Sanders supporters sue to extend Calif. voter registration

[Iamaartist]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/280853-sanders-supporters-sue-to-extend-californias-voter-registration

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have filed a federal lawsuit asking that voter registration in California be extended until June 7, the day of the state's primary.

"Mistakes are being made," said William Simpich, an Oakland civil rights attorney who filed the lawsuit Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times.


The suit alleges that there is confusion over the rules for the presidential primary and requests that voter registration be extended until June 7. May 31 is the current deadline to request a ballot by mail.

In the state's presidential primary, the parties control the contests. The Democratic primary has been opened up to voters who have "no party preference," but the lawsuit says that isn't being made clear to all voters.

"There's mass confusion," Simpich said in an interview on Saturday night with the Los Angeles Times. "This is a situation that really shouts out for some uniformity."

The Republican presidential primary is not open to unaffiliated voters.


California does not yet have same-day registration but plans to vote on that system in 2018, according to the Los Angeles Times.

They will do anything to win....that's how I see it....

[LiberalFighter]

1. They can't go online and register or even just update their political affilation?

[Iamaartist]

2. I guess they didn't....

[BlueMTexpat]

3. How do they even have

standing in a Dem primary?

[caquillo]

4. Why don't they register as Democrats?

Then there wouldn't be any confusion. It's their aversion to choosing a party that leaves them in the dust.

[Iamaartist]

7. Good question, but now they want to change..it was their choice to be independent

[caquillo]

15. I just don't understand

The BernieBros complain about being disenfranchised because they were not allowed to participate in closed primaries/caucases, but if they knew they were going to vote for Sanders, why didn't they go down to city hall and register or change their status to 'Democrat'? That way, they would be able to participate in all the contests.

[Princess Turandot]

36. Actually, AFAIK, the Democrats do allow 'No Party Preference' folks to vote in their primary...

when the No Party Preference (NPP) folks arrive at the poll, they just need to ask for the Democratic primary ballot.

People who somehow thought that the state's American Independence Party was a group of people not in a party, despite it calling itself one, have to change to NPP or the Democratic party to vote in the primary, because the Dems don't allow people registered in another party to vote in their primary.

But they still have until 5/31 to register, NINE more days. Given that, I think this lawsuit is just a way for the Sanders fans to claim they were cheated when Hillary wins.

[still_one]

43. That would have solved it right there. However, if they were registered as NPP

and requested or got the wrong ballot all they need to do is on Election Day go to the poll and exchange it for the one they want

There are so many options

[beachbum bob]

5. cant follow the rules...rules are for other people and not for us because we are "entitled"

to have them changed at will

that is so typical

[NastyRiffraff]

32. But that would mean

reading about the election rules freely available online. It took me literally two seconds to find this:

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

Any Sanders supporter reading this, please feel free to click the above link. Then you have to read the election rules. Then you have to follow through. I know it's so much easier to whine about how unfair it all is, but really it's not that hard.

[stopbush]

6. So stupid/lazy/entitled non-D voters

need special rule changes for them to vote for Sanders?

Two-year olds, stomping their feet and insisting on ice cream for dinner.

[Iamaartist]

10. I agree .......because BS thinks this is his last hope to win California ..

By his supporters changing rules......and crying they didn't know ....I don't by that...I have family in

California ..I know......

[Hekate]

11. Ice cream for breakfast, is what Gene Robinson said. Point well taken either way.

[Mz Pip]

8. Good grief.

California is one of the last primaries. This has been going on for months. If they couldn't get it together months ago why on earth should they be given special treatment this late in the game?

I got a California Voters Guide weeks ago. This lawsuit us completely frivolous.

[wryter2000]

30. I got mine, too

And it clearly states that NPP people can ask for a Dem ballot.

If they want to vote, let them do their homework.

[BlueCaliDem]

39. Maybe they're Republicans who want to vote in the CA Democratic Party primary to choose the

candidate for Democrats who is easiest to beat?

[DemonGoddess]

9. They'll lose this suit too

[nini]

12. What's with the 'unaffliated' wanting hand holding.

You don't get to play by your own rules - there's plenty of information on voting here in CA. Put your big kid panties on and educate yourself and get it straightened out ahead of time.

IF you want to vote Dem then you should've registered that way - you don't get to crash the party for one day to wreak havoc.

idiots.

[stopbush]

13. Why aren't they suing the Rs for holding a closed

primary?

You sue the Ds for holding a semi-open primary whose rules have been public knowledge for months because you don't like the rules, and because Sanders voters are apparently low-information types who can't be bothered to learn the rules, they need to be changed?

What if I'm a D who wants to vote in the R primary? Is it fair to me that it's closed to registered Rs? Waaaaaah!

[Iamaartist]

26. Gee I wonder how much this primary was rigged.....in someways...

[stopbush]

14. The voter guides my family received WEEKS ago

outline exactly how the primaries work here in CA and who gets to vote in what primary.

[Thinkingabout]

16. Even if Sanders took every delegate in California it would not be enough.

Delegates are apportioned and Hillary will get delegates in California because we know of California Hillary supporters right here on DU and some have already voted.

[Iamaartist]

27. That's right and early voting....

[Vakero]

17. The co-plaintiffs , American Independent Party, is conservative

The Hill doesn't note that right wing nuts are joining Sanders supporters in this lawsuit.

[Iamaartist]

28. Where are they getting all this money,,Tea Party backing them....

[wryter2000]

31. Welcome to DU

[skylucy]

18. As a lifelong Californian, I am disgusted that Sanders is trying to drag the great

state of California into the hot-mess that used to be a "presidential campaign". He becomes more like Trump every day. He sues everybody and everything. Wah Wah Wah! Everybody is being mean to me! Not fair! Tantrum after tantrum because he has been catered to and has gotten away with (and even rewarded for) his bad behavior.
I taught kindergarten for 38 years and I know many five-year-olds with more self awareness than Bernie. If Bernie was five instead of almost 75, I guarantee you that he would be in "time out" most of the time.
The leaders of the Democratic Party are trying to put the best face on this because the media is itching for a Trump-like food fight to televise and gin up for ratings.But, behind the scenes, I have no doubt that once little Bernie no longer holds them hostage with his threats to destroy the party and help elect Trump, he is going to pay the price for the damage he has done to the party and possibly to our entire country (President Trump--god help us). He wants Debbie Wasserman-Shultz to be worried about losing her Senate seat...I hope he has to worry about his own Senate seat when he comes up for re-election. After he loses, goes back to Vermont and changes his party back to Independent, I hope they primary him with a real Dem. And kick his whiney little *** out of office.

Ok. Got that all out. Deep breath. Eat junk food. I'm better now.

[Iamaartist]

25. skylucy well said thank-you for that I agree with all what you said

Enough is enough....

Why should Bernie Sanders get to be the Democratic nominee when he isn’t even a Democratic
just to say....anyway.. and they are crying....about voters rights they had plenty of time...

[Surya Gayatri]

37. Great rant, skylucy. Loved this passage:

"...I know many five-year-olds with more self awareness than Bernie. If Bernie was five instead of almost 75, I guarantee you that he would be in "time out" most of the time."

I pegged him as an arrested-development adolescent:

Even after 30 years in the "Establishment", he's never had to run the gauntlet of a negative, personally destructive campaign. He has NO idea what would hit him in a GE.

He remains a 74-year-old "adolescent" in many ways, both in his naïve utopian politics, and in his lack of experience with down and dirty national campaigning.

[still_one]

44. I feel exactly the same way sky

[SaschaHM]

19. I wonder when they will lose this.

All it is is an attempt to open the primary. I hope the judge tells them to learn to read.

[Tavarious Jackson]

20. He wants TRUMP supporters

ti vote for him since Trump has already won... Bernie wants disruption. This is why we need CLOSED primaries

[Rose Siding]

23. Yep. 39% of Sanders voters in WV were Trump voters.

It will be a great triumph for Hillary if she even comes close in CA, considering the indies on the right.

[Tavarious Jackson]

24. I am starting to think Bernie is being paid by Karl Rove

[fleabiscuit]

21. What business would the feds have with a state election? Total dooshness, and no standing. n/t

[stopbush]

22. This lawsuit hasn't a chance as it is being brought in CA, site of the

2000 7-2 SCOTUS decision in CA v Jones, wherein the SCOTUS found CA's blanket primary to be unconstitutional. The basis of that decision was the First Amendment guarantee of free association. The SCOTUS held that by their very nature, political parties are organizations made up of like-thinking people, and to do anything that compromises that freedom to associate calls into question the very viability of political parties. The decision pointed out that to allow people not in, say, the D party to have a say in the way the Ds elect to pick their nominees opens the process to caprice that could effectively destroy a political party.

The decision even questioned the concept of open primaries.

This lawsuit is ignorant of case law and is frivilous on its face.

[liberal N proud]

29. Just another end run around the rules by the BS campaign

They have not felt the need to run on the rules, but rather, they use them to play victim again.

Then when BS gets his ass handed to him in California, they can further push the victim card and proclaim the system is rigged and The Clinton campaign cheated. We know that is how it will go down.

[redstatebluegirl]

33. If they can't figure out how to register in the state they live in

they aren't bright enough to vote. This is not a conspiracy, this is a group of new voters who never took a civics class and have not idea how primaries work. I am so over this nonsense.

[Surya Gayatri]

38. Exactly, they should be automatically disqualified due to egregious ignorance.

[wisteria]

34. Rules are rules. These rules have been in place long before Sander's decided to run.

I just can't believe they think rules should be changed yo suit them.

[ronnykmarshall]

35. Whinny ass cry babies

Get lost.

These are the rules in California. Fuck off.

[BlueCaliDem]

40. Thank you!

[LisaM]

41. Sanders sure loves to file lawsuits.

So do his supporters.

[still_one]

42. None of this makes sense

If they were sent the wrong ballot in the mail because they registered as NPP, (no party preference), and never requested which party ballot they wanted, all they need to do is on election day take the ballot in and exchange the ballot for the one with the party they want to vote with.

However, two days ago listening to some of the nonsense over at DU, they are saying things like they already mailed the ballot in. Which implies that they received a ballot to vote by mail, filled it out, and mailed it back in, not realizing it wasn't the ballot they wanted. In that case whose fault is that? Don't you read the ballot you are voting on?

On the other hand if they didn't register, or registered for the wrong party, then they could have registered or re-register online. They have until today to do that.

The lawsuit is saying people are confused, and need special training, so the registration deadline should be extended, which is bullshit. People have had over a year to register to vote in this election, and now at the eleventh hour they want to extend registration because they don't understand how to register to vote. garbage

[Iamaartist]

45. RIGHT ON......

[Gothmog]

46. Hearing for California primary lawsuit set for after voting

Sanders lost this lawsuit also http://www.ocregister.com/articles/primary-717076-hearing-voters.html

SACRAMENTO – A federal judge has set an Aug. 18 hearing date in a lawsuit filed by a Bernie Sanders supporter seeking to extend California’s voter registration deadline ahead of the primary election, meaning the plaintiffs likely won’t get a hearing before the state’s June 7 primary.

Attorney William Simpich argued in the filing that the process for unaffiliated voters to get a presidential primary ballot – particularly those seeking to cast ballots in the Democratic primary contest between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – was too confusing and would leave many voters disenfranchised. He said at least two counties failed to notify some voters of their right to request a ballot to vote in the Democratic, Libertarian or American Independent Party contests.

“Thousands of Californians are in imminent danger of being disenfranchised in the 2016 presidential primary election ending on June 7, 2016, and will continue to be shut out of the democratic process unless and until defendants reform their voting by mail practices, Simpich wrote in the filing on behalf of two voters, a group called the Voting Rights Defense Project and the American Independent Party.

Simpich had asked the court to extend the registration deadline to election day, but the response from U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup on Tuesday means the case will not be addressed by then.

[Gothmog]

47. Judge rejects Bernie Sanders’ supporter’s voting lawsuit

Yeah http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/1/judge-rejects-bernie-sanders-supporters-voting-law/

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by a Bernie Sanders supporter who argued elections officials in California were robbing unaffiliated voters of the chance to vote in the state’s June 7 Democratic presidential primary.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said Wednesday the Voting Rights Defense Project waited too long to request an injunction for radio and TV ads informing unaffiliated voters that they can vote in the presidential primary of the Democratic, American Independent and Libertarian parties.

The group had argued that county elections officials were failing to inform unaffiliated voters of that right, threatening to disenfranchise thousands of voters. Its lawsuit named California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and two county elections officials.

Padilla said the lawsuit was frivolous.

[beachbumbob]

48. Rules don't apply to anarchist