ANC Getting Out the Vote One Day Early

This entry was posted in Politics and tagged 2009 Aramazd Stepanian Ardashes Kassakhian Armenian National Committee California City Clerk Elections Glendale Political Action Committees Vote by Mail on

Glendale city council candidate Aramazd Stepanian brought an April 4 Armenian National Committee email blast to the attention of City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian, other candidates, and local media. The email flyer urged citizens to vote with the headline “TUESDAY IS ELECTION DAY! LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD ON APRIL 7TH. GET OUT AND VOTE!” and contained this boxed message:

anc-email-to-glendale-voters

Stepanian discussed the ANC’s controversial role in assisting with absentee ballots, and stated in his email:

I don’t know whether this is legal or a common practice, but I strongly object to it and firmly believe that it will cast serious new doubts over the fairness or even the legitimacy of the elections.

…In my opinion and for future reference: The practice of allowing so many people to vote either by absentee ballots, or early and outside of official polling stations and on other days than the election day, diminishes the importance of the act of voting. Among other things, it gives the distinct impression that casting the ballot is something one does at his or her convenience and need not be regarded as anything more than a chore that one does when one gets the chance to do it.

The city clerk responded by forwarding two sections of the California Elections Code. The section apparently relevant to “day ahead” voting states:

(7) You have the right to return a completed vote by mail ballot to any precinct in the county.

In a phone conversation this morning, Kassakhian told me that voters can request mail-in ballots at the city clerk’s office, including the day before the election, if they certify that they are unable to vote on election day. He also said his office has no control over how others advertise this fact, although in recent years there has been a big increase in vote-by-mail applications, spurred by campaigns’ and political action committees’ get-out-the-vote programs.

The absentee voting page on the ANC’s website states in its FAQs sections: “You can also just drop by the City Clerk’s office between March 9, 2009 and April 7, 2009 to cast your vote early.”