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Can California Show the U.S. How To Do Elections Right?

A new study offers solutions to entrenched problems that make voting time-consuming, confusing, and often disenfranchising.  
relates to Can California Show the U.S. How To Do Elections Right?
REUTERS/Patrick Fallon

California’s June 7 primary election is fast approaching, and the state with the most registered voters in the U.S. is far from ready. For one, the list of candidates currently vying for retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s seat is so mob-deep that it’s forcing counties to reconfigure their ballots to accommodate all the names. Meanwhile, confusion and resentment is festering among independent voters over a lack of rule uniformity and clarity regarding their right to vote in the primaries. All of this, combined with an expected voter-turnout surge, has led to lawsuits demanding that the state extend its voter registration period up to the primary election date.

However, “The infrastructure's not in place" for such an extension, Orange County voter registrar Neal Kelley told the L.A. Times.