California lawmaker to propose more voting centers and increased voting-by-mail in LA after long Super Tuesday lines

A California lawmaker disappointed by the long lines during Los Angeles county’s Super Tuesday voting announced a new proposal Thursday aimed at making the November general election run more smoothly for voters.

California Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Santa Monica, which is within LA County, announced plans to introduce legislation that would require the county to provide every voter with a vote-by-mail ballot or to significantly increase the number of vote centers on Election Day.

The election law proposal comes as LA County, the biggest voting district in the US, faced a myriad of voting challenges earlier this week on Super Tuesday that included ballot machines not working, access issues with the statewide voter registration database and other technical problems with the county’s new voting machines which resulted in long wait times for voters.

“Voters should not have to drastically alter their daily lives in order to have their voice heard on election day,” Allen said in a statement. “Voters deserve maximum flexibility when casting their ballots, and we need to ensure the county is providing every avenue and resource to make that possible. Something must change so that every vote can be cast and counted.”

For this year’s presidential primary, LA County used a new voting system, The Voting Solutions for All People system. Also known as VSAP, the new voting system is the country’s first publicly owned and designed system which took a decade to make and cost about $300 million.

The new system included ballot-marking devices or touchscreen tablets that let voters make their selections and then print paper ballots so that they may be reviewed and fed back into the devices. The paper ballots are then pushed to secure ballot boxes on the backs of the devices.

The county also changed its approach this election and created county-wide voting centers, which allows voters to go to any location in the county that is convenient rather than being assigned to specific precincts.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, had raised concerns about the new voting system being complicated for some voters in the lead-up to the primary. UC Berkeley Professor Philip Stark also called the new voting changes in the county “the perfect storm.”

Allen’s propsal would require these changes to be made by the 2020 presidential election, according to his office.

On Thursday, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla echoed Allen’s proposal by calling on LA County to make the changes on its own.

“In the 14 other Voter’s Choice Act counties, every voter received their ballot by mail 29 days in advance of the election and had multiple options for returning their ballot. Los Angeles must do the same,” said Padilla in a statement.

The Voter’s Choice Act is a law passed in 2016 that allows for counties to individually choose how to conduct their voting process. All registered voters in LA County have the option to vote by mail, but the ballot must be requested ahead of time.

Dean Logan, the county clerk, responded by acknowledging the proposal but stopped short of committing to any voting reforms, citing the cost of sending every voter a ballot in the mail and noting that the proposal still leaves out those who register on Election Day.

“Tuesday’s primary provides a wealth of data that did not exist prior to the election. It is incumbent upon us to evaluate and use that data in developing holistic solutions that address the complexity and diversity of our electorate,” said Logan in a statement. “That process must be deliberative, collaborative and cautious of shifts that otherwise may not fully address the root causes that led to long lines and wait times for voting on Tuesday.”