., but really, they're being suckered. In fact, I only had one such case the entire day (we're talking out of hundreds of voters) where someone was registered as a Democrat but said they should have been registered as a Republican.

Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened. I came across this article reported by the TimesHerald and confirmed by the Daily Kos back in 2004. Although the case mentioned in the Herald piece, where students thought they were signing a petition for legalizing marijuana but were in fact registering with the Republican party, didn't affect voters' choices in the general election, it would have hurt them during these specific primaries, especially because of the crossover ban setforth by the Republican party.

I'm not sure how rampant this is, but from first hand experience at the polls on Super Tuesday, something needs to be done.