I've been following politics before I even hit my teens.
And 2 weeks before this election, I turned 18, with my registration in
weeks before. I knew the issues, the candidates, the propositions, and
for the fist time in my life cast a ballot. I heard the next day about
the double bubble. No one at the polls mentioned it, and I didn't see
instructions that even pointed to its existence. It's not such a great
feeling that you're first close up experience in a system you've
watched for so long at a distance could have amounted to
nothing.

If you declined to select a political party when you registered to vote, you can still vote for Barack Obama if you request a Democratic ballot from the poll worker. Make sure you mark "Democratic" in the appropriate space or the vote might not be counted.

DTS voters requesting partisan ballots and registered Democratic and American Independent voters will receive the exact same Ink-a-Vote ballot. However, contrary to statutory provisions set forth in the Election Code, Los Angeles County requires DTS voters to complete an additional hurdle by marking either box number 5 (for American Independent ballots) or box number 6 (for Democratic party ballots) or their vote for President of the United States will not be counted. Invalidating a ballot based solely upon the failure to mark a box, (box 5 or 6) even though the voter has cast his/her ballot for a candidate for president, constitutes an improper basis for rejection and a policy that violates the rights of DTS voters. (See Cal. Elec. Code 15154(c).)

Julia Rosen, who is in Reno right now planning to blog a few times this weekend about the Nevada Caucuses, just sent the following email out to our Courage Campaign community:

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Hey everyone,

Greetings from Reno, Nevada, where I am sitting in the headquarters of the winner of our "Pick Your President" poll, stealing some free wi-fi on my laptop and getting ready to blog this weekend's events for the Courage Campaign blog.

And who received the most votes of California progressives? Drum roll please...

Barack Obama!

Here are California's full results. John Edwards kept it neck-and-neck with Obama in the days and hours leading up to our 5 p.m. deadline tonight, but Senator Obama pulled away at the end.

Sen. Barack Obama: 38%
Sen. John Edwards: 33%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: 16%
Sen. Hillary Clinton: 12%
Gov. Bill Richardson: 0.6%
Sen. Mike Gravel: 0.4%

It wasn't even close nationally. Obama's supporters really got out the vote and he won in a landslide.

Sen. Barack Obama: 55%
Sen. John Edwards: 23%
Sen. Hillary Clinton: 11%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: 10%
Gov. Bill Richardson: 0.5%
Sen. Mike Gravel: 0.3%

You can check out all of the results (including the Republicans) in Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington and Wisconsin here:

http://www.PickYourPresident.org

Thank you for voting and naming your favorite candidate. But your work has just begun. Now is the time to make sure you and all of your friends are set to vote in California's official primary on February 5.

Unlike in previous presidential election years, your primary vote in California matters. No matter which candidate you are voting for, here's how you can help determine who may become the next President of the United States:

1. Make sure you are registered to vote.

To vote in the February 5 primary, you only have until January 22 -- this Tuesday -- to mail in your form. Use VotePoke, by our friends at MoveOn, to double check that you are registered. If you do not show up as registered, you will have the opportunity to register to vote via VotePoke:

http://votepoke.org

2. Request an absentee ballot to vote-by-mail.

If you would like to vote-by-mail (VBM) instead of at the polls, you have until January 29 to request a VBM ballot. Click on the Secretary of State's web site below to download the form, fill it out, and mail it in:

http://sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_m.htm

3. If you are a "Decline-to-State" (DTS) voter, make sure you (and your friends) can vote in a party primary.

Did you know that almost 3 million voters are registered as "Decline-to-State" in California (19.3% of 15.5 million registered voters)? However, only 8% of DTS voters actually voted for a presidential candidate in the 2004 presidential primary. Why? One reason is that many DTS voters do not know that they can vote for president in California's Democratic primary -- an open primary.

Here's the deal: If you are a DTS voter -- and you want to vote for President in the Democratic primary -- you must request a Democratic ballot. Otherwise, if you do not make a request for a Democratic ballot, you will only be able to vote on the state propositions. (NOTE: Under Republican Party rules, DTS voters are NOT permitted to vote in the Republican primary.)

If you are voting at the polls, be sure to ask your poll worker for a Democratic ballot before voting. If you are DTS and voting-by-mail, you may request a Democratic ballot from your county elections official. Click here to obtain your county elections office contact information:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm

Now, I am off to find some good Nevada Caucus stories to blog along with three of my favorite blogging buddies: Lucas O'Connor, a fellow Courage Campaign and Calitics blogger; Brian Leubitz, the editor of Calitics; and Paul Hogarth of Beyond Chron. You can check out my posts this weekend on the Courage Campaign blog:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/blog

Again, a special thank you to all those Courage Campaign members who voted in the Pick Your President poll and passed it on to your friends.

See you on our blog,

Julia Rosen
Online Political Director

P.S. Stay tuned for a message from the Courage Campaign about retroactive immunity for telecom companies. We may have won the battle in December, delaying the vote to renew FISA, but it is scheduled to come back up again on the Senate floor next week. If we are going to stop the Bush Administration from rewarding law-breaking telecom companies for spying on Americans, your participation is crucial.
 

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Courage Campaign is an independent political committee and online organizing network empowering grassroots and netroots activists to build a progressive California. In 2008, the Courage Campaign will catalyze action to help Californians elect a progressive President, hold our elected officials accountable, and block Blackwater from building a base on our border.

As the fight against the right-wing electoral vote stealing initiative here in California gains steam, it has begun to take on a national profile, as it should considering that if it passes it could mean that a low turnout June election in California determines who becomes president in 2008.

Since The New York Times weighed in with their editorial slamming the initiative as a right-wing "dirty trick," it's begun to gain the attention of the presidential candidates. FairElectionReform.com has launched a petition urging the presidential candidates of both parties to publicly oppose  the measure. The first to do so was Chris Dodd, who called the initiative a "blatant power grab" saying:

"The process of elections should be above partisanship and I hope all Presidential candidates - Democrats and Republicans alike - will join me in standing up for fair and honest elections."

Next, John Edwards not only came out against the measure but sent his own e-mail blast urging us to do the same:

Help us send a message to these political operatives that their Karl Rove tactics will not work. We, the people, will not allow you to get away with this naked partisan power grab.

As a result, momentum against the measure is growing back here in California, even among local Republicans. The vice-chair of the CA Republican Party Thomas del Baccaro came out against the measure on his blog; in addition The OC Register, no liberal rag they, in an editorial called the initiative a "nakedly partisan and profoundly subversive of our constitutional system;" and when asked about the initiative, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed unenthusiastic at best, likening the measure to "changing the rules in the middle of the game." Schwarzenegger refused to officially comment, however, as he claimed not to have read the initiative yet. Well, let's help him out with that, shall we?

The next step in opposing this measure is to force Schwarzenegger to comment publicly. Surely such a post-partisan as he would have nothing to do with such a partisan dirty trick as this, so my colleagues at Courage Campaign have launched a new effort to "Educate Arnold" and send him one copy of the 3 page initiative for every person who signs up.