Absentee Ballots

The registrar-recorder's office will be open over the next two weekends to help people who want to cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election. The office will be open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The office is in Room 3002, 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk. Absentee ballot applications must be received by the Registrar's Office by Tuesday.

About a third of the state's voters cast their ballots before the polls even opened Tuesday, many of them weighing in before the Republican presidential race ignited into a vicious cycle of attacks on television, in mailers and on automated phone calls. In some counties, including Hillsborough, absentee voting was substantially higher than it was in the last GOP presidential primary, suggesting Mitt Romney's aggressive outreach may have worked to give him a significant edge. By early afternoon, the county, which includes Tampa, had recorded  11,157 absentee ballots, 60% more than in 2008.

Los Angeles County residents unable to go to the polls Tuesday can obtain absentee ballots Monday from the registrar-recorder's office, 5557 Ferguson Drive in Commerce. The office will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Registrar-Recorder Charles Weissburd said these absentee ballots can be turned in at the registrar-recorder's office or at any authorized polling place until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Seven candidates vying to become this city's next mayor have requested that federal observers and state election monitors be dispatched to San Francisco immediately amid allegations of ballot tampering by interim Mayor Ed Lee's supporters. "Depriving someone of their ability to freely exercise their vote is the most unconscionable crime," Jeff Adachi said during a news conference Monday. The public defender is among those who signed the letter seeking intervention from the U.S. Justice Department and California secretary of state.

The deadline to apply for absentee ballots through the mail for the June 2 primary is May 26. Thereafter, absentee ballots must be picked up in person from the county elections office at the County Government Center, or by a personal representative with written authorization, county elections officials said. Applications for absentee voter ballots are included in sample ballot and voter information pamphlets.

Hundreds of San Fernando Valley residents have not received their official sample ballots for the March 7 primary election because the Los Angeles County Registrar has until Feb. 28 to mail them out, said county registrar spokeswoman Marcia Ventura. "We're still mailing them out," Ventura said. "Feb. 28 is the normal state-designated election deadline. It hasn't changed for years."

Citing reports that at least a handful of absentee ballots had been mailed to voters who are now deceased, Republican Bob Turner obtained a court order impounding absentee ballots cast in the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District. Bill O'Reilly, a spokesman for the Turner campaign, said in an email that the campaign requested that the ballots be impounded after "getting serious reports of election fraud. " "Many Democrats -- including deceased ones -- were sent ballots without applying," O'Reilly said.

We're not always fair to our politicians. We criticize them for raising taxes or for cutting spending, but then we complain when they refuse to compromise. We get angry when they grovel to special interests, except when those interests are our own. We disparage them for attacking each other, and we ignore them when they don't. But at the point our political leaders not only treat each other as enemy combatants but begin to regard the rest of us as unnecessary nuisances, our contempt for them becomes entirely deserved.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks declared victory early Wednesday after results showed him narrowly avoiding a runoff by less than 1 percentage point in unofficial tallies. But his chief opponent, Forescee Hogan-Rowles, said she would not concede and would wait until all the provisional and remaining absentee ballots were counted. Parks, the former city police chief who was heavily opposed by organized labor, had to win more than 50% of the vote in Tuesday's primary to declare outright victory.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski claimed victory Wednesday night over defiant challenger Joe Miller after building a decisive lead in near-final vote tallies. The Republican incumbent persuaded more than 100,000 Alaskans to write in her name ? a highly unusual feat in a statewide race. If her victory holds up through a possible recount and court challenge, she would become the first senator elected by write-in since 1954. "I think we can say our miracle is here," she told about 50 cheering supporters in Anchorage as the state was completing its count of the last 700 absentee ballots.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's unusual write-in bid to hold on to her Alaska Senate seat appeared to be gaining steam in early returns Tuesday, but analysts warned that the state could be in for a long, close ballot count whose official outcome may remain unknown for weeks. With early ballots and about 58% of the precincts tallied, write-in votes -- most presumably cast for Murkowski -- were leading with 39%. Tea Party Express-backed Republican Joe Miller was trailing with 35%, while Democrat Scott McAdams had 24%. The early lead in write-in ballots suggested Murkowski had a chance of pulling off the first successful write-in campaign for the Senate since 1954.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski held on to an apparent lead Wednesday in her write-in bid to hold on to her Senate seat in Alaska, though "tea party" candidate Joe Miller's campaign leaders said they were not nearly ready to concede. With more than 98% of the ballots counted in the tense, three-way race, write-in ballots had gained 41% of the vote ? a mark considered crucial to success by many analysts ? while Miller still trailed with 34.2%. Democrat Scott McAdams had 23.7%. "This is about our state.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's unusual write-in bid to hold on to her Alaska Senate seat appeared to be gaining steam in early returns Tuesday, but analysts warned the state could be in for a long, close ballot count whose official outcome may remain unknown for weeks. With just early-voted ballots and a few precincts tallied, write-in votes ? most of them presumably cast for Murkowski ? were leading with 39.44%. Tea Party Express-backed Republican Joe Miller was trailing with 34.15%, while Democrat Scott McAdams had 25.32%.

President Obama, who has spent weeks urging supporters not to sit out this election, filled out his own absentee ballot Tuesday at the White House. "He just voted absentee in the West Wing," press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his afternoon briefing. Gibbs said he did not ask about every choice the president made, calling it "a private decision. " But he knew that Obama did support Democrats Pat Quinn and Alexi Giannoulias, running for Illinois governor and Senate, respectively.