The Associated Press called the Democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton on Monday, but if you ask any die-hard Bernie Sanders supporter, the 2016 Democratic primary is not over yet.
“Although things might seem like our opponent has won, that is absolutely false,” said a statement from USC Students for Bernie President Ryan Lopez.
Although Clinton has reached the magic number of 2,383 delegates, Sanders supporters argue that only 1,812 of her delegates are pledged, while 572 are superdelegates who do not vote until the convention in July.
“No matter what the mainstream media says, the secretary does not have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination,” Lopez said. “This will be a contested convention that will be decided in July.”
There are still plenty of delegates up for grabs in the final Super Tuesday primary, including 475 in California.
Before polls even opened this morning, Sanders supporters were buzzing about potential election fraud and voter suppression, claiming that California poll workers are being told to give all “No Party Preference” voters provisional ballots instead of Democratic crossover ballots.
California has a “modified” closed primary system, in which No Party Preference (NPP) voters receive a nonpartisan ballot and are unable to vote for presidential candidates. Parties must notify the Secretary of State’s office 135 days in advance if they plan to allow NPP voters to participate in their primary.
This year, NPP voters can request an Independent, Democratic, or Libertarian ballot.
A notice being distributed by Sanders supporters (not affiliated with the senator’s campaign) urges California voters who request crossover ballots and are told their precinct has “run out of ballots” to call the voter hotline to report the issue, and to be prepared to wait for two hours for more ballots to be delivered to the precinct.
The notice is being shared across Students for Bernie social media platforms, along with information on how to find your polling place, warnings of long lines and other delays, and even the recommendation to vote by mail because that “makes it harder for the DNC to steal your vote.”
California is not the first state where Sanders voters have claimed to be disenfranchised. The New York City Board of Elections infuriated voters from Sanders’ hometown when it reported as many as 126,000 individuals were removed from voter registration rolls in Brooklyn.
