CA: Housekeeper Issue, Voting by Mail

Today, Carla Marinucci writes in The San Francisco Chronicle:

Nicky Diaz Santillan, GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's undocumented ex-maid, Wednesday insisted she is "not anyone's puppet,'' and said she came forward to tell her story about working for the former CEO to be a voice for others who are still "in the shadows."

But Diaz's Los Angeles attorney, Gloria Allred refused to disclose how the immigrant worker's case came to her attention -- and again denied she was connected to the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown.

The timing may not be coincidental. Yesterday , Capitol Alert reported:

Ladies and gentlemen, you may start your voting. California counties start mailing out vote-by-mail ballots today for the Nov. 2 general election.

Postal employees have their work cut out for them. About 42 percent of California voters cast their ballots by mail in November 2008. An even higher proportion -- 58 percent -- did so in the June primary.

How many ballots are we talking about? As of Sept. 3, nearly 17 million people were registered to vote in the state, according to the secretary of state's office.

Of those, 44.3 percent are Democrats, 30.9 percent are Republicans, and 20.2 percent are decline-to-state. The remainder are registered with the American Independent, Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, or other parties.

Click here for county-by-county voter registration numbers.

Politicians used to refer to the Thursday before the election as "Dirty Tricks Thursday." The idea was that the Thursday before the election was the ideal moment for an attack: there would be enough time for it to sink in, but not enough time for the target to respond. But voting by mail may have changed the timetable.