When the final chapter is written on the Democratic Primary of 2016,
I don't think history will be kind to Bernie and his supporters with their constant threats and claims of a system being rigged and election improprieties that seem to exist and only hamper the ability of Bernie Supporters to cast their ballot.
The vast majority of the people working the polls on election day are volunteers, not paid employees; and our voting polls here in CA where I live, we always need volunteers and they always have poll workers representing both major political parties on election days. There's also a precinct Captain if you have problems or complaints. When I show up at the poll, no one ever asked me what party I belong to, they just ask my name. They then confirm my address. There’s never anything suspicious activity going on. I have lived at three different addresses over the past 40 years, and when I move I have to re-register with my new address, and I have never had a problem with my name not being on the rolls or anything else on election day.
I saw here on DU yesterday, that Bernie supporters protested the election results at a city council meeting in Los Angeles the other night alleging fraud and voting irregularities. Funny thing though that they posted their plans to protest on Facebook which means that only Bernie supporters had knowledge of their plans to barnstorm the LA council meeting so it just shows how Undemocratic their actions tend to be. They didn’t seem to care if any Clinton supporters might have had problems at the ballot on election day. How interesting for those new to our Party that are constantly questioning our motives as Undemocratic.
They also have been protesting that some of the provisional ballots have not been counted. I recall seeing a statement that the Secretary of State’s office had said that ALL provisional ballots would be counted and I was hoping that statement was inaccurate because based on what I was seeing and reading online, some of those provisional ballots should NOT be counted. I have voted in every election since I became old enough to, 40 years ago. I am a news junkie and a political junkie and have lived in LA County for the past 23 years since returning from the military and never before do I recall any mass reporting of voter irregularities here and our elections are almost always a contest on some level, by either the candidate or propositions on the ballot.
The GOP had their presidential primary the same day that we had our Democratic primary and I have not heard or read one story in my local newspaper alleging voter fraud from any of the Republicans and I live in an area dominated by the GOP. Our Sunday newspaper’s Opinion page is always full of GOP gripes. Nothing was reported there before, or since the election about problems with registration or purging of voters from the rolls, or problems obtaining or receiving ballots by mail, registering to vote, voter’s affiliation being switched, there not being enough ballots at the polling sites, or problems with provisional ballots. BTW, the GOP’s Primary was Closed to those outside the party. If you weren’t a member of the GOP, you couldn’t participate in their Primary, at all.
I do recall however, seeing here on DU in the month and weeks leading up to the election here in CA, many threads discussing problems with Bernie supporters being able to register to vote, or having problems understanding how to register as an Independent because CA didn’t have a straight up category called Independent and many had erroneously registered as the American Independent Party which was not the same as an Independent. CA also has a registration category as a Non Party Preference (NPP) which is the closest equivalent of what many would call and Independent, but if you registered as such you were required to request a presidential ballot because it wasn’t automatically provided if you requested a ballot by mail.
Since CA had such a late registration cut-off, and people could register on-line I saw many people here at DU instructing people that they could go on-line and change their registration before the deadline. So with the registering and re-registering going on from what I was seeing on DU, I’m not surprised that there might have been some problems at the polls on election day for those newly registered as a result of a lack of understanding regarding party affiliations or misinformation.
But misinformation is not the same as fraud, or voter irregularities, or rigging the system. Perhaps Bernie should have taken more time to educate his voters as to the various nuances that pertained to the specific local in which they intended to cast their ballot. The constant claims of fraud and rigging the vote is growing growing old and starting to wear thin. And Bernie's constantly implying at his rallies that the system was rigged, has no doubtedly planted the seed of doubt in Bernie's supporters minds and played a large role in all these claims of rigged polling results and it's too bad that what will be the result of many of these new voter's experience will be an angry and cynical experience related to the voter process which will probably last a bitter lifetime.
Thank you Bernie.
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