Unless an immediate mass media campaign is launched, or awareness otherwise raised, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of voters for Bernie Sanders will have their votes thrown out and never counted, due to erroneous instructions reported by concerned poll workers, disenfranchising likely Sanders voters. The erroneous instructions affect independent voters who overwhelmingly break towards Sanders. In California, independent voters are registered as "No Party Preference" (NPP.)

California elections are overseen and administered by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Hillary Clinton supporter who headlined a fundraiser for Clinton in Riverside on May 21st.

The voters have been given or told to use the wrong kind of ballot, "NPP" ballots rather than regular Democratic party ballots with the presidential candidates' names printed on them. Note to California voters: If you do not or did not see Bernie Sanders' name printed on your ballot, you have the wrong kind of ballot. You have until election day to go to the county’s voter registrar’s office to ask for a Democratic party ballot, or ask for it at your polling place on Election Day.

Stand outside your polling station with signs reminding "NO BERNIE PRINTED ON BALLOT= NO VOTE!"

Last week independent journalist Greg Palast reported:

"I am currently reporting from Southern California, and there’s an Ashley Beck, who is a poll worker in conservative Orange County. She was being trained with other poll workers, and they were given some very strange information. In the California primary, the independent voters registered as NPP, or no party preference, can vote in the Democratic primary. They can ask for a ballot and they are allowed to vote. The Orange County poll workers were told if NPP voters ask for a Democratic Party ballot to vote for Bernie or Hillary, they are not to be given regular ballots, but provisional ballots. This shook up Ashley."

Ms. Beck told Palast:

“I was told that all NPP voters are to be given provisional ballots. I was bothered by that, because I was always told that NPP voters in California can vote for Democrats and their vote would be counted. I was a little worried that he was telling all 18 of us poll workers to give all NPP voters provisional ballots. We all know what happens most of the time with provisional ballots. They are not being counted.”

"Provisional" ballots differ from regular Democratic party ballots in that they have no presidential candidates printed on them. True Democratic primary ballots have "Bernie Sanders" and "Hillary Clinton" printed on them.

Palast, in an interview with Dennis Bernstein for Reader Supported News, pointed out that the phenomenon of record numbers of independent voters seeking to vote in this year's primaries, overwhelmingly consists of Sanders partisans. The votes thrown out will almost all be Sanders votes, Palast said.

The polling firm Political Data Inc. told NBC affiliate KCRA News in Sacramento that, according to their data, 58% of independent voters who sought to cast a Democratic ballot would have voted for Sanders, while just 37% said they would vote for Clinton.

A search of California media coverage of the incorrect instructions shows only the KCRA report, which suggests that going into the CA primary this Tuesday, untold numbers of voters are still headed toward casting votes that won't count.

In addition, the ballot confusion comes amid reports that, similarly to what happened in Arizona and New York, voters are finding their party affiliations mysteriously changed, sometimes disqualifying them from voting in the Democratic primary. Voters should exercise extreme vigilance in checking their recorded voter registrations online.

A CA citizen's group, the Voting Rights Defense Project, filed a lawsuit last month as numerous instances of the misinformation on state websites spread, asking the judge to order the state to issue correct information via a mass media campaign before this Tuesday's primary. Federal Judge William Alsup threw out the suit, saying “The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are.”

Secretary of State Padilla's office fought the lawsuit and denied any public awareness campaign was needed.

The approaching fiasco unfolds as Hillary Clinton continues to fight for a tie in the polls with Donald Trump, while Sanders maintains a wide lead over Trump in head-to-head, general election polls. The polls suggest that independent voters who support Sanders will not will not transfer their allegiance, and votes, to Hillary, if she is the nominee. Sanders maintains a comfortable 11 point lead over Trump, while Clinton is now fighting to stay neck-and-neck.