"Why LA Voters Are At-Risk on Super Tuesday" by Daniel Guss
Welcome to Super Tuesday eve, Los Angeles!
Tomorrow, more states hold primary elections and caucuses than on any other date as we ease on down the road to Trump-Biden 2.0. Let the fish and chips fall where they may.
Local elections are under-appreciated for their impact on quality of life issues. In primaries, low voter turnout gives our ballots greater potency now than in November because the votes we cast tomorrow will be a greater percentage of the total. A small number of determined voters in some races can settle them now, and take the power away from those who don’t vote tomorrow.
Whatever your views are on the candidates and issues, Tuesday is your best chance to be heard. If you can sway a few people to participate, you are genuinely influencing the outcomes.
But in Los Angeles County, where low voter turnout is as predictable as an LA Times endorsement, those who are eligible to vote are at-risk in ways that they may not be aware.
Not long ago, I discovered that a convicted felon whose victim was a minor was working as a volunteer polling supervisor for Dean Logan, the controversial Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Logan’s office admitted that it had no screening process for its volunteers, but would not explain whether it randomly assigned him, or if he requested to be assigned to, his polling location; an elementary school.
This person was legally barred from being anywhere near the school, and Logan had no business putting him in possession of voter registration records which include names and addresses of voters, blank ballots and voting equipment.
When I raised this concern with officials at the LAUSD and the LA County Supervisor and LA City Councilmember in whose districts the school was located, their disinterest was remarkable, but not surprising.
It would have required accountability.
Accordingly, I reached out to determine whether anything had changed before Super Tuesday 2024.
While Logan’s office provided a link to its current poll worker application, which states a prohibition on certain applicants, his office would not confirm whether there is now a screening process and, if so, how it works.
When Logan’s media person, Michael Sanchez, told me last week, “Election Workers must comply with legal restrictions imposed upon them,” I reminded him that while they must, I had proved that they sometimes don’t.
There was no further response.
Notably, email exchanges with Logan’s office contain a bright yellow warning about exercising caution with external emails, proving that when there is a will to protect precious assets, there is a way to protect precious assets.
Since LA officials have had plenty of time to mitigate these risks, I submitted a public records request to find out on your behalf whether they did and to put them to the test.
If they dodge or delay, it will reported here between now and November, and may result in my seeking “a judicial remedy at taxpayer expense.”
Just remember to vote. Your ballot will never have greater potency than tomorrow.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)