{"id":22419,"date":"2024-03-18T12:27:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T19:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=22419"},"modified":"2024-03-18T16:24:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T23:24:13","slug":"california-voters-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/california-voters-3\/","title":{"rendered":"California voters tried to send a message to Biden about the Gaza ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"California
California leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations political action committee urged California Democratic voters to leave the presidential race blank and make sure to vote in other contests. Other voters were encouraged to vote for Democrat Marianne Williamson, and some were told to vote for Peace and Freedom Party candidate Cornel West, who supports a cease-fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Listen to this note:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Sameea Kamal. CalMatters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the United States, the effort to withhold votes from President Biden until he demands a permanent ceasefire in Gaza has caused some noise.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Michigan, where 13 percent of Democrats voted \u201cuncommitted,\u201d 29 percent did so in Hawaii, 19 percent in Minnesota and 13 percent in North Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n

In California, more than six in ten likely voters support an immediate ceasefire, and some protesters have called on the Biden administration to cut off military aid to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t fully translate to the ballot box. Efforts in California, where there was no \u201cuncommitted\u201d option on the ballot, were less cohesive than in other states, according to some community organizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

California leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations political action committee urged Democratic voters to leave the presidential race blank and make sure to vote in other contests. Other voters were encouraged to vote for Democrat Marianne Williamson, and some were told to vote for Peace and Freedom Party candidate Cornel West, who supports a cease-fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always easier not to vote for someone than to vote for someone in protest,\u201d said Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California.<\/span><\/p>\n

Statewide, with more than 801 TP3T of projected votes counted as of Wednesday, Biden has won 89 percent of the vote in the Democratic presidential primary. That compares with nearly 100 percent in 2012, when Barack Obama ran against just three candidates registered for a second term.<\/span><\/p>\n

The typical protest vote in past noncompetitive U.S. presidential primaries has been around 7 percent, according to the New York Times. Biden secured the party's nomination on Tuesday after primaries in other states.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the equivalent of the \u201cuncommitted\u201d vote in California is harder to track.<\/span><\/p>\n

Counties report results differently. For example, not all counties release \u201cinsufficient votes\u201d \u2014 ballots with the race left blank \u2014 and some don\u2019t release the total number of write-in votes right away. That includes counties with large Arab, South Asian or Muslim populations in general, like San Diego County. And not all of the blank votes, or votes in favor of Williamson, were in favor of a cease-fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arbazz Mohammed, co-founder of Muslim Visionaries, a community organizing group based in the Inland Empire, said party election rules can make it difficult for voters to opt for less conventional options.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can be gleaned from the numbers so far: In 39 counties for which data was available, more than 160,000 voters left the race blank out of more than 3.1 million ballots in the Democratic primary. Another 100,000 voted for Williamson or a write-in candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

An uphill road for protest votes<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether voters have an \u201cuncommitted\u201d option depends on the political parties in each state. California is one of 25 states where Democrats do not have that option.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there are other factors that make a protest vote challenging. Without significant resources, it's hard to succeed in a state the size of California, Grose said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to get on the airwaves, to get on social media, to really get the idea of protest voting to the attention of the vast majority of the electorate, because it\u2019s such a big state,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also takes time to get that message out, but the March presidential primary, rather than the usual June primary, made that difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia didn\u2019t have that much time to get this campaign out to as many people as possible,\u201d said Hena Zuberi, a board member of United Path America, a group now working to promote uncommitted voting in Maryland in its May primary. \u201cSo that\u2019s something we\u2019re trying to learn from \u2026 and get an early start here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the biggest factor may be California's diversity: No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of the population. And while it has a larger number of Arab Americans than Michigan, they make up a smaller share of the state's total population.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to demographics, there is also some political diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

While California is perceived as extremely left-wing and progressive, aside from a few exceptions (including Bernie Sanders in 2020), the state has almost always supported the mainstream Democratic candidate in its primaries, Grose noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while a majority of likely voters support a ceasefire, the Public Policy Institute of California poll finds Californians are more divided over U.S. military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

Impact flashes<\/span><\/p>\n

There were some pockets where more voters expressed their discontent.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Los Angeles County, about 15 percent of Democrats did not vote for Biden, according to CalMatters\u2019 analysis of votes counted so far. In Sacramento and San Bernardino counties, the total was more than 11 percent. In all three counties, nearly 100 percent of Democrats voted for Obama in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohammed, the community organizer, said that while voters knew it would be difficult to significantly swing the presidential race in California, they plan to focus on competitive district races in the general election.<\/span><\/p>\n

That includes the race for Congressional District 41 between Republican Rep. Ken Calvert and Democrat Will Rollins, one of the races that could be key to determining which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rollins is about 22,000 votes behind Calvert in the primary. If Democrats want to make gains in the general election, Mohammad says the party will need to negotiate with voters in the district, which has a growing Muslim community \u2014 not all of whom are Arab Americans but who share a concern about U.S. policy on the Gaza war. Exact numbers are hard to come by, since the Census is prohibited from asking about religion. But the Islamic Society of Corona Norco, located in the district, serves at least 6,000 congregants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we\u2019re going to vote for Will or not, and that\u2019s happening in a lot of other races, from the congressional level to the state level, and in local races as well,\u201d Mohammed said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a decent population of Muslims \u2026 and they come out to vote, it could hurt or help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, about six in ten adults in competitive electoral districts support a ceasefire, according to PPIC.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, President Biden called for a six-week ceasefire during Ramadan and an exchange of hostages and prisoners, following his State of the Union address last week when he announced a new effort to deliver humanitarian aid by sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for Californians with family in Gaza, political organizing continues with the constant specter of humanitarian crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel guilty because, you know, my taxpayers\u2019 money and American bombs are killing my people,\u201d said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento and Central Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cIt\u2019s a very, very difficult situation, especially in Ramadan. Ramadan has just started. And I can\u2019t even imagine what my family and my people are going through right now when they\u2019re starving and children are dying of malnutrition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a nightmare that never ends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the note on its original site giving <\/span>click here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> \u201cThe conflict in Gaza is neither religious nor racial, it is a position based on values\u201d: Camilo P\u00e9rez Bustillo, executive director of the National Guild of Lawyers<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escucha esta nota:   Por Sameea Kamal. CalMatters.\u00a0 En todo Estados Unidos, el esfuerzo por retener votos del presidente Biden hasta que exija un alto el fuego permanente en Gaza ha causado cierto ruido. Despu\u00e9s de Michigan, donde 13 por ciento de los dem\u00f3cratas votaron “no comprometidos”, 29 por ciento lo hizo en Hawaii, 19 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-usworld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22466,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions\/22466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}