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OK, I've read Jeff's thread, and I've now called Tulare,
Marin, and Alameda to discuss Jeff's "open primary" method. [Jeff - was your
open primary scenario for a specific state besides California??] This may
be the case for some states, (voter choosing their party), BUT it is not the
case in California for several reasons I'll try and explain:
- first, california is not a pure open primary (anymore - they
are half pregnant on this issue). In March
2002, voters will be either registered in a party or they will
be a "non-partisan/decline to state".
- If they are registered in party they will get a party
ballot with only that parties candidates for the primary (not a the "classic"
version of open primary) plus all statewide measures etc.
- If they are registered as a "decline to state / non-partisan"
they can, when they come to the counter or the precinct, ask for a party
ballot (today only democrats will allow the following, but republicans are
considering it as well) BUT that parties ballot WILL NOT have the party
CENTRAL COMMITTEE race on it, but will have all the other races specific to
that party on the ballot.
- I believe this can be handled by ADDING a
"DEMOCRAT/DECLINE TO STATE" party into our voter group table. That
style would not have CENTRAL COMMITTEE on it. This becomes a 9th party.
If the Republicans allow the "non-partisan/decline to state" voter to
particiapte, that becomes a 10th party in the voter group table, etc. (This is
why device is needed that allows more than 9 parties to burn cards in
precinct).
- In summary, the California Open Primary for March 2002 WILL
NOT allow the voter to select their own party ballot, that will be done by the
pollworker or the counter admin person in early voting. I believe the
best way to handle the decline to state voter that chooses to vote the
democratic party ballot without the central committee race is to setup a
Dem/Decline voter group (same for any other party that allows
this).
Ken, given the above (and I assume there will be more
discussion on this) I don't believe further programming is required FOR
CALIFORNIA, however, JEFF H. may still require the open primary scenario he is
describing for another state.
Hope I haven't confused things more here.
- ----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 7:37
AM
Subject: RE: Open Primary Option in Gems
for AVTS
In
the case of an Open Primary using the AVTS system, a poll worker gives a
voter a smart card with the correct ballot style, but after the
voter inserts their smart card into the AVTS system, the AVTS system will
prompt the voter to select which Party they wish to vote. Similiar to
choosing the language. This needs to be implemented into the software
for the AVTS system.
Jeff, I've seen open primary with differing versions. Some
where all voters vote same ballot, others like the "shadow" vote of
California primary last year where they were the same ballot info, but
ballots were by party. In either case, the pollworker would hand the
voter a ballot. Wouldn't the pollworker select the ballot
type?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001
11:19 AM
Subject: Open Primary Option in Gems
for AVTS
Do we have an
Open Primary Option in Gems so that we can program the AVTS unit to come
up with the option of choosing the party that the voter wishes to
vote???
Jeff Hintz
Global Election Systems
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