Los Angeles Times - 04.03.2020

LATIMES.COM SSS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020A

ELECTION 2020

UCLA’s Hammer Museum
around 4 p.m. but left after
being told that it would be a
three-hour wait. Three more
locations, three more long
lines. He ended up at the Fe-
licia Mahood Multipurpose
Center in West L.A.
“They’re telling me, after
waiting here for another
hour and a half, that it’s an-
other two hours,” Berkowitz
said Tuesday evening as he
stood in line. “This is like
gridlock on the 405.”
Local voting officials
blamed the delays on a com-
bination of high turnout and
glitches affecting the new
election equipment. But
they couldn’t provide infor-
mation on how many of the
county’s 978 vote centers
were affected. Official re-
turns trickled in as the night
wore on.
“This was a challenging
day for a lot of voters in L.A.
County and I certainly apol-
ogize for that,” said Dean
Logan, the county’s regis-
trar of voters. “That’s some-
thing that has to be better.”
Voters were quick to
sound off on social media
about the blunders: loca-
tions that didn’t open on
time or were hard to find;
ballot-marking devices that
jammed or otherwise failed
to operate; and electronic
voter registration devices
that didn’t work, requiring
them to cast provisional bal-
lots to be counted after eligi-
bility is confirmed by elec-
tion workers.
By the time Arcadia resi-
dent Omar Noureldin left
the vote center at the Ace
Hotel in downtown Los An-
geles on Tuesday morning,
the queue of people waiting
to cast ballots stretched out
the door.
“Those people that are in
line around the corner are
probably going to be there
for three hours — if they
wait,” he said.
Noureldin used an elec-
tion shortcut offered under
the new system: Ballot selec-
tions could be filled out on a
smartphone ahead of time
and transferred to the
touchscreen machines with
a QR code.
The biggest issue he ex-
perienced, he said, was the
lack of staff and voting
machines at the center.
Election day ended up as
the ultimate stress test for
the county’s new $300-mil-
lion voting system. L.A. offi-
cials spent months trying to
raise awareness about two
big changes: the elimination
of neighborhood polling
places and the debut of bal-
lot-marking touchscreen de-
vices in regional vote cen-
ters, available to everyone
and spread throughout the
county.
The task was daunting.
With 5.5 million voters, L.A.
County is the largest voting
bloc in California and larger
than the electorate in all but
11 states. Voters seemed to
like the new devices when
they worked. The machine
allows choices to be made on

a touchscreen and then

prints a paper ballot.

Once selections are re-

viewed, a voter feeds the bal-

lot back into the machine

where it’s deposited in a

sealed ballot box. Some

22,000 machines were de-

ployed across L.A. County.

Elections officials did not

say how many machines

failed and were taken out of

operation.

Representatives of Ver-

mont Sen. Bernie Sanders’

presidential campaign at-

tempted to get a federal

court to intervene to force

L.A.’s vote centers to stay

open until 10 p.m.

Voters reported mach-

ines out of service at vote

centers in Arcadia, L.A.’s

Carthay Square, Los Feliz

and Rancho Palos Verdes. A

full day of problems plagued

voting inside the Hammer

Museum. By nightfall, a line

snaked around the second

floor as voters fiddled with

phones, read books and

propped up computers to do

homework. By around 8:

p.m., the last person in line

had been told the wait would

be up to three and a half

hours.

“I always go to a place late

on election day,” Sandra

Kielgass said. “I guess it’s a

good thing it’s so crowded.

People are voting.”

Waits of nearly two hours

were reported at USC. Sarah

Wagner, a 21-year-old stu-

dent, was frustrated that

poll workers didn’t tell her

about nearby voting centers

that had shorter waits until

she was at the front of the

line.

“You’d hope that voting

would be a quick and easy

experience to encourage

young people to vote,” Wag-

ner said.

USC researchers queried

L.A. voters last month about

the new voting system: Only

38% of respondents knew of

its existence.

Among those who didn’t

know were Antonieta Es-

pinoza, who stood outside a

Catholic church in Palmdale

on Tuesday, where she had

just cast her vote.

“Más trabajo y bien com-

plicado,” the 80-year-old

Palmdale resident said, ex-

plaining that she wasn’t a

fan of the new voting system,

which she found harder and

more complicated to use.

Espinoza said she and

her husband arrived at the

elementary school near

their home — their tradi-

tional go-to polling place —

and found closed doors.

They headed to St. Mary’s

Catholic Church, where af-

ter more than an hour of ad-

justing to the new system,

Espinoza finally finished

voting.

Other voters reported

paper jams in the new mach-

ines and confusion over

pressing the “more” button

on the screen to view addi-

tional candidates in some

races.

Ken Proctor, a retired

teacher, said election work-

ers at his Northridge polling

place last weekend couldn’t

tell him what to do with his

paper ballot after the mach-

ine printed it — even though

it needed to be reinserted

into the machine.

“When it printed out, I

was looking for a ballot box

to put it in and they didn’t

have one and they didn’t

know what else to do with it,”

he said. “And they said just

to keep it, so I did and

brought it home.” Proctor

said his wife shredded the

document.

“I think we both were

kind of disenfranchised,” he

said.

Not all of the challenges

in California’s closely

watched election were con-

fined to Los Angeles.

State elections officials

reported that 15 counties ex-

perienced problems with

connecting to California’s

statewide voter database.

Los Angeles was not re-

ported to be one of the coun-

ties.

The lack of connectivity

at vote centers also posed a

problem for one of Califor-

nia’s most talked-about

election changes: election

day registration, designed

to ensure that any eligible

citizen can vote before polls

closed.

Attorney Robert Little

tried to vote Tuesday after-

noon at Beverly Hills City

Hall when, seeing a long line,

he then searched for an al-

ternative. He found the Bev-

erly Hilton and it too looked

like a long wait, so he de-

cided to put it off until later.

“It was not unlike the

Southern California experi-

ence of trying to get on

Space Mountain at Disney-

land on the Fourth of July,”

Little said.

Times staff writers Marisa

Gerber, Emily Alpert Reyes,

Dakota Smith and

Benjamin Oreskes

contributed to this report.

New system brings hours-long waits

HUNDREDSof students queue up to vote Tuesday at UCLA’s Hammer Museum, where waits sometimes stretched to three hours. Dean

Logan, registrar of voters for L.A. County, acknowledged the system’s missteps. “That’s something that has to be better,” he says.

Photographs byAl SeibAl Seib/Los Angeles Times

[Glitches,from A1]

THRONGSof voters at the Hammer Museum. While some Angelenos gave high

marks to the county’s new voting machines, several locations were overwhelmed.

Democratic Assembly-
woman Christy Smith of
Santa Clarita and Republi-
can defense contractor Mike
Garcia were in a tight race
Tuesday night to succeed
Rep. Katie Hill in one of Cali-
fornia’s most competitive
congressional districts, ac-
cording to partial election
returns.
Former Rep. Steve
Knight, the Republican who
was ousted in 2018 by Hill, a
Democrat, was running
third, on the verge of losing
his shot at recapturing his
seat representing the north-
ern suburbs of Los Angeles.
The primary appeared
likely to yield two runoffs be-
tween Smith and Garcia, a
former Navy pilot — one in
May to fill Hill’s seat for the
rest of the year and another
in November for the full two-
year term.
Trailing far behind were
Cenk Uygur, host of the libe-
ral talk show “The Young
Turks”; George Papadopou-
los, a 2016 Trump campaign

advisor who pleaded guilty

to lying to the FBI in the

Russia scandal; and more

than half a dozen others.

Smith was the candidate

favored by House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi and many

other Democratic luminar-

ies, and Knight was backed

by the House Republican

leadership.

The 25th Congressional

District covers Simi Valley,

Porter Ranch, Santa Clarita,

Palmdale and part of Lan-

caster.

A former Republican

stronghold, it has become a

toss-up in recent years as

the population has grown

and diversified, due largely

to an influx of people seeking

affordable housing on the far

outskirts of L.A.

Hill stepped down in No-

vember amid accusations

that she’d had affairs with

congressional and cam-

paign staff members. The

conservative RedState web-

site and a British tabloid

published nude photos of

Hill, who said she feared the

“appalling invasion” of pri-

vacy would worsen if she re-

mained in Congress.

Hill’s downfall came a

year after she unseated

Knight in the 2018 midterm

election that gave Demo-

crats control of the House in

a nationwide suburban

revolt against President

Trump and his Republicans

allies in Congress.

Hill was one of seven

Democrats to capture seats

previously held by Republi-

cans in California. At least

three of the others face

tough fights in November to

retain their seats.

In the Central Valley’s

21st Congressional District,

Democratic Rep. T.J. Cox

was running far behind

David Valadao — the Repub-

lican he unseated in 2018. In

California congressional

races, the candidates who

finish first and second in the

primary face off in the No-

vember general election re-

gardless of party.

In Orange County,

Democratic Rep. Harley

Rouda of Laguna Beach was

in a tight primary race in the

48th Congressional District

against a well-funded Re-

publican, Orange County

Supervisor Michelle Steel.

They will compete in a No-

vember runoff.

And in the 39th Congres-

sional District, another

Democratic freshman, Rep.

Gil Cisneros of Yorba Linda,

was finishing well behind

Republican Young Kim, the

former state assemblywom-

an he defeated in 2018. They

too will face off in November.

In a state that has turned

strongly against the GOP,

Republicans now hold just

six of the state’s 53 House

seats. They won seven in

2018, but former GOP Rep.

Duncan Hunter resigned in

January after pleading

guilty to a felony in a cam-

paign money scandal.

Hunter’s seat in the Re-

publican-leaning 50th Con-

gressional District, strad-

dling San Diego and Riv-

erside counties, will be va-

cant until voters choose his

successor in November; his

resignation came too late for

an election to complete his

term to be placed on the

March 3 ballot.

The best-known Repub-

lican vying Tuesday to re-

place Hunter was former

Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista. In

the initial primary results,

Issa was running behind

Ammar Campa-Najjar, the

Democrat who lost to Hunt-

er in 2018 even as the

congressman was under in-

dictment. Issa was battling

fellow Republican Carl

DeMaio, a former San Diego

city councilman, to reach the

general election contest

against Campa-Najjar.

The runoff to replace Hill

for the rest of the year is

scheduled to take place May

12. The one for the two-year
    term starting in January will
    be on Nov. 3.

Race to replace Rep. Katie Hill to go on and on

Freshman Democratic

incumbents in other

House contests face

tough fights.

By Michael Finnegan

REPUBLICANdefense contractor Mike Garcia, above, and Democratic Assem-

blywoman Christy Smith are vying to succeed former Rep. Katie Hill.

Michael BloodAssociated Press