Xposted 9/19/2008 7:27 AM PDT on in my BluePalmSpringsBoyz blog on MyDesert.com
As everyone knows by now, this is an historic election year. However, the County of Riverside, and its office for voter registration, has shown incompetency beyond what we have come to expect from them. The County has now run out of voter registration forms, according to George Zander, Desert Stonewall Democratic Club President, and John Eldridge, Julie Bornstein for 45th Congressional District staffer.
For months, the state of California and the county of Riverside have known that this would be an election of more than note. Democratic voters’ interest increased during the primary season, especially during the race between the first major candidate of African-American descent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), and the first major woman candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Voter turnout for Democratic primaries across the country eclipsed previous turnout.
More below the flip…
This was especially the case in the Democratic primary in California. The Los Angeles Times reported that voter turnout in California reached 9 million, a record (http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/03/february-5-vote.html).
Voter turnout as a percentage of total voter registration was 57.71%, a noteworthy figure, however, not a record in itself, probably because Republicans failed to turnout as did Democrats. In comparison, the record percentage was 73% in 1976, when California Gov. Jerry Brown thought that Gov. Jimmy Carter (D-GA) was too conservative and beat him in the primary. On the Republican side, Gov. Ronald Reagan thought that Vice-President Gerald Ford was too liberal and beat him in their primary race. In the 2004 California primary, only 37.59% of voters did their civic duty.
Given increased voter interest, along with increased voter registration, one would think that the county of Riverside would be prepared and would have sufficient voter registration forms on hand for Election 2008, following the actual turnout in the primary in February. That is clearly not the case.
Zander reports that he needed more voter registration forms from the county for the voter registration drives conducted in the Coachella Valley, including those at the Palm Springs Village Fest on Thursdays, at Hunter’s Video Bar in Palm Springs on Fridays, at the Barracks in Cathedral City on Sundays, at both Koffi locations in Palm Springs, at the Westfield Mall in Palm Desert, at the College of the Desert, and at 25 other locations in the Valley.
Zander stated, “Our local Democratic clubs have had amazing results in our voter registration drives, particularly at the College of the Desert where we have registered over 200 new voters in only one week and at Village Fest where we registered 45 new voters last night alone! We need more voter registration forms to meet the demand, however, as of today (Thursday), the county will only allow us one voter registration form per person per day. This is abhorrent to the concept of universal sufferage and may result in hundreds of voters in being disenfranchised! The Riverside County Registrar Barbara Dunmore has been remiss and is clearly deficient in this regard.”
Eldridge, staffer to the Bornstein for 45th Congressional District in her Palm Springs office reported, “I am appalled that the County of Riverside, particularly Registrar (Barbara) Dummore has been so unprepared, especially given voter interest shown during the primary season and more recently with the nomination of the first major African-American candidate nominated by the Democratic Party and with the nomination of the first woman for Vice-President by the Republicans. I was shocked to find out that I could only pick up one registration form today when I need hundreds for our ongoing voter registration efforts in the Coachella Valley and the 45th Congressional District!”
Clearly, Dunmore needs to be held accountable for the ongoing problems at the Registrar’s office, especially for the inexcusable failure to provide enough forms in the county for Democratic and Republican voter registration efforts.